Whether dealing with tasks, decision-making or goal achievement, motivation will make all the difference. Of course, intrinsic motivation has been well-studied — this is motivation coming from within, whether it be an interest in the activity itself or a sense of internal satisfaction — but the impact of external factors, especially rewards, is equally powerful on behavior. In this article, we delve into the influence of external rewards — material and immaterial — on motivation, performance, and long-term behavior.
External Motivation
This means external motivation is fueled by outside forces such as recognition, money, grades, prizes, or social approval. These aspects are commonly known as extrinsic motivators. Extrinsically motivated behavior occurs when humans participate in an activity not because they actually want to do it, but because they want to earn a reward.
For instance, an employee will work late to get a monetary reward or a student will put in the effort to get high marks. These examples show that rewards can incentivize the choice to take a certain action and that it is crucial to appreciate how these extrinsic motivators can both positively and negatively impact motivation and performance.
Types of External Rewards
Accepting that rewards are external can take on many forms:
- Economic rewards: Salary, bonus, commission, and similar economic incentives
- Tangible rewards: Reward in the form of physical items, like prizes, gifts or goods.
- Social rewards: Recognition, words of praise, public acknowledgement from peers, supervisors or society.
- Purveyors of Status or Power: Higher ranks that accompany more authority or power.
- Career growth: opportunities for promotions and further career development.
The rewards differ widely, but what they have in common is that they are capable of incentivizing human behavior for better or worse.
Rewards are used in the pursuit of motivation
External Rewards with a Positive Impact
- More Work and Productivity: In general, imagine rewards offered from outside to encourage people to provide more work, to finish tasks, and to hit targets, are very effective. This aligns with what is known about motivation—when employees know that a promise such as a bonus is attached to achieving sales targets, they become more incentivized to reach those targets.
- 24:06 — Short-Term Motivation — External rewards can give an immediate increase in motivation, especially if the task isn’t something you want to do. For example, students that hate studying will study in order to attain a grade that will grant them a scholarship or job opportunities.
- Clear Goals and Benchmarks: Rewards often create clear, measurable goals. But if people know what they could earn for finishing a task, they have a more concrete sense of direction and a sense of purpose, both of which improve concentration and focus.
Why External Rewards Might Backfire
- Over-Reliance on External Motivation: As for external rewards, they can be extremely motivating in short spurts when the task at hand is not personally gratifying. My beef here is that the inflection point of a giver and taker become blurred and when this happens, intrinsic motivations, which remain the right fuel for sustaining actions, may just fade away with extrinsic rewards in the mix. For example, a worker whose motivation is solely based on pay will not feel inspired to achieve more than is expected of them when the perks decrease or disappear.
- Undermining Intrinsic Motivation (The “Crowding-Out” Effect): Research from Edward Deci and Richard Ryan suggests providing an abundance of external rewards actually diminishes intrinsic motivation — a process called the “crowding-out effect.” This is the phenomenon of the over justification effect where the external rewards actually lessen the enjoyment of the activity since they were being rewarded to do an intrinsically engaging activity. For instance, a child who enjoys drawing might begin to engage in that behavior exclusively to receive a reward, decreasing their inherent motivation.
- Pursue Quantity, Not Quality: Particularly with the measurable ones (like sales or productivity figures), rewards turn people toward quantity rather than quality. This reduces creativity, problem-solving or long-term thinking.
Striking a Balance Between External Motivation and Internal Rewards
While rewards can certainly be used to incentivize performance, they should not be abused to the point where they ruin the intrinsic motivation factor. Below are some strategies to find a middle ground:
- Full of intrinsically and extrinsically motivate: Delight the doer in what he/she is doing and promote to receive outer achievement rewards. In turn, a company may be able to build a positive work culture that encourages intrinsic satisfaction in the work itself as well as aligning external rewards to overall performance.
- Use Rewards as Recognition, Not a Primary Motivator: Giving recognition/reward to individuals for their work is a great method but this method cannot be a primary motivator. Public recognition, verbal praise, and other forms of social acknowledgement can pack just as much punch as material rewards — and they add no risk of harming intrinsic motivation that’s associated with monetary compensation.
- Provide Autonomy: Having a choice in how work is completed elevates intrinsic motivation. Allowing people to decide for themselves when to do most things leads to greater feelings of control over (and interest in) the process, even with external incentives at stake.
Conclusion
what I think explains how external rewards are powerful tools in shaping behavior and can effectively motivate individuals to meet short term goals. But if used inappropriately or on too large a scale, they can disrupt intrinsic motivation and cause less satisfying, less sustainable results. With the development of informed awareness of the nuanced interaction that exists between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, the individual, manager, and organization can develop contexts (at the organizational and individual level) that ensure external rewards and pressures do not come at the cost of long-term motivation, performance, and individual fulfillment.
