Motivational Profiles and Work Adjustments; Towards an Intra-Individual Approach of Motivation

By Nicolas Gillet, Sophie Berjot, E. Paty
English

This research aims to identify individuals’ motivational profiles in a private organization and investigate whether these workers differ on some work outcomes, such as perceived stress, performance and organizational commitment. A cluster analysis showed three motivational profiles which were linked in different ways to the organizational variables studied. The most self-determined motivational profile was characterized by high levels of autonomous motivation, moderate levels of controlled motivation and low-levels of amotivation. This profile was generally associated with more positive consequences than the other two profiles. Overall, these findings are in accordance with the tenets of self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985). They suggest that cluster analysis is useful for studying and understanding workers’ motivation.

Keywords

  • motivation
  • work
  • cluster analysis
  • self-determination theory