前置獎勵對員工內部動機及績效的影響

Abstract

The work motivation of employees is of utmost important for enterprises. Work motivation can be categorized into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity to attain some separable outcome, and intrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity for the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsically motivated activities usually bring about pleasant experiences and voluntary persistence (Czikmantori, 2018). Thus, the intrinsic motivation of employees is very important. However, the issue of how employees’ intrinsic motivation and job performance can be improved via rewards remains unanswered.

A reward is either a thing that you are given because you have done something good or a thing that you give to somebody else because they have done something good. In the present research, this traditional definition is labeled as a post-reward. In contrast, the present research proposes pre-rewards, i.e., rewards given to employees before they perform an extra-job performance.

The present research focuses on the following four questions: (1) Does a pre-reward increase the employees’ performance? (2) Does a pre-reward increase the employees’ performance more than a post-reward? (3) Does a pre-reward increase the employees’ intrinsic motivation more than a post-reward? (4) Does intrinsic motivation mediate the effect of a pre-reward on performance?
Study 1 investigated the effect of pre-rewards and post-rewards on employee performance through a field study. All 142 employees were divided into two groups, i.e., the pre-reward condition and the post-reward condition. The results showed that a pre-reward increased employees’ performance more than a post-reward.

Study 2 investigated the effect of pre-rewards and post-rewards on intrinsic motivation and performance by a laboratory experiment. All 173 participants were divided into three groups, i.e., the pre-reward condition, the post-reward condition, and the control condition (no reward). The results showed that the performance in the pre-reward condition was higher than that in both the post-reward condition and the control condition, the intrinsic motivation in the pre-reward condition was higher than that in both the post-reward condition and the control condition, intrinsic motivation was positively correlated with performance, and intrinsic motivation partially mediated the effect of pre-rewards on performance.

Based on study 1 and study 2, the present research concluded that (1) a pre-reward increased employees’ performance, (2) a pre-reward increased employees’ performance more than a post-reward, (3) the intrinsic motivation of the pre-reward condition was higher than that of the post-reward condition, (4) intrinsic motivation was positively correlated with performance, and (5) intrinsic motivation mediated the effect of pre-rewards on performance.

The present research has important theoretical contributions and practical implications. The theoretical contributions include (1) that the present research explored the effect of pre-rewards on employees’ performance and found that a pre-reward is more effective than a post-reward in improving performance, which extends the field of rewards to include pre-rewards. (2) Based on self-determination theory, the present research explored the effect of pre-rewards on intrinsic motivation, which addressed the importance of satisfying the basic psychological needs in promoting intrinsic motivation. (3) Based on the means-ends fusion theory, the present research explored the effect of pre-rewards on intrinsic motivation, which addressed the importance of strengthening the fusion between activities (means) and rewards (ends) in promoting intrinsic motivation.

The practical contributions of this study include (1) the provision of enterprises with a new effective reward type known as pre-rewards, i.e., rewards that can be given to employees before an extra-job performance is performed, which thereby promotes employee performance. (2) The present research also provides a method to promote employees’ intrinsic motivation, i.e., pre-rewards. (3) In addition, the present research helps enterprise managers understand how pre-rewards promote performance.

Date of Award	15 May 2020
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Ziguang CHEN (Supervisor) & Jianqiao HONG (External Supervisor)