Employee Perceptions of the Work Environment, Motivational Outlooks, and Employee Work Intentions: An HR Practitioner’s Dream or Nightmare?

Abstract

The Problem. Reinforcement theory has inspired many types of human resource development (HRD) initiatives. Despite their widespread use, reinforcement-focused programs, designed to control the outcome of behavior through external rewards, have proven expensive and cumbersome to manage and have an alarmingly low rate of return on investment. There is a critical need to better understand motivation in work environments as well as to explore more efficacious forms of motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic simultaneously. The Solution. Self-determination theory (SDT) is concerned with forward influence, independent choice, and the degree to which behavior is internalized as self-determined. Sources of employee motivation are influenced by employee perceptions of the work environment as well as behavioral outcomes. The most optimal forms of motivation are believed to originate from internal regulation of basic psychological needs rather than external forms of motivation such as those central to reinforcement-focused theory and practice.

The Chicken and Egg Conundrum: Job Satisfaction or Employee Engagement and Implications for Human Resources

“…Saks (2019), another perspective of employee engagement, suggested that engagement is best conceptualized through social exchange theory (SET) where employee engagement operates from a state of transaction and expectation. Still further, others have positioned engagement within a component of self‐determination theory (Shuck et al, 2018), a state of satisfaction (Garg et al, 2018; Karanika‐Murray et al, 2015; Yalabik et al, 2017), as well as explored as both an outcome and antecedent (Bailey et al, 2017). All have been important in developing a rich narrative and understanding for what employee engagement is and how it operates in practice – positioning theory as a central tenant for understanding this potentially complicated relationship.…”

Mounting the New Guard: The Golden Rule as a Basis for Organizational Culture Change in Response to Challenges in Academia

“…Under a new perspective, however, we argue that faculty reward systems might be reevaluated and developed to include community-engaged scholarship and newly created models for recognizing the work of faculty. In HRD, we know that reward systems drive behavior and incentivize performance; and until traditional methods of rewards are rebalanced with the changing guard, the very innovations we need to respond to the changing guard (and world around us) could be extinguished before they even have a chance to show impact (Shuck et al, 2018).…”

Hangi Lider, Kurumda Kalmayı Nasıl Sağlıyor? Çok Boyutlu İş Motivasyonunun Aracı Rolü

“…ÖBK, içsel ve dışsal motivasyon tiplerini kavramsallaştıran ve inceleyen araştırmalar sonucunda geliştirilmiş ve özellikle iş hayatındaki motivasyonlar ile farklı motivasyon tiplerinin sonuçlarını açıklayarak çıkarımlar yapan, çok boyutlu bir meta-kuram olarak tanımlanmaktadır (Deci ve Ryan, 2000;Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier ve Ryan, 1991;Shuck, Roberts ve Zigarmi, 2018). ÖBK'ya göre, çalışanların performansları ve iyilik halleri, işlerini yaparken yerine getirdikleri farklı görevler için sahip oldukları motivasyon tiplerinden etkilenmektedir (Deci, Olafsen ve Ryan, 2017).…”