Intrinsic Task Motivation Research Articles

When do we put things off? A volitional-task attractiveness framework of personality and task-related factors in predicting procrastinatory behavior

Although some people procrastinate more than others, most of us occasionally postpone tasks until tomorrow that we could or should have done today. The present study proposes a volitional-task attractiveness framework including both personality and task-related predictors of actual procrastinatory behavior. Data were collected in a three-wave design around the Christmas break. Using a representative sample of the Dutch population, qualitative data were collected on tasks/situations that induce procrastination ( N = 1835) and the validity of the volitional-task attractiveness framework was explored regarding procrastination on a Christmas break task ( n = 712). Most respondents (95.6%) reported to at least occasionally procrastinate (e.g., on housekeeping, social, and administrative tasks; when busy/stressed, tasks conflict, and being tired). While personality (i.e., trait procrastination) positively predicted procrastinatory behavior, task-related factors (i.e., task importance and task motivation) explained 12% unique additional variance. Whereas intrinsic task motivation negatively and amotivation positively predicted procrastinatory behavior, extrinsic task motivation showed a more complex pattern. Lastly, low intrinsic motivation was less harmful for those higher on trait self-control. The findings align with the proposed volitional-task attractiveness framework, suggesting that both personality and task-related factors as well as their interaction explain actual procrastinatory behavior.

THE EFFECT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL CYNICISM: A RESEARCH ON UNIVERSITY STAFF

Cynicism is a concept used to describe people who are dissatisfied, constantly critical, and full of negative thoughts. Organizational cynicism, on the other hand, is defined as harsh criticism and negative beliefs/feelings about the organization, either openly or secretly. The developing technology and competitive environment, economic crisis, mass layoffs, insufficient remuneration policy and long working hours cause employees to develop negative attitudes towards their organizations. Since it causes individuals to develop a series of unconstructive feelings towards the organizations, it can be said to be associated with low productivity and loss of income directly. Organizational cynicism is conceptualized in three dimensions as “cognitive, affective, and behavioral”. Psychological empowerment in organizations can be defined as “increased intrinsic task motivation”, which is the perception of helping employees decide on their job-related roles, the meaningfulness of work, and influencing important decisions. Empowerment, as a motivational construct, consists of four dimensions: “meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact”. The hypotheses of the research were formed with the proposal that the dimensions of psychological empowerment affect negatively the dimensions of organizational cynicism. The sample of the research consists of administrative staff working at a university in Istanbul. According to the results obtained in this study, 8 out of 12 hypotheses were accepted and 4 were rejected. The "competence" and "impact" subdimensions of empowerment did not have a significant relationship with the "behavioral" dimension of cynicism, while the "competence" dimension of empowerment had a positive, not negative, relationship with “cognitive and affective dimensions” of organizational cynicism.

Motivated by Agility, Hampered by Switching: A Boundary Perspective

While agile working methods become more and more important in practice, the implications from applying this new work form are largely underexplored. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on the downstream effects of agile working methods from a Job-Demand-Control perspective. Our moderated mediation model suggests that agile working methods increase employees’ intrinsic task motivation through role clarity. Furthermore, we argue that this indirect effect diminishes with the frequency of switching projects. We find empirical evidence for both hypotheses using data from a field study in a manufacturing company with 206 observations of 103 employees, who were surveyed in terms of their experience with working in agile and traditional projects.

Creativity mindset as the organizational capability: the role of creativity-relevant processes, domain-relevant skills and intrinsic task motivation

PurposeThe objective of this study is to examine the structural relationship between creativity-relevant processes, domain-relevant skills, intrinsic task motivation, creativity and the moderating effect of social environment (sufficient resources, workgroup support, realistic work pressure and lack of organizational impediments).Design/methodology/approachA total of 289 valid questionnaires were collected from engineering students in Malaysian universities to test the measurement as well as the structural model using partial least squares (PLS) path modelling.FindingsThis study reveals that while a high level of domain-relevant skills, intrinsic task motivation and creativity-relevant processes influence creativity among the sample of engineering students, social environment acts as an insignificant moderator to the creativity perception. While the statistical results support the structural relationships (direct effects), the social environment shows the insignificant moderating effect (except creativity relevant process to sufficient resource to creativity). Work-group support, sufficient resources and lack of organizational impediments, as the three factors of the social environment, will not have any effect on creativity of upcoming engineers.Originality/valueWhile businesses in the emerging markets mostly neglect the concept of developing creative mindsets among engineering students, in the competitive world of business that is extremely fast-paced, being creative within a business setting will act as a paramount criterion to differentiate. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Antecedents of knowledge-seeking intentions and efforts within new product development teams: empirical evidence from knowledge-based Chinese companies

PurposeThis study aims to examine the antecedents of knowledge-seeking intentions (SIs) and efforts within new product development (NPD) teams.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from 331 employees affiliated with 29 NPD teams across 18 Chinese firms in five high-tech and knowledge-based industries via an online assessment and a survey. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to test the hypotheses using HLM and Mplus software.FindingsThe results of this study show that intrinsic task motivation (IM) and personal task experience (TE) positively relate to SIs, whereas leadership support (LS) and shared culture (SC) negatively relate to knowledge-seeking efforts (SEs). SIs partially mediate the relationship between IM and SEs, while they fully mediate the relationship between TE and SEs. Additionally, customer orientation (CO) positively moderates the relationship between SIs and SEs.Research limitations/implicationsData collection was completed online by relying on an existing version of the Abedi Creativity Test. The samples involve 18 companies in a High-Tech Development Zone in China, which indicates limited generalizability.Practical implicationsEffective NPD depends on successful marketing–R&D integration and knowledge exchange within the NPD team. Besides, organizations need to find ways to stimulate NPD team members’ IM and also through various ways to inspire more efforts from team members under the condition of supportive leadership and culture.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the knowledge management and marketing literature on NPD teamwork by examining knowledge-seeking phenomena from the perspective of the internal knowledge market and contributes to knowledge-seeking research by revealing the antecedents of SIs and SEs at both the individual and organizational level.

The usefulness of nutrition and health videos displayed on mobile phones in rural Uganda: Experiences of community health workers and mothers.

Improvements in community health workers' (CHWs) knowledge and practices in low‐income countries increasingly involve mobile phones and videos. However, little data exists on CHWs’ and mothers’ experiences of using such phones and videos. In this study, educational videos on nutrition, health and hygiene were downloaded onto mobile phones, which were given to 12 CHWs in rural Uganda. In 2018, these CHWs used the videos for a period of 3 months to support their work during their visits with families. We subsequently conducted individual interviews with eight CHWs and held four focus group discussions with 16 mothers. From the inductively analysed data, we identified four key themes: impact, competence, meaningfulness and choice, which are also dimensions of the Intrinsic Task Motivation Model. The model describes the motivation of workers and has previously been used in connection with CHWs. In our study, CHWs and mothers considered that the videos had more strongly impacted their learning than traditional teaching methods, and they felt the videos improved the child feeding and caring competence of both CHWs and mothers. Furthermore, the CHWs found that the videos enhanced the meaningfulness of their work, as they felt more greatly appreciated and necessary. In addition, they experienced more freedom of choice in their ability to influence their working routines. This study shows that educational videos are well received among CHWs and mothers. Educational videos are a promising method to maintain and improve the motivation of voluntary CHWs and influence correct child feeding and hygiene practices in Uganda.

Intrinsic Rewards for Creativity and Employee Creativity to the Mediation Role of Knowledge Sharing and Intrinsic Motivation

The purpose of this research is to examine the mediating role of knowledge sharing and intrinsic motivation on the relationship between intrinsic rewards for creativity and employee creativity and furthermore explore the mediating role of intrinsic motivation on the relationship between intrinsic rewards for creativity and knowledge sharing. A total of 400 matched data were collected from employees and their immediate supervisors of four public universities in Afghanistan. The results revealed that knowledge sharing and intrinsic motivation mediated the linkage between intrinsic rewards for creativity and employee creativity, which comprises idea generation. The results have shown that the relationship between intrinsic rewards for creativity and knowledge sharing is mediated by intrinsic task motivation. The current research contributes to the employee creativity literature by empirically examining the mediating role of knowledge sharing and intrinsic motivation in the relationship between intrinsic rewards for creativity and employee creativity in the one hand and the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the relationship between intrinsic rewards for creativity and employee creativity in other.

Extrinsic Rewards, Intrinsic Motivation, and New Product Development Performance

Reward structures can have a significant impact on the performance of new product development (NPD) teams. However, there are several gaps in our understanding of how different types of extrinsic rewards influence the creative performance of NPD teams. Drawing on key theoretical objectives for advancing rewards‐creativity research in general, and NPD research in particular, this study incorporates a cognitive and behavioral view of rewards use. In so doing, we distinguish between three kinds of extrinsic rewards: financial, recognition, and social (based on their properties). We then draw upon self‐determination theory to hypothesize the differential effects of three types of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic task motivation, and subsequently the creative performance of NPD teams. The proposed framework is tested using two rounds of survey data from 238 members of 64 NPD teams in the high‐tech industry. Results of a multilevel structural equation modeling (MLSEM) analysis show that financial rewards have a negative relationship with intrinsic task motivation, while recognition and social rewards have a positive influence. Complexity of the product being developed not only helps to mitigate the negative effects of financial rewards on intrinsic task motivation, but it also reduces the positive effects of social rewards on intrinsic task motivation. Intrinsic task motivation is found to have a positive effect on NPD creative performance in terms of both the developed product’s degree of innovation and its quality. Theoretical and managerial implications are explored.

Group creativity in children and adolescents

In the landscape of continuous change and technological innovations, educational settings need constant reforms to support children acquiring the skills that are necessary for adaptation to the future. In this research we investigated one of those skills, namely the collaborative creativity of children and adolescents. The first aim of this study was to understand whether group creativity progressed from childhood to adolescence. The second aim was to assess potential mechanisms behind developmental differences in collaborative creativity. We particularly explored the role of intersubjectivity, social perspective coordination, as well as intrinsic motivation in group creativity. Fourty-eight students from primary school years 5 and 6 and Fourty-five students from secondary school years 9 and 10 formed three person groups. Group members collaboratively wrote stories that were rated by three independent subject teachers. Stories written by secondary school students were rated as more creative compared to stories of primary school students. Social perspective coordination was found as a positive predictor of group creativity. Moreover, social perspective coordination mediated the positive relation between age and group creativity. Intersubjectivity variables were not significantly related with creativity of groups. Finally, there was a weak negative association between group creativity and intrinsic task motivation. These results indicate that similar to individual creativity group creativity also progressed with development and one explanatory mechanism was the advancement in social perspective coordination.

An evaluative message fosters mathematics performance in male students but decreases intrinsic motivation in female students

This study contrasted the effects of two task messages, evaluative or non-evaluative, on mathematics performance, affect, and intrinsic task motivation. One hundred-twenty secondary-school students aged 17–21 years were delivered one of the two messages, or assigned to a control condition, before completing a mathematics task, measures of message appraisals (challenge and threat), affect (pleasantness, arousal, dominance), and a behavioural indication of intrinsic task motivation. The evaluative message raised performance only in males, while for females both messages decreased intrinsic motivation for the task, probably due to stereotype threat. Implications for future research and educational practices are discussed. HIGHLIGHTS In a low-value context, an evaluative message favoured male mathematics performance Males increased arousal after an evaluative message A challenge appraisal was linked with male performance Females decreased intrinsic motivation after evaluative and non-evaluative messages

When and why are proactive employees more creative? Investigations of relational and motivational mechanisms and contextual contingencies in the east and west

AbstractDespite theory and empirical work linking employee proactive personality to individual‐level creativity, less is known about why and under what circumstances this relationship occurs. Drawing inspiration from the dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in organizations, we report the results of two complementary, multisource field studies conceptualizing and testing interactional justice and intrinsic motivation as mediators of this relationship in two cultural contexts (i.e., China and Canada). We also investigated two potential moderators of these mediated effects: employees’ personal power distance values (in Study 1) and supervisor proactive personality (in Study 2). Although the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation was robust across the two studies, highlighting the cross‐cultural generalizability of this pathway, supplemental analyses in Study 1 indicate that this mechanism was driven by the self‐determination (vs. meaning, competence, or impact) facet of intrinsic task motivation in particular. In contrast, the mediating effect of interactional justice was contingent on both supervisor proactive personality and employee power distance, though at different stages of the process (i.e., Stage 1 vs. Stage 2 moderation, respectively). Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of relational, in addition to motivational pathways, in explaining the influence of proactive personality on creativity, but also suggest that the relational mechanism may be more sensitive to contextual influences.

Is Perceived Creativity‐Reward Contingency Good for Creativity? The Role of Challenge and Threat Appraisals

AbstractTo address the complex effect of perceived reward for creativity on creative performance, we examined the role of cognitive appraisal as an individual difference variable. An individual's appraisal of reward for creativity, including challenge appraisal (perceived potential for recognition, growth, or mastery) and threat appraisal (perceived potential for revealing incompetence and damaging self‐respect), is hypothesized to shape the effects of perceived reward for creativity. We further expect creativity‐related intrinsic motivation to play a mediating role in the perceived reward‐creativity relationship. The results of a three‐wave field study showed that when challenge appraisal was high, perceived reward was positively related to creative performance through creativity‐related intrinsic motivation, whereas when threat appraisal was high, perceived reward was negatively related to creative performance through creativity‐related intrinsic motivation. A similar analysis showed that intrinsic task motivation was not able to channel the moderating effect of perceived reward and individual appraisal on creative performance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The cost of creativity: A control perspective

Organizations that rely heavily on employee creativity face a dilemma: the particular nature of creative production calls for a substantial use of formal control, yet such control can undermine employee creativity. We examine this dilemma by analyzing how an organization's reliance on creativity influences its choice of control practices. More specifically, we argue that an organization's high reliance on employee creativity generates two types of cost, which will be reflected in the control choices made by its top management. First, a high reliance on employee creativity brings with it particular risks of dysfunctional employee behavior such as an overly narrow focus on the individual task or the opportunistic use of task-specific expertise. Second, it generates costs when it induces organizations to abstain from the use of (otherwise effective) controls because such controls increase the risk of undermining employee creativity. We identify two characteristics of the work setting – the importance of employees' intrinsic task motivation and the lack of task-specific cause–effect knowledge on part of managers – which help us to better understand the sources of the cost of creativity. Using survey data from 457 companies, we provide evidence that the importance managers attach to their employees' intrinsic task motivation is associated with a higher emphasis on assessments of non-task related performance, while a perceived lack of task-specific cause–effect knowledge on the managers' side is associated with more use of predefined targets for performance evaluation. Both work characteristics contribute to explaining higher emphasis on employee selection processes and increased delegation in work settings that heavily rely on employee creativity.

Reward, Task Motivation, Creativity, and Teaching: Towards a Cross-Cultural Examination

Background Extrinsic incentives and constraints, such as the promise of a reward or the expectation of an evaluation, have long been used by educators to motivate students. Previous research has consistently found that expected reward consistently undermines intrinsic task motivation and creativity of products and performance in students of all ages. For a majority of learners, the promise of a reward made contingent on engagement in an open-ended task frequently serves to undermine intrinsic task motivation and qualitative aspects of performance, including creativity. Purpose The implications of these experimental findings for education in the U.S. and around the world are immense. Teachers contemplating the use of reward incentives must avoid them in situations where creativity is at stake. This article explores whether the motivational and performance processes triggered by the promise of a reward are a universal phenomenon or whether they are, at least in part, culturally-dependent. Research Design Five parallel studies in five separate nations focused on elementary school students who had been randomly assigned to experimental (constraint) and control (no constraint) conditions. The complexities of the relation between task motivation and performance outcomes are reviewed and cross-cultural implications are explored. Conclusions While there is no consensus on the impact of extrinsic constraints across cultures, there is no evidence to suggest that intrinsic motivation is anything but a powerful and positive driving force for students of all ages and backgrounds—teachers are best advised to work to increase the intrinsic motivation and creativity of their students on a case-by-case basis until we understand more.

The effects of intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation on well-being depend on time of day: The moderating effects of workday accumulation

Using self-determination theory and research on temporal aspects of work (e.g., time of day), this study investigates dynamic effects of task-specific motivation on well-being throughout the workday. We argue that the effects of task-specific intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on well-being outcomes (psychological vitality, job satisfaction) depend on the time of day in which the task is encountered, referred to here as workday accumulation. Our results showed that time of day interacted with intrinsic sources of motivation to predict job satisfaction, such that the relation was strong and positive early in the day and weak and positive later in the day. Time of day did not moderate the relationship of intrinsic task motivation with vitality, which was consistently positive throughout the day. The effects of extrinsic reasons for task pursuit on satisfaction and vitality were moderated by time of day, with extrinsic motivation having positive effects early in the day, but negative effects later in the day.

Determinants of continued usage of pervasive business intelligence systems

To cope with the huge data flow in today’s uncertain economic environment, organizations have pervasively adopted business intelligence systems (BIS) to provide internal and external information to stakeholders of all working levels in their decision-making scenarios. However, the continued pervasive usage of BIS has become a practical challenge. The aim of this study is to build a model to explain the pervasive BIS user’s continued usage. Besides the original Bhattacherjee’s continued usage model and Limayem et al.‘s model, which considers the habit construct, this study also includes the ideas of empowerment through individual authorization and intrinsic task motivation in the pervasive BIS context. The model was empirically tested using data from 117 respondents in Taiwan, obtained in two rounds of questionnaires to explain the situation of voluntary pervasive continued usage of BIS. The results support the original model of continued pervasive BIS usage and can be used to interpret psychological empowerment as a second-order construct. This study also demonstrated that habit has a direct effect on BIS usage and that psychological empowerment is influenced by structural empowerment, and acts as a pure moderator between pervasive continued BIS intention and continued usage behavior.

The Role of the Follower in the Relationship Between Empowering Leadership and Empowerment: A Longitudinal Investigation

The purpose of this longitudinal study among 212 Dutch prison officers was to enhance insight into the nature of the relationship between empowering leader behavior and follower psychological empowerment. Empowerment was conceptualized as intrinsic task motivation, manifested in a set of 4 cognitions reflecting the individual's work‐role orientation. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling using a cross‐lagged panel design. The results showed that followers’ belief to be able to affect organizational outcomes (i.e., impact) at Time 1 was related to increased delegation by the leader 3 months later. Furthermore, followers’ perceptions of autonomy regarding initiation and regulation of one's own actions (i.e., self‐determination) at Time 1 was related to increased accountability by the leader 3 months later.

Consumer Psychological Empowerment as an Antecedent of Consumer Participation in Co-Production of Products and Services

The aim of this paper is to develop a model of consumer engagement in co-production of products and services. In previous literature co-production has been presented as a dynamic process that links to customization and service-dominant logic and that offers possibilities for CRM and market segmentation. Yet, little is known in marketing literature regarding how and why consumers engage in co-production and also the consequences of such engagement. Recently, Etgar (2008) presented a five stage descriptive model of consumer co-production. Yet, the fully descriptive nature of the model makes it impractical for use in research. Developing existing literature, this paper proposes a model of consumer engagement in co-production that replaces three out of five stages proposed by Etgar by using consumer psychological empowerment (PE) construct. PE is adopted from organizational behaviour literature where it has been defined as intrinsic task motivation and used to study the employee level of motivation, and adapted to consumer context. Among the benefits offered by PE construct is being a validated tool that lends itself both to qualitative and quantitative oriented further studies, recognising the subjectivity of consumer experience and the dynamicity of the process thanks to its social cognitive theory based roots.

Manipulating Mindfulness Benefits Creative Elaboration at High Levels of Neuroticism

Trait and state influences on creative performance have primarily focused on the trait of openness to experience and on states hypothesized to facilitate intrinsic task motivation. The present investigation ( N = 81) sought to broaden our understanding of such influences. Neuroticism was hypothesized to predict lesser creative elaboration, whereas trait-level variations in mindfulness were hypothesized to predict greater creative elaboration. Both hypotheses were supported. In addition, the state of mindfulness was manipulated and hypothesized to result in higher levels of creative elaboration, particularly among neurotic individuals. An interaction of this type was found. Results are discussed in terms of a broadened perspective of creative performance, the distinction between creative elaboration and originality, and a model of the prefrontal cortex contrasting self-conscious versus task-oriented processing modes. Implications for understanding neuroticism are also discussed.

Stability, change, and the stability of change in daily workplace affect

AbstractDaily affect often is determined by unpredictable events, but also has predictable components. We describe how the simultaneous modeling of overall affect level, cyclical variation in affect, and the occurrence of affective events can provide a clearer understanding of how affective well‐being fluctuates over time. We examined intrinsic task motivation as a positive affective event, and had an opportunity to examine a single large negative affective event as well. Specifically, data collection was interrupted by a hurricane which made landfall very close to the data collection site, disrupting the lives of employees for weeks or months. We hypothesized that affect spin—an individual difference measure of variability in the affect circumplex—would increase reactions both to positive and negative affective events. These ideas were examined with 65 employees who provided daily ratings of affect for 21 days. Positive affect was influenced by several factors, whereas negative affect was less predictable. Affect spin moderated many of the dynamic components of daily positive affect, largely supporting the notion that affect spin reflects sensitivity both to positive and negative affective events. Discussion centers on the utility of incorporating dynamic accounts of affect in the study of well‐being and work. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.