Effects of Personal Control, Extrinsic Rewards, and Competence on Intrinsic Motivation.

摘要

This report investigated three of the possible determinants of intrinsic motivation identified by Pritchard and Montagno (1978) in an earlier phase of this project. The three variables of concern were feelings of personal control, feelings of competence, and type of extrinsic reward system. A literature review revealed that the effects of personal control on intrinsic motivation had never been evaluated, that a suggested interaction of competence and personel control had not yet been investigated, and that studies comparing the effects of contingent versus noncontingent reward systems on intrinsic motivation had produced conflicting results and conclusions. Further, most of the research reviewed had been conducted under laboratory conditions which limit its generalizability to actual jobs in Air Force environments. Therefore, a study was designed wherein personal control over performance and payment systems were manipulated in a simulated work setting. It was found that personal control was a very important determinant of intrinsic motivation but that type of payment system did not affect intrinsic motivation in the work setting. An interaction between personal control and competence was found such that both performance and personal control had to be high in order for intrinsic motivation to be high. The implications of these results for job design were discussed. (Author)