Intrinsic motivation and performance : a study of different facets of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and their role in performance, in tertiary education and in the public sector workplace

Abstract

The literature describes a number of benefits resulting from an intrinsic (as opposed to extrinsic) motivational orientation, but evidence for a direct positive relationship with objective measures of performance is more equivocal, perhaps because much previous work has treated intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as global constructs, rather than exploring the effects of different sub-types or facets of each. The present studies attempted to remedy this by exploring which of four facets of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were associated with better performance (a) in a university setting, and (b) in a public-sector workplace setting, controlling for cognitive ability in each case.