INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: A TOOL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract

Organizations in developing nations are characterized by scarcity of resources. On the other hand environmental dynamics such as globalization, technological advancements, changing customer needs, to mention but a few, are very unforgiving. Thus organizations in developing nations need to go beyond management: they need to be developed in this context of scarcity of resources. The concept of intrinsic motivation is one of self-determination characterized by competence, autonomy and relationships (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and is one where, according to psychologists, one performs an action or a behavior because they enjoy the activity itself. It is different from extrinsic or controlled motivation that characterizes those activities that yield specific outcomes in terms of rewards or avoided punishments (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Review of literature regarding motivation reveals that an organization that uses the intrinsic approach to motivate its employees is bound to benefit more without spending much of its resources. Organization development is a completely different paradigm compared to traditional management in that it is characteristic of a learning organization that with collaborator decision making, continuous improvement, efficiency and teamwork as its main tenets. Both intrinsic motivation and organizational development result in exponential growth, high employee and organizational performance, highly motivated staff with reduced absenteeism and employee turnover. Whereas organizational development, due to use of Total Quality Management (TQM) emphasizes efficiency, intrinsic motivation does not cost the company much of its resources. Developing countries are looking to industrializing fast in the face of scarcity. This paper espouses the use of intrinsic motivation for organization development in developing countries as an approach that will help them to keep up with developmental momentum in the midst of environmental dynamics on one hand and scarcity of resources on the other.