In most organisations, motivation has traditionally relied upon Extrinsic motivation. This refers to behaviour driven by external factors, such as a reward, promotion, or avoidance of punishment. This may work in the short term but rarely in the longer term.
Intrinsic motivation is doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some consequence. If intrinsically motivated, you are moved to act for the enjoyment or challenge of it. See previous article.
It is not a new idea. In 1985 Deci and Ryan, in Self Determination Theory, identified three basic psychological needs for people – Relatedness, Autonomy and Mastery. Practitioners, particularly Jo Owen, added a fourth – Purpose. This is a foundation for understanding Intrinsic Motivation.
In collaboration with Jo Owen, AQR International has taken this framework and has developed a measure which enables users to assess motivation in those four dimensions and up to 48 individual components.
| Relatedness | A sense of belonging. I am supported and I support. |
| Autonomy | The freedom to be trusted to make your own decisions. |
| Mastery | To know I am competent, I can act effectively and this is growing. |
| Purpose | To feel I am doing something worthwhile, and my contribution is worthwhile. |
The RAMP measure provides a structure through which users can understand intrinsic motivation and what creating the conditions for this can mean for the organisation helping it to achieve key outcomes.
We are now at the piloting stage in its development where we need to collect a data sample for analysis.
We are looking for organisations who would be happy to issue this questionnaire. This will be allocated on a “first come, first served basis”.
The process is straightforward and highly automated. Each organisation is provided with an open link which they can issue to their employees. All data is anonymised. No individual response is identified.
Data is then aggregated and analysed and each participating organisation receives a full report on its data which contains an overall assessment of the level of Intrinsic Motivation; The 4 factors as well as each individual item. The report will also show the items with the highest scores and those with the lowest scores indicating what should be preserved and what could be developed.
To register your interest in the pilot e-mail headoffice@aqr.co.uk
