According to a recent survey conducted on work from home amongst IT and ITeS sector employees in India, 24% of the respondents said that their overall productivity has deteriorated because of working from home, while only 15% believed that their productivity has improved. A majority of respondent felt that there was no change in their productivity and that they seem to be missing their workplaces. By carrying out their work from the workplace (office), they felt more engaged and connected with the organization as it facilitated social interactions with colleagues, satisfying a fundamental need of social and emotional connect.

Engagement and conservation of resource view

There has been a long-standing and persistent interest in the topic of employee engagement, which intrigues researchers and businesses alike. An explanation for this sustained interest is that research on employee engagement shows its consistent relation with employee performance. Going by the conservation of resource view – which states that organizations must protect and conserve the resources they value – workforce is one important resource required for achievement of organizational objectives. Organizations must therefore be concerned about creation of a conducive ecosystem where the workforce can performance and growth.

A higher employee performance, in turn, will lead to higher organizational performance. It is well understood that organisations are highly interested in performing well. So, what is changing in the employee engagement landscape?

Shifting paradigm of employee engagement

Employee engagement is usually understood as the level of commitment and involvement felt by an employee with the organization’s purpose and values. Actively engaged employees not only strives to do their own work with excellence but motivate their colleagues alongside. This is what distinguishes them from other passively engaged employees. The current pandemic has disrupted many aspects of our work lives, including the traditional means by which organisations ensured higher engagement of their employees as well as other team building activities. The workplace has become highly disintegrated with people interacting with fewer of their peers and seniors informally. In this scenario, what can organisations do to keep their employees more motivated and engaged?

Traditional attempts of engagement have primarily focused on extrinsic sources of motivation for the employee. So, a higher salary, need for praise from a senior, pressure to perform well, the threat of punishment, deadlines, and other similar reasons for performing better at work can be external reasons for an employee to feel engaged with her work. Extrinsic motivation constitutes behavior that is motivated by anything other than an interest in the activity itself. Research suggests that when individuals engage in an activity for the sake of these extrinsic rewards, then their interest usually sustains only if the reward itself exists. The moment rewards are taken out of the picture, motivation for that activity significantly drops. The task at hand or the activity is pursued not because it is interesting or enjoyable but because it is a means to an end.

The nature of work is changing, becoming more dynamic, ambiguous and requires continuous upskilling and reskilling. Under such scenario, the new age workforce needs to be ready, agile, and adapting to the changing environment. Organizations cannot and must not force employees to learn, adapt to the change and be flexible. To sustain the competitive advantage, employees need to be intrinsically motivated and be aligned with the organization’s purpose and values. Organizations must create work that fundamentally satisfies the needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. This makes it imperative to look for most lasting sources of motivation, decoupled from extrinsic conditions.

Intrinsic motivation – is it better than extrinsic?

An intrinsically motivated individual will feel driven to engage in a work task purely because it being of of interest. The rewards in this case are the emotions of excitement and enjoyment, along with the experience of feeling autonomous and competent. Intrinsic motivation is innate, coming from a natural urge to do something out of interest and enhance one’s capabilities. But we still do not know why intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation if they both can ultimately get the work done? It is important because intrinsic motivation is not only self-sustaining and long-term but also contributes to the learning, upskilling and development of the individual.

A good corollary of the idea can be seen amongst young children who are forever curious, and unafraid to act. They are intrinsically motivated to solve puzzles, take up challenges, learn new things, paint, build and play. They do not engage in these activities to get some reward out of them or do them out of fear, but for the sheer pleasure of doing them and learning new things. It isn’t that adults do not engage in autotelic activities, that is, activities are done as an end in themselves. For instance, hobbies are often pursued for their own sake. Individuals invest so much time in doing gardening or learning mountain climbing or food photography, for the sake of intrinsic rewards such as enjoyment and satisfaction.

Researchers have asked themselves if it is possible to replicate this form of intrinsic motivation at the place of work? Deci and Ryan, in their now renowned Self-development theory, attempt to figure out the factors that can influence and lead to intrinsic motivation. They theorize three important psychological needs of individuals that must be fulfilled for them to feel intrinsically motivated. These needs are autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Research suggests that employees whose above mentioned basic psychological needs are fulfilled better internalize the value that they are adding through their work, are self-motivated and thus, perform better and display higher job satisfaction and well-being.

We at Kognoz are engaged in high quality and high stakes research that intends to revolutionize the way employee engagement is perceived by shifting focus towards employees feeling self-motivated to do their jobs well. We believe that intrinsic motivation is the key for engaging new age workforce operating in new age workplace. Our solution – IMMERSE – is based on measuring intrinsic motivation and laying the foundation for a self-managed and autonomous team operating in the new age workplace.

For sustained engagement to happen, organization must take definite steps to make the employee feel more autonomous, competent, and related to the organization’s goals and purpose. Our goal is to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

References: 

Albrecht, S. L. (2010). Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice (New Horizons in Management Series/Elgar Original Reference). Edward Elgar Pub.

J., A. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008

Knight Frank. (2020, August). Work From Home WFH and the impact on Corporate Real Estate. https://content.knightfrank.com/research/2066/documents/en/work-from-home-indian-real-estate-residential-office-7431.pdf

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. D. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior: 1st (first) Edition. Plenum Press.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2018). Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness (1st ed.). The Guilford Press.