From "Academy of Management Review"

BusinessBriefings.com
Published on Sep 17, 2013 in Issue 167 - September 2013, Current Issue, Highlights

Carrots and sticks have long been the favored tool for business managers looking to motivate their workers, whether it's to encourage with the promise of a raise, or to threaten with firing.

Although a new study from the University of Iowa suggests that an employee's personality is also a strong determinant of motivation.

This study, published in the Academy of Management Review, notes that a growing body of evidence suggests that if a worker's personality doesn't fit the job requirements, he or she will not be motivated by external factors, no matter how tasty the carrot or painful the stick.

The researchers used decades of studies by behavioral scientists to create their theory that tries to explain why people do what they do at work. The theory helps businesses engage in better hiring and training practices designed to make sure the right worker is in the right job.

The theory uses what is called the Five Factor Model (or FFM), which captures five broad dimensions of that are used to describe human personality:

1. Extroversion/introversion.
2. Agreeableness.
3. Conscientiousness.
4. Emotional stability.
5. Openness to experience.

The theory ties FFM personality types to the work environment and the nature of the person's job. It assumes that workers' personality traits create high-order goals that they strive to attain in their lives.

When the characteristics of their jobs are aligned with these high-order goals, the researchers found that they tended to be more productive workers.

For instance, if an employee is an ambitious, go-getting extrovert whose high-order goal in life is status, then it will be hard for an employer to motivate the person if he or she works in a repetitive job with no advancement opportunity.

Conversely, if a worker is a shy, retiring type whose goal is autonomy, he or she will not be motivated to perform better by promises of a promotion to management because the last thing he or she wants is to be in charge of other people.

For businesses, this implies that we first need to understand which goals matter to employees, and then match those goals to characteristics of jobs so we can make work more meaningful and intrinsically motivating to the person.

References

Academy of Management Review, January 1, 2013, Vol. 38, No. 1, "The Theory of Purposeful Work Behavior: The Role of Personality, Higher-Order Goals, and Job Characteristics," by Murray R. Barrick, et al. © 2013 Academy of Management. All rights reserved.

To view this article, please visit:

http://amr.aom.org/content/38/1/132.abstract