Intrinsic motivation and in role job performance a study in vietnam

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HOCHIMINH CITY
-----------

BUI AN ANH TUAN

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND IN-ROLE JOB PERFORMANCE
A STUDY IN VIETNAM

MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

HO CHI MINH CITY - 2012


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HOCHIMINH CITY
-----------

BUI AN ANH TUAN

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND IN-ROLE JOB PERFORMANCE
A STUDY IN VIETNAM

Subject: Master of Business Administration
Code: 60.34.01.02
MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PhD. PHAM QUOC HUNG

HO CHI MINH CITY - 2012

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The achievement of this study is not only my effort but also the valuable
contribution of many individuals. I would like to express my thankful feeling and
deep memory to all of them.
First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, PhD. Pham Quoc Hung, for his
close attention, suggestion, encouragement from the first step and during my thesis
development. He is very kind to help me all materials related to my thesis.
Next, I am so happy to have the warmest love from my family who always concerns
and supports me in any case.
Finally, I am very lucky to receive a large knowledge and enlightened understanding
from hundreds of guidelines and comments from my friends. They are my classmates
and my friends who are willing to reply promptly all my relevant questions at any
time and everywhere I ask.
Importantly, all the right arguments in this study were surely explained with the
help of above mentioned individuals, all the mistakes or shortcomings are solely
due to my weakness.

All comment and suggestion are welcomed.

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2012
Student: Bui An Anh Tuan


ii

COMMITMENT

To teachers and readers. I am Bui An Anh Tuan, student of Master of Business
Administration, K19 (EMBA K19) of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh
City. I commit that the thesis “Intrinsic Motivation and In-role Job Performance: A
Study in Viet Nam” was carried out and accomplished by my serious study
procedure and scientific research.
The related literature and quotations used in this study are sourced from books,
articles, researches, references. The data in the study was primarily collected from
companies in Ho Chi Minh city. The data analysis and results of the study were
conducted and explained scientifically by myself.
I declare and commit again that this study is not copied originally from any other
study and research.

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2012
Student: Bui An Anh Tuan


iii
TABLE OF CONTENT
Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................... i
Commitment ............................................................................................................................ ii
Table of content ....................................................................................................................... iii
List of tables............................................................................................................................. v
List of figures ........................................................................................................................... v
Abstract .................................................................................................................................... vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research introduction ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Problem statement ............................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Purpose and significance of the study .............................................................................. 3
1.4 Delimitation of the study .................................................................................................. 4

1.5 Structure of the study ........................................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Job performance................................................................................................................ 6
2.2 Two measures of job performance ................................................................................... 6
2.3 Motivation......................................................................................................................... 7
2.4 General Self-Determination Theory ................................................................................. 8
2.5 Extrinsic motivation.......................................................................................................... 9
2.6 Intrinsic motivation ........................................................................................................... 11
2.7 Psychology needs.............................................................................................................. 12
2.7.1 Autonomy ................................................................................................................ 12
2.7.2 Competence ............................................................................................................. 15
2.7.3 Relatedness .............................................................................................................. 16
2.8 Influential factor of social context .................................................................................... 16
2.9 Motivation and job performance ...................................................................................... 18
2.10 Research model and hypotheses ..................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research design ................................................................................................................ 22
3.2 Measurement development ............................................................................................... 24
3.2.1 Questions of questionnaire ...................................................................................... 24
3.2.2 Questionnaire back translation ................................................................................ 24


iv

3.2.3 Autonomy measurement ......................................................................................... 25
3.2.4 Competence measurement....................................................................................... 26
3.2.5 Relatedness measurement ....................................................................................... 26
3.2.6 In-role Job Performance measurement .................................................................... 27
3.2.7 Demographic items ................................................................................................. 27
3.3 Pilot study ......................................................................................................................... 28

3.4 Sampling design................................................................................................................ 29
3.5 Data collection and analysis ............................................................................................. 30
3.5.1 Data cleaning and input method .............................................................................. 30
3.5.2 Reliability test ......................................................................................................... 31
3.5.3 Confirmatory factor analysis ................................................................................... 31
3.5.4 Analysis of variance ................................................................................................ 32
3.5.5 Regression analysis ................................................................................................. 32
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Data description ................................................................................................................ 33
4.2 Normality analysis ............................................................................................................ 34
4.3 Scale reliability analysis ................................................................................................... 35
4.4 Confirmatory factor analysis ............................................................................................ 36
4.5 Group analysis .................................................................................................................. 40
4.6 Regression analysis ........................................................................................................... 44
4.6.1 Linear multiple regression ....................................................................................... 47
4.6.2 Testing assumptions for regression ......................................................................... 49
4.6.3 Regression with dummy variable ............................................................................ 50
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Result discussion .............................................................................................................. 52
5.2 Research contribution ....................................................................................................... 53
5.2.1 Theoretical implication ........................................................................................... 53
5.2.2 Managerial implication ........................................................................................... 54
5.3 Limitation and further research ........................................................................................ 55
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 56
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................... 61


v

List of tables

Table 2.1: Type of extrinsically motivated behavior ............................................................... 11
Table 3.1: Autonomy scale ...................................................................................................... 26
Table 3.2: Competence scale ................................................................................................... 26
Table 3.3: Relatedness scale .................................................................................................... 27
Table 3.4: Performance scale ................................................................................................... 27
Table 3.5: Demographic variables ........................................................................................... 28
Table 4.1: Survey data ............................................................................................................. 33
Table 4.2: Normality descriptive statistics .............................................................................. 35
Table 4.3: Cronbach’s alpha of sub scales ............................................................................... 36
Table 4.4: Goodness of fit indices ........................................................................................... 37
Table 4.5: Standardized regression weight .............................................................................. 37
Table 4.6: Gender group statistic ............................................................................................. 40
Table 4.7: Independent Samples Test ...................................................................................... 41
Table 4.8: Marital group Statistics ........................................................................................... 42
Table 4.9: Mean of Groups Analysis ....................................................................................... 44
Table 4.10: Correlations .......................................................................................................... 46
Table 4.11: Multiple regression ............................................................................................... 47
Table 4.12: The coefficients .................................................................................................... 48

List of figures
Figure 2.1: The research model ............................................................................................... 21
Figure 3.1: Research process ................................................................................................... 23
Figure 4.1: Modified model ..................................................................................................... 38
Figure 4.2: Adjusted model ..................................................................................................... 39


vi

Abstract

We need people to work at their best effort voluntarily to have the best
performance. We have to understand the psychological motivation and create the
good condition in which people are motivated. Psychological motivation is of two
types: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation comes from internal or self
stipulation. Extrinsic motivation comes from external or contingent rewards. The
study based on Self-Determination Theory that focuses specially on intrinsic
motivation and its effect on job performance. The study has carried out a survey of
239 respondents from companies in the Ho Chi Minh city based on the well
designed self-reported questionnaire. Using multiple regression model, three
intrinsic motivators – perceived autonomy, perceived competence, perceived
relatedness – have showed their positive effects on in-role job performance.
Interestingly, relatedness has the strongest effect, autonomy has moderate effect
and competence has lowest effect. The mean analysis has not been found
statistically significant difference among demographic groups. This study also
contributes to the theory of motivation and initially confirms the validation of SelfDetermination Theory in the Viet Nam context.


1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
Many studies have been carried out to understand about the motivation. According
to definition of Psychology Today, Motivation is literally referred to the desire of a
person to do things (Psychology Today, How to get motivated, 2012). Ryan & Deci
asserted that motivation concerns energy, direction, persistence – all aspects of
activation and intention. Motivation relates to the person who are managers,
teachers, leaders and involves mobilizing others to act (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Kinicki
and Kreiner suggested that motivation presents psychological processes that cause
stimulation, persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed (Kinicki &

Kreitner, 2001). Employees that are motivated to work long and hard are normally
more productive than that are not motivated (Daniels, J.D. and Radebaugh, 2001).
Motivation is of two general types: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. As
defined by Gagne and Deci (2005), intrinsic motivation refers to internal factors
such as interest, enjoyment, choice, perceived competence, relatedness etc.
Satisfaction of these factors causes and maintains intrinsic motivation. Aronson,
Wilson and Akert (2002) defined “Extrinsic motivation refers to external factors
which can be measured in monetary terms such as salary and bonuses etc” (cited in
Mundhra & Jacob, 2011). These are external to the people. According to Ryan and
Deci (2000), the term extrinsic motivation is the attainment of separate outcome
from the performance of an activity; and intrinsic motivation is the performance of
an activity for the inherent satisfaction from the activity itself. They also mentioned
that fun and challenge are of greater significance to an intrinsically-motivated
person than external pressures, contingencies and rewards.
In this study, based on the Self-Determination Theory proposed by Deci and Ryan
(2000), I refer to perceived competence, perceived autonomy and perceived
relatedness as three intrinsic motivators to evaluate the motivation of the company
on employees.


2

Performance has the important concern for the leaders to pay attention and it can be
used to evaluate the leadership effectiveness. Performance of an individual depends
on his ability and motivation. There are two types of employee performance in-role
and extra-role as the overall motivation. It is used to assess the motivation through
perceived performance by himself. As suggested by William and Anderson (1991),
a person undertakes his job responsibilities and requirements, he has done his inrole performance. A person takes the actions beyond his job responsibilities and
requirements at his voluntary behavior, he has taken extra-role performance
(William and Anderson, 1991). In this study, I refer to in-role performance to

measure the overall motivation of employee.
1.2 Problem Statement
Morgan (1997) (cited in Mundhra & Jacob, 2011) stated that people are valuable
resource that may contribute in several different ways to a company’s outcome
provided that the company creates them an appropriate chance to do. Mundhra and
Jacob (2011) mentioned that a company needs its employees working at their best
effort towards its goals for its success. Employee also have a desire to remain and
work for long time in the company.
However, according to a report, in average, every three new employees are
recruited, there are two current employees leaving the company. The turnover rate
is about 40-50% (Tran, 2011). Also, this paper reported that a survey by Navigos in
208 enterprises in 2005 with 35,000 participants, the job leave rate was very high:
18.2% for management level; 14.8% for experts and 23% for office staff and
workers. And research of Kevin and Keri (2006) confirmed that the primary
principle for employment loyalty and commitment in the twenty first century is of
leadership factors. Moreover, the absenteeism and bad attitude (stress, negative
effort, tardiness, stealing) are also important issues for the companies.
Such loyalty and commitment comes from motivation. Motivation has been defined
as the amount, quality and direction of the employee, effort that energizes their
behavior within the work environment (Perry and Porter, 1982). Schultz (1998)


3

stated that motivation is aimed at achieving higher work productivity and job
satisfaction as highly motivated persons tend to work harder and perform effectively
in their job.
From these comments and reports, I realize that motivation, especially intrinsic
motivation, is very important and it would affect the performance of employee and
ultimately the result of the company. That is the main reason I decide to investigate

relationship between intrinsic motivation and performance in the Viet Nam context
(in the area of Ho Chi Minh City).
1.3 Purpose and Significance of the study
The success of the company contributes to the prosperity and the wealth of the
society and is the desirable purpose of all businesses. All businesses are comprised
of people from all levels of the organization and are managed and operated by these
people. So, the success or failure of a company is depended on the performance of
everybody. The leaders will set the objectives and manage all organizational
activities and the employees will undertake the specific tasks related to their job
responsibilities and requirements. However, the leaders will take responsibility for
the outcome of the company.
The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between intrinsic
motivation and in-role job performance of the employee. Specifically, I shall
investigate the relationships of perceived autonomy and in-role job performance;
perceived competence and job performance (from now on, in this research, job
performance also is referred to as in-role job performance); and perceived
relatedness and job performance. Besides, some other variables of personal
respondents are also tested to find any relationship to the job performance or as the
influence on intrinsic motivation and job performance.
From the result of the study, we can understand the importance of employee
intrinsic motivation and its affect to the job performance of the employee.
For theory, it contributes to academic knowledge about motivation and job
performance and the relationship between them. It introduces another research


4

model of theory. It will create more stipulation for further study for deeper
understanding about this field.
For management, the study gives more empirical evidence for managers to

understand and apply to their managerial practices. In order to achieve the highest
employee job performance, the leaders must understand and know how to motivate
intrinsically all people to exert their best ability for the highest result. By
understanding the motivation theory, we can mobilize the right motivators to drive
the people to the utmost effort and performance.
This study will also help test the hypotheses and give some specific findings in the
Viet Nam context.
1.4 Delimitations (related theories/concepts/sectors)
There are many theories related to the field of motivation and were researched by a
number of empirical studies all over the world, from demand theory of Maslow, two
factors theory of Henzberg, expectancy theory of Vroom to investment theory and
cognitive evaluation theory. However, in this study, I choose and focus on SelfDetermination Theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan (2000) and Deci et al. (1989) that
concentrate on the three innate psychological needs of natural human being. They
are need for competence, need for autonomy and need for relatedness. These are
psychological needs of people and when satisfied, people will get more motivated
intrinsically. The influence of age, experience, education of people on intrinsic
motivation is also considered demographically.
The study is limited to the employees who are working in Ho Chi Minh City and the
samples are based on non-statistical and convenient sampling basic. SPSS 18.0 and
Amos 18.0 softwares will be used to analyze the data and the outputs are discussed.
1.5 Outline of the study
Chapter 1: Introduction.


5

Generally mention about the background and statement of problem, purpose of the
study and its significance, the assumptions and research model, limitation of the
study and structure of the paper.
Chapter 2: Literature Review

Summarize the theories of motivation, model of job motivation, nature of
motivation. Go deeply into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, especially the SelfDetermination Theory by Deci and Ryan with three components: competence,
autonomy and relatedness. From this review, a framework of research will be
formulated with hypotheses.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter will discuss the method and how to carry out the research. Mention
about the measurements, questionnaire adjustments and variables testing including
sampling method.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis
Describe the data and analyze the characteristics of the data. Discuss the
correlations and regression assumptions. Test hypotheses.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Discuss and suggest further research.


6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 1 has introduced generally about the thesis. In the chapter 2, I shall
introduce the concerned concepts of job performance and intrinsic motivation and
its relationship. Especially, Self – Determination Theory will be discussed. Upon
that, the hypotheses and research model will be built for this study.
2.1 Job performance
Job performance is the key indicator to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the
organization (Wall et al., 2004). Job performance of an employee is measured by
his ability and motivation. Ability refers to the knowledge, skill, competence of an
individual to fulfill the specific job. However, that person will not accomplish fully
the job if he has not received adequate support or expected motivation. Self
expectation and desire to do the job is also very important. Sometimes, the

motivation is the key factor for an employee to complete and achieve high work
outcome. Motivation creates the desire to do the work and the suitable context helps
the work done successfully. Therefore, the overall motivation is the indicator of
levels of employee job performance.
2.2 Two measures of Job Performance
Most people often think of job performance as the financial figures such as sales
revenue, high salary or income, productivity or profitability. However, job
performance is more than these references. It can be the combination of task related
activities and organizational behaviors (Motowidlo, 2003). Actually, job
performance including specific figures and relative aspects may be considered as
overall organizational job performance (Wall et al., 2004). In reality, job analysis
includes work behaviors and other aspects such as knowledge, skills, education
required of the job specification.
Schmit and Chan in Motowidlo (2003) classify the job performance as “will-do”
and “can-do” types. Will-do relates to the personal’s KSAOs specified to perform
specific job. Can-do relates to the motivation that an employee may have in


7

carrying out their work. In a similar way, Motowidlo and Van Scotter (1994)
suggest that job performance should consist of task related activities and
organizational context behavior. Two aspects are structured by different factors. Job
related activities determine task performance and personal characteristics determine
organizational behaviors or conceptualized as organizational citizenship behaviors.
In general, there have been many researches on activities related to task and
organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) concluding that they have influence and
relationship independently on job performance (Christensen and Whiting, 2009).
Most results find the equivalent affect that task and OCB have to explain the
variance of job performance assessment. Managers can use task and OCB with the

similar importance in evaluating the job performance of employee. In another
research by Wright (2004), after controlling the effect of intrinsic motivation, the
result concludes that extrinsic job motivation does not found much related to the
employee job performance. And in some other researches, OCB have strong
influence and effect on job performance.
2.3 Motivation
Despite a large body of research in the field of psychology, work motivation is a
difficult and wide area to study or conceptualize (Rainey, 1993). There are many
theoretical frameworks defining the concept of motivation. Each theory inherits and
develops from the previous concepts and generalizes additional items. However, no
one theory can be comprehensive and explainable for all contexts, especially when
the changing and complex working conditions were emerging over the recent
decades (Wright, 2004).
In his book, Muchinsky (1996) states that motivation is referred to as the
expectation of individual to illustrate the behavior and reflect willingness to express
the effort. Similarly, Robin and Coulter and Coulter (1998) define motivation is
“the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals,
conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs.” (cited in


8

Mundhra and Jacob, 2011). Motivation can be considered as the quantity, quality
and direction of employee’s behaviors in his/her working situations.
2.4 General Self – Determination Theory
Most up-to-date theories of motivation presume that people take activities in
believing that the behaviors will entail some expected goals or results (Deci and
Ryan, 2000). According to Self-Determination theory (SDT), a person is interested
in the goals of the behaviors and what stipulates this behaviors. The theory employs
an organismic perspective that human is active agent to their social and inanimate

environments (Grolnick et al., 1997). SDT is based essentially on the three
assumptions. The first assumption is that people have the natural tendency to
integrate. Integrating relates to the attention of interconnections the aspects of one
own world, other individuals or groups into one’s social world. Ryan and Deci
(2002) state that “all individuals have the natural, innate and constructive tendencies
to develop even more elaborated and unified sense of self.”
The second assumption is that the fact of social context may foster and enable the
integration tendency or may frustrate or hinder the process of desirable integration.
As stated by Ryan and Deci (2002), “SDT posits that there are clear and specifiable
social-contextual factors that support this innate tendency, and that there are other
specifiable factors that thwart or hinder this fundamental process of human nature.”
Differently spoken, there are the relationships between an active organism and an
environmental context. That environment acts and has affects on individual and in
reverse, individual changes or modifies the surrounding factors. Within SDT, this is
called organismic dialectic.
The third assumption is that the human being has three psychologically fundamental
needs: the need for autonomy or self-determination, competence or effectance and
relatedness or affiliation. According to SDT, three basic needs help categorize the
social-contextual factors to be supportive or antagonistic to the integrating process
(Deci and Ryan, 2000). Within SDT, autonomy is defined as being the admitted
origin or source of one own behavior. It brings the meaning of self-initiating and


9

self-regulating of one own ideas. Competence is defined as the feeling of mastery or
effective in one’s ongoing interactions with the social environment and experience
of fulfillment of one’s ability. It involves understanding how to achieve the outcome
and being efficacious in undertaking the actions. And the relatedness refers to the
feeling related to the others, to caring for and being cared for by the others.

Relatedness also includes the desire of belongingness both with other individuals
and with one’s community. It has the meaning of developing secure satisfying
connections with others in the social context (Deci et al., 1991). Motivation,
performance and development will be supported in the contexts that can create the
opportunity to satisfy their basic psychological needs. It contributes to the being
motivation and self-determination rather than amotivation and control.
One important approach to theory of motivation is to study the difference of two
broad types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (Deci and Ryan, 1985).
A person is intrinsically motivated if he is doing an activity because of its inherently
interesting or enjoyable. If a person is doing an activity because of its separate
outcome, he is extrinsically motivated (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Self-determination
separates the intentional regulation into two different types: one is self-determined
state and the other is controlled state. Self-determined people engage in an action
with wholly volition and their own sense. Controlled people engage in an action
with feeling of pressure by some interpersonal or external force.
2.5 Extrinsic Motivation.
Extrinsic motivation refers to engagement in an activity that is instrumental to some
different outcomes (Grolnick et al., 1997). Cited in Valas and Sovik (1994), Ryan,
Connel and Grolnick defined extrinsic motivation as “pertains to activity that is
more directly instrumental and adaptational, based on people’s needs to respond to
socially prescribed demands, limits and patterns of behaviors.” Extrinsic motivation
concerns behaviors which will bring some external rewards, avoid some threats,
gain some recognition by the others or to conform to some extant values. When
extrinsically motivated, people behave in order to achieve some purposes different
from merely enjoy in activity itself. According to agency theory, people are


10

motivated by extrinsic stipulation and most employees act on their self interested

and take part in activities that help potentially increase their extrinsic benefits. For
example, generally, money is an important factor of motivation. They will pay
attention to the works that brings opportunities to increase their income. Most of
things are concerned of the compensation or pay system. As Gupta and Mitra
(1998), (cited in Kluvers and Tippet, 2009) found from their meta-analysis study
that financial rewards have a strong relationship with performance.
Notwithstanding, it is uncertain to have the same conclusion regarding the quality of
its performance. There are many other researches finding the contradict conclusion.
In the theory of Herzberg, money is classified as “hygiene factor” and cannot be a
source of motivation. Ryan and Deci (2000) confirm that fun and challenge have
greater influence on motivation of people than external pressure or rewards have.
Kluvers and Tippet (2009) asserted in their paper that researches of Gaertner and
Gaertner (1985), Dowling and Richardson (1997), Redman et al. (2000) and
O’Donnell and Shields (2002) confirmed that if we base only on extrinsic rewards,
it is not enough to have motivation for employee to do their best.
Performance appraisal policy that focuses on the development needs had potential
to increase the performance. Employee motivation also involves intrinsic rewards
such as pride of doing good jobs and feelings of doing something meaningful. Many
people can do their works despite relatively low pay if they consider the tasks to be
worthwhile. Berry, Broadbent and Otley (1995) mentioned in Kluvers and Tippet
(2009) that employees in the caring services tend to evaluate the remunerative
rewards less important than normative rewards. These authors quoted the
conclusion from Osterlor and Frey study that intrinsic reward could be crowded out
by extrinsic reward. However, Frey (1997) (cited in Kluver and Tippet, 2009) also
clearly stated that when the pay is above the subsistence level, people concern for
the meaning of works that means the intrinsic motivation becomes important.
There are different types of extrinsic motivation in the extent to which they
represent self-determined and controlled responding. In the recent researches of
education, there are four levels of extrinsic motivation that are external regulation,

11

introjected regulation, identified regulation and integrated regulation (Ryan & Deci,
1985, 2002). Ryan, Connell and Deci stated that there is the movement from the
extrinsic control to self regulation through the internalization process in which the
regulation is transformed by the external events into internal events. And this
process is considered as the internalization process in the theory of selfdetermination.
On the concept of self-determination, Hayamizu (1993) assumes that there is no
clear distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and the change from
external motivation to internal motivation can be happened continuously . It is not
dichotomous but continuous (Hayamizu, 1995) (cited in Matsuzaki, 2005).
Gaertner and Gaertner have concluded that external rewards accompanied with
training or supportive feedbacks could assist the individuals to improve the
performance than extrinsic factors alone.

Table 2.1: Types of extrinsically motivated behavior
Types

Degree of SelfDetermination

External

Low

Introjected

Moderately low

Identified

Moderately high

Integrated

High

Description
Behaviors controlled or demanded by
external contingencies or awards
Behaviors controlled or demanded by
contingencies inside the person
Behaviors identified
with the
importance or value of the actions
Behaviors
experienced
as
autonomous or integrated by one’s
self.

2.6 Intrinsic Motivation.
Intrinsic motivation reflects the internal tendency of human being eagerly to take an
action that are new and interesting. As defined by Ryan, Connel and Crolnick,
intrinsic motivation is an “innate, rather than derivative, propensity to explore and
master one’s internal and external world. It is manifested as curiosity and interest,
which motivate task engagement even in the absence of outside reinforcement and
support.” (page 170, quoted in Valas and Sovik, 1994).

12

From birth onward, humans, in their healthiest states, are active, inquisitive,
curious, and playful creatures, displaying a ubiquitous readiness to learn and
explore, and they do not require extraneous incentives to do so. This natural
motivational tendency is a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical
development because it is through acting on one’s inherent interests that one grows
in knowledge and skills development (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Intrinsic motivation is a desirable state of employee. The locus of causality of an
intrinsically motivated employee is not external to his inner desire. He will work
hard because he wants to, not because he is being pressed to. When an employee is
offered a reward for carrying out a specific task, that employee will perform the task
for the reward, possibly not because of the native interest.
Payment for achieving a standard is considered as a contingent reward. Contingent
rewards are physical rewards offered for fulfilling a specific task or achieving a
clearly stated goal. When contingent rewards are offered repeatedly, the employee
will think of the reward and they do their tasks in order to have the rewards as the
main reason for their fulfillment. That change over the time is a shift in the locus of
causality. Non-contingent rewards should be offered to employees. Research of
Deci shows that verbal praise often has greater positive effect compared to
contingent reward. And intrinsic motivation will be increased if praise is offered in
an autonomy supporting environment.
As SDT mention, when satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and
relatedness is to be ensured, the active engagement or intrinsically motivated
behaviors are to be maintained. Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an
activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for separable outcomes (Ryan and
Deci, 2000).
2.7 Psychological needs
2.7.1 Autonomy
From the concept of perceived locus of causality of Heider (1958), DeChams

(1968) (cited in Deci and Ryan, 1985) argued that a fundamental human propensity
is to be an origin or initiator with respect to action. According to DeChams (1968),


13

people need to experience a sense of choice to maintain high intrinsic motivation.
Similarly, together with competence and relatedness, SDT developed by Adward
Deci and Richard Ryan, autonomy constitutes the natural needs of motivational
basic of human nature. They confirms that the factors that enhance one’s feeling of
autonomy will facilitate intrinsic motivation. The theory states that autonomy is
defined as a psychological need that it must be nurtured properly. If not, the human
development and functioning will be thwarted (Deci and Ryan, 2000). The authors
also stress that autonomy is not an illusion but a phenomenon firmly evidenced by
philosophical and empirical investigations and it is the very nature of human
existence.
Another comment on autonomy in other researches (referred more in Chirkov et al.
2003) states that “modern understanding of autonomy as a psychological state
which includes intention to act, originated from one’s self…” and the author
continues to note “if a choice is autonomous, then the self is responsible for his
actions and it regulates a person’s self-determined actions…”. Finally, the research
concludes “in order to be fully humans we need to be autonomous in our actions.”
Autonomy is universal: Some researches tried to answer the question whether the
autonomy, as a person basic need, is pervasive and valid across the cultures or the
nations. SDT confirms that autonomy is the natural and universal tendency of
human beings to express their behaviors willingly and to fully support the actions in
which they are engaged (Ryan, 1995). Regardless of the culture in which people
have been socialized, they need to fulfill this ownership of their behaviors in order
to be healthy. Although different cultures may value autonomy and differentiate its
manifestations, but the functional roles of autonomy is universal. Levels of

autonomy support in different countries may vary, the more people experience
autonomy support, the better their psychological health is (Ryan and Deci, 2000).
Shirkov also cites the findings of Sheldon (1998) and his colleagues that the pursuit
for autonomous personal goals is relatively high compared to non autonomous
personal goals across countries. And the autonomous regulation on personal
strivings was predictive indicator of personal well-being both within and across


14

group samples. These results were consistent with the suggestion based on the SDT
propositions. Autonomy is concerned to all people in different countries regardless
of their cultural membership and the specific nature of their behaviors and goals.
Autonomy support is universally beneficial: According to SDT, if autonomy is
universal tendency involved in actions that originates from one’s own, then
autonomy support for that social environment (work settings) should also be
universally beneficial for people’s well being and optimal functioning. In one
writing, Shirkov mentions that he and his colleagues have carried out some
researches about the role of autonomy support in countries Brazil and Rusia versus
Canada and United States. One extreme is known as relatively authoritarian and
controlling and the other extreme is known as relatively liberal and egalitarian.
Despite the different levels of autonomy support, the functional role of this support
is similar in all countries (refer more in Chirkov et al., 2001; Chirkov et al., 2005).
By studying the data survey of white-collar workers in companies from the Bulgaria
and United States, Deci and his colleagues (2000) discovered that the superior’s
autonomy supportiveness predicts the psychological need satisfaction and in turn
this need satisfaction predicts the work engagement and well-being.
And several researches conducted in Taiwanese and Pakistan come to the same
conclusion that an autonomy supportive environment is an important condition for
people to develop their work career or personal characteristics (as mentioned in

Shirkov). Grolnick and Ryan (1989) as referred to the paper of Deci et al. (1994)
showed that autonomy support factor has the important significance of the process
of self determination. They surveyed the parenting styles, including the autonomy
dimension on children and found that the positive relationship was confirmed
between autonomy support and self-determined forms of regulation both in the
academic domain and school performance.
Autonomy, if considered as one’s underlying motivation of their actions, is
relatively universal that can create benefits to various aspects of human being across
different countries and cultures. Autonomy support includes the acknowledgment of


15

one’ point of view and emotions, providing options, concerning for others’ feeling,
supporting a person’s opinion and idea, giving positive feedback in an informative
instead of controlling channel. Autonomy may be considered differently in various
societies but the functional expectation is universal. The more people perceive the
support for their basic needs, the better their well-being is and the better their
functioning will be.
2.7.2 Competence
It is the need of a person to be effective in the social environment. It reflects the
desire to prove one’s ability and skills. People always want to look for continuously
any optimal chances and conditions with strong challenge to express their
competence (Reeve and Sickenius, 1994). White (1963) argued that the feeling of
competence is a basic organismic demand that underlies self-esteem and selfconfidence (cited in Sheldon et al., 1996). This psychological need is source of a
variety of directed, selective and prolonged behaviors that results in mastery of
activity (Grolnick et al., 1997). Therefore, the experience of competence can be
supported as one kind of intrinsic satisfaction that people can freely pursue and
promote.
There are studies related to the searching for the relationship of contextual

conditions and intrinsic motivation in which they focus on the experience of
competence. For being intrinsically motivated, the activities must provide the
optimal challenges and interesting stimulation for the people. It must be relatively
discrepant from one’s skill capability (Deci, 1975; Csikszentmyhalyi, 1975, cited in
Deci et al., 1996). If the task is too simple, it will tend to be boring. If it is too
difficult, it will tend to create the pressure and over capability. Study of Danner and
Lonky (1981) confirmed that students tend to select the tasks slightly higher their
competencies, as examined by a pre-test (referred to in Deci et al., 1996).
Positive feedbacks were found to support intrinsic motivation through highly
perceived competence. For example, Deci (1971) carried out a laboratory
experiment to indicate that when student were reported to fulfill well their puzzle-


16

solving tasks, they expressed better subsequent fulfillment of their activity
compared to students who did not receive the positive feedbacks.
Some theorists have suggested the proposals that the feeling and experience of
competence in interacting to the environment are impotent factors for promoting
intrinsic motivation, internal interest, behavior change and self-regulation (Bandura,
1977 as cited in Deci et al. 1996). And in contrast, negative feedbacks give pressure
and bad outcome for the people through less perceived competence and decreasing
motivation. Studies suggest that it does tend to have detrimental to intrinsic
motivation.
2.7.3 Relatedness
It is the need of a person to create the bonds and relationship with people. it reflects
the desire to be emotionally connected or interpersonally attached in social activities
(Reeve and Sickenius, 1994).
A study in 1958, Harlow confirmed that individual needs love and interpersonal
contact to grow optimally. And a numbers of research on attachment demand have

concluded that people need the experience the sense of interpersonal security or
psychological closeness in their social relationships (Deci et al., 1996). Intrinsic
motivation only appears when there is the underlying support of relatedness with
others. A “secure base” (term used in Bowlby, 1979) or sense of relatedness (term
used in Ryan et al., 1995) is necessary environmental condition for all humans to
freely expressing their exploratory spirits and activities.
The specification of innate psychological needs suggests a basis for making
predictions about what social-contextual conditions will enhance versus diminish
the healthy learning and development processes of human being.
2.8 Influential factor of social contexts
A lot of researches have been carried out to examine how the socially contextual
factor has influence on people’s intrinsic motivation and self-determination and as a
result on their performance. The main concept of self-determination theory is that
contextual environments as support to human needs – autonomy, competence and


17

relatedness- will ensue motivated actions. Firstly, support for autonomy will
facilitate self-determined state. This support is very important and closely relates to
the effectiveness of competence and relatedness support. Secondly, support for
competence will enhance intrinsic motivation. Vallerand and Reid (1984, 1988)
mentioned in Deci et al. (1991) confirmed that positive feedback helps generally
create the intrinsic motivation because of higher perceived competence. And
negative feedback usually finds decreasing the intrinsic motivation because of lower
perceived competence as found in research of Deci, Cascio and Krusel (1973) (cited
in Deci et al., 1991). Thirdly, the social support for relatedness will help create
more internal recognition. Studies of Grolnick and Ryan (1989) showed that the
close relationships between teacher and student or parents and children help
increase motivated actions and self-determined feeling. In the social contexts that

do not allow the satisfaction of these three basic psychological needs, they will
hamper or diminish motivation. It could constrain the natural developmental process
and lead to poor performance or alienation (Deci et al., 1991).
Previous studies of Zurkerman, Porac, Lathin and Deci (1978) as referred to in Deci
et al. (1991) found that when giving the free choice about what tasks to engage and
how much time to distribute to finish each task, people tend to be more intrinsically
motivated compared to people who are nominated or assigned to do.
Acknowledging the feelings of people also help them more self-determined about
what they are doing. Giving the opportunity to take part into the decision process
also helps produce beneficial and enhanced outcomes through more selfdetermination or autonomy support. Deci and Ryan (1985) suggested that factors
such as rewards, deadlines, threats, surveillance, and evaluations as well as
demanding and pressuring words tend to be experienced as controlling and thus to
be detrimental to intrinsic motivation. The second particular aspect of intrinsic
motivation is optimal challenge (Deci, 1975). Harter (1974) (cited in Grolnick et al.,
1997) studied that when the task is a little high difficult relatively to student’s
ability, they are more interested and focused and it motivates them to strive for
mastery. Fisher (1978) studied the positive competence feedback enhances intrinsic