3 Intrinsic motivation: psychological reward or exploitation?
“In recent years increasing attention has been paid to intrinsic motivation and employee engagement. Self-determination theory (SDT) (Ryan and Deci, 2000) identifies that people have inherent psychological needs for a sense of competence, relatedness and autonomy, and where work design captures these conditions, people will strive to perform because they want to rather than simply because they are paid to. In a similar vein, Jeffrey Pfeffer, in his influential 1998 article ‘Six dangerous myths about pay’, highlights the motivational importance of stability, engaging work and fun in a suitable work environment as a counterpoint to the ‘myth’ that the most effective way to motivate people is through individual incentive compensation.” (Lussier, 2021).
3.1 In your opinion, is employee engagement, whereby employees ‘go the extra mile’ for their employer, a positive outcome of an engaged workforce or a means through which employers seek to exploit their employees at no additional cost to themselves? Cite relevant literature on which you based your argument.
4 Job Evaluations
4.1 What is the basic principle behind using job evaluations?
4.2 Explain the advantages and drawbacks for an organization which uses the factor comparison method to conduct job evaluations.
5 Group or individual incentives?
Explain the merits of adopting an individual vs group incentives approach by suggesting whichever approach would work best in each of the following positions:
• A used car salesperson
• An emergency room nurse
• An expatriate production manager (Cypriot) working to set up a new joint venture factory in Sweden
Clearly explain the reasons behind your suggestion in each case.
