Why are some people highly motivated than others? I think about this question often because I have some coworkers that are driven like myself whereas others lack ambition. I specifically chose articles that focused on psychological needs and individual differences within an organization because I wanted to understand the motives behind my behavior as well as the behavior of coworkers. In addition to this, I wanted to understand and know from a manager’s perspective on how to shape a worker’s attitude to enhance job satisfaction.
Of course, the above statements have puzzled motivational scholars, psychologists, and individuals such as myself for many years, but I will examine these concerns in this paper. What is Self-Determination Theory (SDT)? People are driven by the need to grow and gain fulfillment. It is necessary for individuals to achieve mastery over challenges, and by taking on new experiences, it is essential to the development of a cohesive sense of self. In particular, SDT is the theory of human motivation, personality, and well-being.
This concept focuses on various types of motivation rather than the amount of the motivation. For example, some individuals are motivated by external rewards such as money, bonuses, trophies, prizes, fear of failure and fear of punishment which represents extrinsic motivation. On the other hand, SDT focuses on intrinsic motivation that deals with gaining knowledge or independence of one’s self which is autonomy, belonging, curiosity, love, mastery and meaning According to SDT, individuals have to feel the following to accomplish psychological growth:
First of all, the necessity of autonomy is about having control over one’s behavior and goals. Companies can give employees freedom over their workload which will result in higher job satisfaction and better job performance. In fact, “autonomous motivation has in turn been associated with numerous positive outcomes, including greater creativity, persistence in school, healthier lifestyles and eating behavior, and more positive psychotherapy outcomes” (Milyavskaya & Koestner, 2011). However, if workers do not experience autonomy, it will lead to dissatisfaction.
Notably, if a worker believes they are just following orders from their manager, this can make the employee feel a lack of empowerment due to having little autonomy and freedom to experience self-determination. In fact, I agree with the authors’ hypotheses that autonomy leads to engagement and self-determination. If managers would allow their employees to concentrate on something that interests them, it can improve the innovation process and increase company productivity. Also, it helps with individual well-being because it gives them the opportunity to direct their lives.
As a matter of fact, it allows a person to consider everything that consists of their position. In all honesty, managers have to understand that job satisfaction is a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. To understand today’s work environment, we have to break down these approaches. For instance, “some values are conducive to growthful, intrinsically motivated actions, others tend to prompt extrinsically motivated behaviors, focused on rewards and people’s praise, whereas, intrinsic values are more likely to satisfy the self’s needs than extrinsic values” (Haivas, 2014).
The extrinsic motivator is significant to employees because it considers pay, work conditions, coworkers, and managers. For example, employees are asked to self-manage to a degree by using their intelligence and experience to accomplish important organizational objectives. This encourages workers to add value to the firm by being a problem solver, an innovator, and having the ability to meet customer demands.
In turn, I learned four major components that are the self-management process: – Workers have to commit to a meaningful goal. Employees have to choose the best way to accomplish the objective. – Ensuring the individual is competent to perform the work activities. – Is the employee’s work activity making progress to achieve the goal? The four judgments factors above can help employees to assess his or her value and effectiveness in their job functionality. Next, supervisors can use psychological empowerment to increase employee feelings of self-efficacy. If managers use selfefficacy correctly, it will give workers positive reinforcement to be proactive as well as promote engagement.
There are four cognitions of psychological empowerment such as impact, competence, meaningfulness, and choice that are the beliefs of an individual’s work environment relationship. “If one of the dimensions is not there, then the experience of empowerment will be limited” (Yuen-Onn & Teck-Chai, 2011). For this reason, all the cognitions needs have to happen at the same time to maximize the feeling of empowerment. It allows employees to have accountability of their judgment, values, work role and behaviors within the organization.
It gives workers the opportunity to guide their ideas and standards to evaluate the achievement of the organizational expectation or purpose which leads to autonomy. Secondly, the need for competence is the ability to be effective at controlling and mastering one’s environment. The goal is to find out the results and consequences of your actions. Thirdly, the need for relatedness is the desire to have a close relationship with others. It is important to realize that these concepts reflect that need satisfaction is a part of motivation and well-being which is an important life domain.
