Organizational Team Building

Team Motivation

Organizations often use extrinsic motivations to motivate their employees. Items like money and power often appear as the top organizational tools to enhance performance. When using extrinsic motivation, managers start by assuming people are not capable of motivating themselves. Managers do not take the time to find out what motivates their team members. As a result, extrinsic motivation can be seen as a form of manipulation. Furthermore, extrinsic motivation creates a co-dependence within the team. Every time a challenge appears, employees require additional extrinsic motivations to accomplish what they should already be doing. This is a very expensive practice for organizations. Studies have also found extrinsic motivation tends to minimize creativity. Even when there is intrinsic motivation to accomplish a task, extrinsic motivation can reduce the importance of self-achievement (Brehm, Kassin, and Fein, 2005). In order for a team to perform optimally, there should be a balance between the team's intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In the long run, intrinsic motivations create self- driven leaders who need minimal supervision. It also treats individuals as empowered individuals who are capable of self-instructions, self-monitoring, and self-evaluating. Combined with self-discrepancy in the mismatch between the ideal-self and the actual-self (intrinsic desires), people are motivated to maximize positive outcomes that align with the ideal-self and perceptions of others (Orellana-Damacela, Tindale & Suárez-Balcázar, 2000). With tighter budgets and high demand for innovation, intrinsic motivation is a powerful tool for organizations. References Brehm, S. S., Kassin, S., & Fein, S. (2005). Social psychology (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Orellana-Damacela, L. E., Tindale, R. S., & Suárez-Balcázar, Y. (2000). Decisional and behavioral procrastination: How they relate to self-discrepancies. Journal of Social Behavior & Personality, 15(5), 225–238.