The Unconscious Determinants of Motivation in Organizations: Implications for Human Performance (original) (raw)

2015, Performance Improvement

While many of these studies outline important aspects of motivation, such as rewarding, involving, and developing employees; financial incentives; and leniency toward employees, they are limited by their focus solely on conscious determinants of employee motivation. Having motivation is synonymous with having the direct and energetic intention to pursue a goal, yet recent neuroscience research informs us that both this intention (Charles, King, & Dehaene, 2014 ; Eitam & Higgins, 2014) and the associated goals (Huang & Bargh, 2014 ; Moskowitz & Balcetis, 2014) may exist entirely outside of human awareness. Gilbert's comprehensive behavior engineering model describes motives as "reasons that people do what they do, " yet do we, as performance professionals, understand all the factors that influence motivation (Rothwell, Hohne, & King, 2000)? What are the unconscious factors that impact employee motivation, and how can managers and leaders use this information to enhance their motivational strategies to improve organizational performance?