This literature review deals with the problem of employee motivation and rewards, how best to achieve exceptional levels of performance and motivation in the work place. Psychologists have advanced two types of motivation theories. Dualistic theories divide motivation into two types, namely intrinsic and extrinsic. The other theories are more multidimensional and identify inherently separate motives. This paper will argue that the multidimensional approach for work place incentives would work for more types of business models, but also be a far superior method to approach staff inducement.
Firstly, I will examine why the dualistic approach as a hypothesis is invalid because human motives are multifaceted (genetically diverse) and do not divide into just two kinds. Second, the rational and behavioural measures of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation often yield different or even opposite results (Eisenberger et al., 1999).
Secondly, I will put forward the argument for a more multidimensional approach to employee motivation and why many researchers have moved beyond the study of intrinsic-extrinsic motivation. Researchers have validated and applied 16 universal reinforcements to a wide range of work places.
Literature Themes or Arguments
Intrinsic motivation is normally defined as “doing something for its own sake” from simply doing something for the joy and gratification derived. On the other hand extrinsic motivation represents the pursuit of a specific goal (Reiss, 2012). The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is unsound, however, because motives cannot be separated into just two categories. Human motives are too numerous to fall into just two categories (Reiss, 2012). The perception is that mental events seem to be essentially different from physical events.
