Understanding Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation: What Drives Your Actions?

Can you define and differentiate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

---

Hi,

Sure, I can help with that!

Intrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity because it is personally rewarding or satisfying. This type of motivation comes from within an individual, driven by internal factors such as a sense of accomplishment, enjoyment, or personal growth.

Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, involves engaging in an activity for external rewards or outcomes, such as money, praise, or recognition. It is based on external factors rather than internal desires.

Differentiating between the two, intrinsic motivation focuses on internal satisfaction and personal fulfillment, while extrinsic motivation relies on external rewards or consequences to drive behavior. Both types of motivation play essential roles in influencing behavior and performance in various settings.

Hi,

Intrinsic motivation means a self-motivated person.

Extrinsic motivation means a person who requires external motivation, i.e., someone else to motivate them.

Hope I answered your question, and I hope I am correct :-)

Gayathri

Hi Pol,

Intrinsic motivation causes people to engage in an activity for its own sake. A hobby is a typical example. Traditionally, extrinsic motivation has been used to motivate employees: Payments, rewards, control, or punishments.

I always find this an interesting area of discussion, especially when you link it to job satisfaction. Appropriate extrinsic motivators are essential to get people out of bed and off to work each day, but it is the intrinsic factors that make people love their jobs and be truly productive. Conversely, a lack of intrinsic motivation will have someone dragging themselves through each day, doing as little as possible, without actually being caught out!

Greetings, all.

Numerouno is absolutely correct in his posting.

Research study after research study indicates that there is nothing that allows the creation of a positive climate of motivation for an employee more than job satisfaction.

Salary and benefits may demonstrate short-term performance improvement, but over the long run, our studies have shown that an employee evolves to a point where he/she convinces himself/herself that they are "worth" whatever salary he/she is being paid—especially if the payment is above-market rates.

The intrinsic satisfaction factors continue to motivate to higher and better levels of job performance.

Keep in mind that considering the basics of motivation theory, I cannot motivate you to "do" anything; I can create a climate of motivation where you can "motivate yourself" to achieve goals, but I have little or no ability to motivate you—only to influence your motivation.

The proverbial boss that abuses his/her employees to achieve more and more finds that he/she limits his/her own personal and professional growth because of turnover, hostility, undermining of authority, etc., from subordinates.

If we go back to Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs, we can begin to tie together our "needs" to the ways we "achieve" our needs and understand a bit more that a basic paycheck simply addresses the basic human needs; additional compensation above base living levels allows us to seek out areas not necessarily basic in nature.

I hope this is helpful. If I can be of any additional assistance, please post a question or comment.

With best regards,

Alan Guinn, Managing Director

The Guinn Consultancy Group, Inc.

Mr. Ajmal Mirza is bang on target in my view. The thumb rule is that if you had lots of money to do what you wanted to do without bothering about having to do a job, what would you do or what would you like to do even though you are not paid for it. That is intrinsic motivation.

Two quotes from my blog - http://mypyp.wordpress.com/:
"A hobby is more a measure of a man than a profession is."
"The luckiest person is one whose hobby and profession are the same." Nothing could be more true because if your hobby has a good market profile, your life is made, like the great Thomas Edison who used to say, "I never worked in my life. It was all fun," despite putting in 18 hours a day.

When intrinsic motivation is not possible, extrinsic motivation is resorted to in the form of various monetary incentives which would work differently with different people.