Browsing by Subject "work motivation"
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(2020)To handle the pressure and maintain healthy mental wellbeing, employees would benefit from knowing how to manage their work motivation. Autonomously motivated employees do their job because they enjoy it or because of its personal importance. The self-determination theory states that employees, who are autonomously motivated experience positive outcomes, beneficial for both individuals and organizations. In order to be optimally motivated, the psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness must be satisfied. Previously, the self-determination theory has mostly focused on how social agents (e.g. managers) can create environments that satisfy these needs. However, employees themselves can also use techniques to self-manage their motivation, such as self-kindness or goal setting. The aims of this thesis are to examine how employees from a public sector organization describe how they manage their work motivation. Moreover, problems in which participants describe using 11 self-motivational techniques are examined. This study uses data from a six-week observational study, where 18 participants responded to brief mobile questionnaires five times during workdays. At the end of the study, individual interviews took place, which will be analysed with thematic analysis. The most frequently used techniques among the participants were goal setting, supporting others and obtaining support. Next, by interpreting different situations for which self-motivational techniques were used, I identified eight themes concerning problems: self-doubt, negative mindset, boring tasks, inability to change tasks, managing chaos, feeling stuck, need of social interaction and negative social interruptions. One technique could be used for solving different problems. The results of the research question, on how the participants describe their use of the techniques, show three main themes: self-management choice guided by self-concept, effects of study participation, and interconnectedness, and five sub-themes. The results show that the participants’ ways of managing their motivation were affected by e.g. their self- concept, their work role and the study participation. Moreover, in some cases, the participants did not separate between self-motivational techniques and regular work behaviour and that some aspects of the techniques led to uncertainty, such as how the participants had interpreted having used them and whether it was done consciously or not. In conclusion, the results shed light on how these techniques have been used and understood, which might have implications for how future research can study how employees can manage their own motivation. This study is among the first qualitative studies to investigate how people use self-enactable techniques to improve their quality of work motivation.
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(2017)Digitalisation, automation, and globalisation have caused significant changes in the nature of work during recent decades. During volatile times, the importance of motivated employees and the ability to produce new innovations is highlighted. The aim of this master’s thesis is to study the connection between quality of work motivation and innovative work behaviour, which consists of idea generation, promotion, and realisation. Self-determination theory’s (Deci & Ryan, 2000; 1985) conceptualisation on autonomous (intrinsic and identified) and controlled (introjected and external) motivational types and the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) are used as the key theoretical standpoint. This quantitative research studies whether satisfaction of the three basic needs is positively connected to autonomous forms of motivation, whether autonomous forms of motivation are positively connected to innovative work behaviour, and whether the three basic needs are positively connected to innovative work behaviour. Furthermore, the mediating influence of autonomous motivation types in the relationships between the three basic needs and innovative work behaviour is also studied. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted to test the hypotheses. The data consist of responses of 92 knowledge workers (response rate 25.6%) from headquarters of a large Finnish organisation. The sample group is characterised by high educational level (81.6% of participants had lower- or higher-degree tertiary education from university or university of applied sciences) and quite even gender distribution (58.7% females and 40.2% males). In addition to background information, respondents answered to questions related to need satisfaction, motivational types, and innovative work behaviour. All the scales used in this research are developed specifically for work context and they have been validated in previous studies. The main statistical methods included linear regression analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance, and the factorial structures of scales were assessed with exploratory factor analysis. The mediation model was tested using the causal steps by Baron and Kenny (1986). The results show partial support for hypotheses. Autonomy and competence are positively connected to autonomous types of motivation, and all three basic needs are negatively connected to amotivation, i.e. lack of motivation. Only intrinsic motivation of the four motivational types explains positively and statistically significantly innovative work behaviour, and the coefficient of determination is notable (R2 adj. = .21) considering all the possible antecedents influencing innovativeness. Innovative work behaviour correlates positively with competence and autonomy, but only competence explains innovative work behaviour positively and statistically significantly in regression analysis. Intrinsic motivation mediates fully the connection between competence and innovative work behaviour, also when the effects of autonomy and relatedness are controlled. The influence of relatedness on autonomous types of motivation and innovative work motivation remains unclear. The results of this research indicate that innovative work behaviour might be endorsed among knowledge workers by supporting employees’ intrinsic motivation, which can be done by supporting their satisfaction of needs for autonomy and competence. According to previous research, autonomy can be supported by allowing influence on how, when, and what tasks are done, as well as including employees in goal setting and decision making, whereas competence can be supported by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, allocating tasks so that they match employees’ skills, and providing training for employees.
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