Employee Motivation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Examined

This essay delves into the critical concept of motivation within the contemporary business landscape, emphasizing its significance for both organizations and employees. It explores various methods for enhancing employee motivation, including effective leadership, reward and recognition programs, and the creation of a positive organizational culture. The essay highlights the importance of addressing employee needs through approaches like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Hertzberg's Dual Factor Theory. Furthermore, it distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, providing examples of how organizations can implement strategies to leverage both types to improve employee performance and achieve organizational goals. The paper concludes by reiterating the importance of understanding and effectively utilizing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors for organizational success.

Running head: EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
The notion of motivation has emerged as one of the most important ones within the
spectrum of the contemporary business world and is being increasingly used by the different
organizations for the enhancement of performance of the employees (Lazaroiu, 2015).
Schultz et al. (2015) are of the viewpoint that this is important not only from the perspective
of the organizations but at the same from that of the employees as well since the effective
utilization of the construct of motivation offers mutual benefits to both. As opined by
Crocker, Canevello and Brown (2017), the ever increasing focus of the contemporary
business enterprises on higher profitability as well as business growth has made it imperative
for the organizations to take into effective consideration the notion of employee performance.
It is precisely here that the construct of motivation gains prominence. This essay will discuss
about the ways through which the motivation level of the employees within an organization
can be increased besides discussing the inherent differences between the notion of intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation with relevant examples.
As opined by Heyns and Kerr (2018), the increasing prominence that the notion of
motivation has gained in the cannon of the contemporary business world is being manifested
in the diverse initiatives that the different organizations take for the improving the motivation
level of the employees. For example, the organization that I work for besides taking the help
of effective leadership also takes the help of diverse kinds of measures like reward and
recognition, congenial organizational culture, employee engagement, equity payments,
addressing the needs of the employees and others. Crocker, Canevello and Brown (2017)
have stated that the use of effective leadership can motivate the employees in a substantial for
the achievement of the goals or the targets which has been outlined for them. The
organization that I work for takes the help of this process not only for the purpose of
motivating the individuals in an effective manner but at the same time to enhance their
performance as well.

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EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Njoroge and Yazdanifard (2014) argue that the notion of reward and recognition is
being used by the majority of the contemporary organizations not only for the purpose of
effectively motivating the different employees of the organization but at the same time to
enhance their performance as well. For example, I have seen that the organization I work for
not only offers monetary rewards to the employees with the inherent desire to motivate them
by making the employees feel that their hard work and effort is being appreciated but at the
same time offers designations to them as well on the basis of sustained consistent
performance. This use of this system not only helps the hard working employees of the
organization but also the ones who are not being able to perform as per the requirement of the
organization (Kvaløy, Nieken & Schöttner, 2015).
The organization under discussion here also takes the help of the theory of Adam’s
Equity payment. The use of this theory enables the organization to motivate the employees by
paying equal wages to all the employees for the equal work that they do within the
organization (Schultz et al., 2015). In addition to this, the organization also takes the help of
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The effective utilization of this theory enables the
organization to not only address the different needs of the employees but also to fulfill them
(Crocker, Canevello & Brown, 2017). As opined by Njoroge and Yazdanifard (2014), this
has important connotations for the employees since when they see that the organization is
trying to take initiatives for the fulfillment of their needs they actually become motivated to
perform in a much better manner. The organization also takes the help of Hertzberg’s Dual
Factor Theory for the improvement of its work culture. The theory clearly states that there are
positive and negative factors within an organization which affect the performance level of the
employees (Herzberg, 2017). Taking the help of this theory the organization tries to enhance
the positive factors within the workplace which in turn creates the kind of work culture
wherein the employees feel motivated to perform in a much better manner.

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EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
As opined by Crocker, Canevello and Brown (2017) within the cannon of the modern
business world two different kinds of motivation have gained prominence, namely, intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic motivation. Schultz et al. (2015) are of the viewpoint that extrinsic
motivation refers to the efforts of the organization to motivate the employees by way of
offering them various kinds of monetary and other rewards. The organization taking the help
of this construct offers various kinds of performance monetary incentives and other perks to
the individuals. As opined by Heyns and Kerr (2018) intrinsic motivation refers to the kind of
measures which internally or personally satisfy the employees and thereby propel them to
perform in a better manner. This generally refers to the internal drives which makes an
individual perform better and thus it is seen that to reward the employees through the use of
the intrinsic motivation the organizations takes the help of recognition system wherein the
effort of employees is acknowledged and appreciated before everyone (Ganta, 2014). The
organization that I work for conducts recognition sessions every month wherein the top
performing employees are being appreciated before all the employees of the organization.
To conclude, the effective utilization of the construct of motivation enables the
organizations to effectively motivate or influence the employees so that they are being able to
achieve the targets or the goals which has been provided to them. It is pertinent to note that
the contemporary organizations are resorting to the use of different kind of motivational
measures like reward and recognition, creation of an effective organizational culture,
employee engagement, addressing the needs of the employees and others. In this regard, it
needs to be said that there are two important kinds of motivations, namely, intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation and the performance level of an organization depends to a great extent
on the effectiveness with which it is being able to use both these kinds of motivations.

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EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
References
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