Intrinsic Motivation at Work: Building Energy and Commitment

by Kenneth W. Thomas

Intrinsic Motivation at Work marks a major advance on the topic of work motivation -- one based on an understanding of the changing requirements of today's workplace and the limitations of older motivational models. Written in an engaging, accessible style, yet grounded in solid academic research, the book is divided into three parts. Part One assesses older models of work motivation and why they need an overhaul. Part Two explains the nature of the ""new work"" and the importance of reintroducing a feeling of purpose and self-management. Part Three presents in depth the four intrinsic rewards that make work energizing and compelling -- a sense of meaningfulness, a sense of choice, a sense of competence or quality, and a sense of progress -- and how to create them.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Management, Nonfiction

143 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book about employee engagement. Made some very good points and backed up the ideas with good reasoning. Although, I do feel like it’s incomplete. So this would be good to read in conjunction with other books on employee engagement.

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intrinsic motivation is what drives us to do anything that we feel like doing. This is different than extrinsic motivation which primarily takes the form of money and cash-equivalent benefits. Intrinsic motivation, in this book, is distilled into four main senses: (1) a sense of meaningfulness, (2) a sense of choice, (3) a sense of competence, and (4) a sense of progress.

This breakdown was very interesting for me to consider as I evaluate my career plans for the future. I am starting to value intrinsic motivators more and more as I realize that work makes up a major percentage of my waking hours. I think it would therefore be in my interests to truly grasp what intrinsic motivation is all about, and make the necessary adjustments in my life to ensure that intrinsic motivation is something that continually drives me. My output, the quality of my work, and my mental health will all be vastly affected by the types of motivations that drive me to do anything. This book really drives these points home.

The opening of the book described the shift from an industrialized society to a more information-based society, where the former is primarily based on strict obedience to process and rules, and the latter is based on self-governance, self-management, and individual contributions that represent a meaningful piece of their contributors. HR-related issues aside, this shift illustrates a very deep philosophical insight into the modern world, and may hold the key into imagining what the future of work may look like.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. I like how it approached the hands-on portion from both the manager's perspective and the employee's perspective. Going to have to read the updated version (I wasn't aware there was one). Looking forward to analyzing the building blocks and seeing how I can become more motivated.

[Rajan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

There is nothing new and this book is rehash of old ideas of motivation.

It is unnecessarily long and repetitive.

[Jimmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfounded clichés. Endless discussion about how meaningful it is, how to gauge it. The specific advices are very ambiguous at best, if not completely unfounded rubbish and cliché.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a tough read, because I have little intrinsic motivation left at work. I would like to develop more.

[Chase Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seemed to be written for middle managers to help give general guidelines on how to help workers achieve more. It had some good tidbits, but overall lacked inspiration.

[Kaung Myat Han · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Intrinsic Motivation at Work" by Kenneth W.Thomas is a detailed, useful and a perfect starter book for employees who want to read on about and improve their motivation, particularly their intrinsic motivation at work. The book is broken down into three parts which are the need for new models, the nature of the new work and the intrinsic rewards of the new work. As a business management major student, I've already know/read somewhere about what forces are changing the nature of work today and that extrinsic rewards themselves alone are not effective enough to motivate an employee. The book, however, doesn't mention about the links between motivation and other HR practices, performance outcomes, organizational effectiveness in detail. It's all about intrinsic motivation and in part 3, the writer who's a prominent PhD academic and professor writes about four intrinsic rewards which are sense of choice, sense of competence, sense of meaningfulness and sense of progress. Each of them are explained to some understandable and practical extent. The book concludes with a small chapter which is devoted to "Implications" and later followed by two appendixes. The first one is about two earlier models of intrinsic motivation. I skipped it as I though it's not important. The second appendix is about putting money into perspective which tries to link intrinsic motivation with extrinsic rewards/motivation, the most well-known one being money of course. I would like to read more on this. It's only four pages there. Nevertheless, "Intrinsic Motivation at Work" is a very good introductory book about motivation and the effective management of Generation X workers which is easy to follow and quite a useful virtual handbook for almost everyone who's interested in managing people.

[Juan Pablo Gómez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it’s worth reading. I waited a while to start reading it but I think the book is ok. I like that it makes you look for your intrinsic rewards before making you go and ‘solve’ whatever you would with your team, that makes sense. I also liked how constant its message was throughout the read with just for basic concepts: purpose, choice, performance, progress. These were easy to understand and hopefully the strategies to put them into practice should also be easy to implement. Give it a try.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realized that I had no idea on how to motivate people so I decided to take a look on how to do so. This book while dense, opened my eyes quite a bit. I will probably read it over and over. Like a text book.

[Aaron Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

reminds me of Drive by Daniel Pink but with less research and more suggestions

[Allisonperkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first few sections are a little slow but once the book moves into how to find your motivation/engagement and then how to help build engagement, the book takes off.

[Josh Steimle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along with The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace and Carrots and Sticks Don't Work, I hold this book up there near the top of my books covering the topic of employee motivation.

[Nurbakit Boltayev]

great book for the people who are responsible for the people

[Kandachamy Vijayakumaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a wonderful book. But it is of little use when you are retired, with no opportunities to apply the principles.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a great book for considering how to lead in a way that is positive and motivating and allows the team to own the work.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed having a structure to think about the ways I feel rewarded in the workplace. It made me think about ways to focus on these broad categories for building employee engagement.