When motivation becomes a problem

Employees’ increasing self-motivation poses new challenges for companies

In contemporary knowledge work, employees rarely have a problem in being enthusiastic – in fact, they are highly motivated. According to a new book by Peter Holdt Christensen, Associate Professor and PhD from the Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy, this is, however, not guaranteed to be a benefit for companies.

Motivating employees might be considered a challenging task, but in today’s knowledge work, employees motivate themselves.

- Working with knowledge is very common today, so most people are to a greater or lesser extent involved in it. Knowledge work often has a creative and independent side to it, which has been shown to be very motivating, Peter Holdt Christensen says.

Motivating factors

By examining the most important theory on motivation, Peter Holdt Christensen has concluded that there are six factors that motivate knowledge workers, but which present potential problems for employers:

• Affiliation – that you feel connected to your colleagues.

• Challenges – that you are not asked to do tasks that are too easy.

• Fairness – that you are fairly rewarded, for instance through your salary.

• Performance – that you receive feedback at work in the form of a result.

• Autonomy – that you have a certain amount of self-determination.

• Self-realisation – that your tasks enhance your qualifications.

… and factors that create problems

These six motivating factors do not, however, always suit the companies. Experience shows that knowledge workers cannot always plan their work as they want, but have to work according to the company’s direction.

- Problems occur when you feel that you do not get the feedback you think you deserve, or when the need for autonomy and self-realisation collides with the overall goals of the company, says Peter Holdt Christensen.