Introduction
Daniel Pink is a bestselling author and his latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is an excellent example of how employees are motivated and encouraged to perform well in the current era. The book comprehensively discusses the drive to intrinsic motivation. Daniel Pink states in his book that the concept of reward system like money, bonus or promotions are a mistake that a business does. The rewards lead to less desirable behavior by employees once the reward system is removed, and the employees start to expect more than the previous reward in every performance. In turn, this need if an organization is unable to fulfill will lead to low motivational level. The author’s focus was that for intrinsic motivation to last longer it is crucial that employees should be provided with mastery, purpose, and autonomy. He consolidated research from different motivational theories such as by Edward Deci and Harry Harlow to demonstrate his point.
Motivational theory- Old Versus New
The old motivational theories given by Maslow and Herzberg etc focus on the point that when an organization wants to arrange for the needs and concerns of the employees, it is not necessary that only the monetary needs of salary and bonus should be filled but also social needs and self-esteem need area as mentioned by Maslow Hierarchy of need should be taken care of. The balance of work and social activity of employees is necessary, and it is the duty of any company to take care of these needs. Managing these needs of employees will not only enhance their work performance but will also lead towards more motivation, high morale and job satisfaction which in long-term proves to be lucrative for organization and employees both.
In the new concept of motivational theory, it is clear that once an employee’s external reward such as the need of money is fulfilled it can overpower his intrinsic needs of motivation. When an employee is rewarded, it can change a very interesting task into a compulsion or a menial task. For example, an employee found a task interesting and performed well in it if rewarded might struggle to meet the same expectations next time and lose interest in his work. We know that once an employee loses his creative skills in a task his performance level is reduced, and he is unable to work with same skill set or similar pace as before. Not only this, but when an organization push an employee for outcomes, greater results and meeting deadline, it results in encouraging its workers to take a short cut to finish the project or to cheat and ignore the quality standards of work. (Pink, 2009)
Type 1 behavior
Individuals with Type1 behavior are simulated by intrinsic needs, and they are less concerned with receiving rewards. Type 1 behavior is motivated with the task, the way it has been accomplished and how they have performed in that task. Type 1 behavior is the center of the third drive as mentioned by Harry F Harlow – Positive Intrinsic Reward. The third drive defines that an employee will be more satisfied with the task performance or with their job than the concept of receiving rewards with the task. This illustrates that there is a drive within that pushes an individual to give their best performance just because he enjoys his work and can enhance his creative and imaginative skills. This behavior is considered to be a renewable resource for any company because it can refill without having to give any monetary satisfaction. People with such positive attitude are relatively easier to work with, and they prove to be positive for the organization. Even though, every employer would love to have Type 1 employee in their organization but it is easier said than done. Daniel Pink believed that it was important both individuals and businesses should follow three drives to fully meet Type 1 individuals: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. (Pink, 2009)
Autonomy
The old concept of autonomy within job has changed its course to new management technique of autonomy where employees self-direct themselves and are allowed to set their own working hours, within or outside the company as far as their targets are met. Even though, this concept was slowly adopted, it helped in increasing productivity, performance, creativity and reduced level of stress among employees. The amount of flexibility and autonomy this set-up provided resulted in an increased level of performance by the individuals who value to have work-life balance and were not that interested in pay raises. It should be made clear, that autonomy is not an idea where an employee just depends upon himself, but it is an idea where an employee is more autonomous while working with each other. (Pink, 2009)
Mastery
When the employee is not controlled and given a room of autonomy to perform his tasks, this leads to higher level of engagement with the task performance and this eventually results in mastery because an employee tries to work harder in order give a better result each time. A research found out that every individuals goes through a phase of flow – flow is a balance of focus and degree where an individual is so engrossed in his work that he can achieve it to the most satisfactory level. (Pink, 2009)
Purpose
The last point purpose was sums up the entire concept of Type 1 behavior because if there is no purpose then this behavior cannot exist. People who are deeply motivated with their work try to set their purpose to achieve goals that are way beyond them. They strive to achieve unachievable goals in order to keep their morale high. As discussed in book purpose of a goal can be achieved in three ways by an individual: use words that express more than just mere words, target should use profit to reach the purpose and policies of any company should help employee to reach his purpose. (Pink, 2009)
Conclusion
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is an excellent example of how employees are motivated and encouraged to perform well in the current era. The book comprehensively discusses the drive to intrinsic motivation. Daniel Pink states in his book that the concept of reward system like money, bonus or promotions are a mistake that a business does. The rewards lead to less desirable behavior by employees once the reward system is removed, and the employees start to expect more than the previous reward in every performance. In turn, this need if an organization is unable to fulfill will lead to low motivational level. The author’s focus was that for intrinsic motivation to last longer it is crucial that employees should be provided with mastery, purpose, and autonomy. He consolidated research from different motivational theories such as by Edward Deci and Harry Harlow to demonstrate his point.
References
Pink, Daniel H. (2009) Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York:
Riverhead Books.
