Intrinsic and Extrinsic Work Motivation: A Review of Definitions and Interactive Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this article is threefold.The first is to review three major definitional approaches to dichotomizing motivation into intrinsic and extrinsic categories.It is shown that each approach may be criticized for some theoretical weakness.The second purpose is to describe the attributional theory of w ork motivation, Deci's (1975) Cognitive Evaluation Theory , that is receiving increasing concern and argues the interactive relationship between intrinsic and e xtrinsic motivation.The results of thirty three studies which have tested the h ypothesis proposed by the theory are summarized.The necessary conditions (i .e., performancereward contingency, reward saliency , norm for nonpayment, and inherently interesting task) for the support of the hypothesis are specified .The third is to discuss the implications of the cognitive evaluation theory of work motivation to management .I t is shown that the theory has several limitations in applicability to real w ork organizations, although it has some advantages in understanding the emerging processes of intrinsic work motivation.Finally, future research needs are identified and theoretically discussed.Most theories of work motivation are concerned with the process through which human work behavior is energized, directed , and sustained.A common theme among these theories is that work behavior can be motivated by many different rewards, such as pay, praise, promotion , sense of task accomplishment, a meaningful task , and so forth.Recent attention to the particular kind of reward has been dichotomized work motivation into two types: intrinsic motivation ahd extrinsic motivation.

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