Intrinsic motivation and in role job performance a study in vietnam

The study based on Self-Determination Theory that focuses specially on intrinsic motivation and its effect on job performance.. Using multiple regression model, three intrinsic motivator

BUI AN ANH TUAN

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND IN-ROLE JOB PERFORMANCE

A STUDY IN VIETNAM

MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

HO CHI MINH CITY - 2012

BUI AN ANH TUAN

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND IN-ROLE JOB PERFORMANCE

A STUDY IN VIETNAM

Subject: Master of Business Administration

Code: 60.34.01.02

MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PhD PHAM QUOC HUNG

HO CHI MINH CITY - 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The achievement of this study is not only my effort but also the valuable contribution of many individuals I would like to express my thankful feeling and deep memory to all of them

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, PhD Pham Quoc Hung, for his close attention, suggestion, encouragement from the first step and during my thesis development He is very kind to help me all materials related to my thesis

Next, I am so happy to have the warmest love from my family who always concerns and supports me in any case

Finally, I am very lucky to receive a large knowledge and enlightened understanding from hundreds of guidelines and comments from my friends They are my classmates and my friends who are willing to reply promptly all my relevant questions at any time and everywhere I ask

Importantly, all the right arguments in this study were surely explained with the help of above mentioned individuals, all the mistakes or shortcomings are solely due to my weakness

All comment and suggestion are welcomed

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2012

Student: Bui An Anh Tuan

COMMITMENT

To teachers and readers I am Bui An Anh Tuan, student of Master of Business Administration, K19 (EMBA K19) of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City I commit that the thesis “Intrinsic Motivation and In-role Job Performance: A Study in Viet Nam” was carried out and accomplished by my serious study procedure and scientific research

The related literature and quotations used in this study are sourced from books, articles, researches, references The data in the study was primarily collected from companies in Ho Chi Minh city The data analysis and results of the study were conducted and explained scientifically by myself

I declare and commit again that this study is not copied originally from any other

study and research

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2012

Student: Bui An Anh Tuan

Acknowledgement i

Commitment ii

Table of content iii

List of tables v

List of figures v

Abstract vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research introduction 1

1.2 Problem statement 2

1.3 Purpose and significance of the study 3

1.4 Delimitation of the study 4

1.5 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Job performance 6

2.2 Two measures of job performance 6

2.3 Motivation 7

2.4 General Self-Determination Theory 8

2.5 Extrinsic motivation 9

2.6 Intrinsic motivation 11

2.7 Psychology needs 12

2.7.1 Autonomy 12

2.7.2 Competence 15

2.7.3 Relatedness 16

2.8 Influential factor of social context 16

2.9 Motivation and job performance 18

2.10 Research model and hypotheses 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design 22

3.2 Measurement development 24

3.2.1 Questions of questionnaire 24

3.2.2 Questionnaire back translation 24

3.2.3 Autonomy measurement 25

3.2.4 Competence measurement 26

3.2.5 Relatedness measurement 26

3.2.6 In-role Job Performance measurement 27

3.2.7 Demographic items 27

3.3 Pilot study 28

3.4 Sampling design 29

3.5 Data collection and analysis 30

3.5.1 Data cleaning and input method 30

3.5.2 Reliability test 31

3.5.3 Confirmatory factor analysis 31

3.5.4 Analysis of variance 32

3.5.5 Regression analysis 32

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 Data description 33

4.2 Normality analysis 34

4.3 Scale reliability analysis 35

4.4 Confirmatory factor analysis 36

4.5 Group analysis 40

4.6 Regression analysis 44

4.6.1 Linear multiple regression 47

4.6.2 Testing assumptions for regression 49

4.6.3 Regression with dummy variable 50

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Result discussion 52

5.2 Research contribution 53

5.2.1 Theoretical implication 53

5.2.2 Managerial implication 54

5.3 Limitation and further research 55

REFERENCES 56

APPENDICES 61

List of tables

Table 2.1: Type of extrinsically motivated behavior 11

Table 3.1: Autonomy scale 26

Table 3.2: Competence scale 26

Table 3.3: Relatedness scale 27

Table 3.4: Performance scale 27

Table 3.5: Demographic variables 28

Table 4.1: Survey data 33

Table 4.2: Normality descriptive statistics 35

Table 4.3: Cronbach’s alpha of sub scales 36

Table 4.4: Goodness of fit indices 37

Table 4.5: Standardized regression weight 37

Table 4.6: Gender group statistic 40

Table 4.7: Independent Samples Test 41

Table 4.8: Marital group Statistics 42

Table 4.9: Mean of Groups Analysis 44

Table 4.10: Correlations 46

Table 4.11: Multiple regression 47

Table 4.12: The coefficients 48

List of figures Figure 2.1: The research model 21

Figure 3.1: Research process 23

Figure 4.1: Modified model 38

Figure 4.2: Adjusted model 39

Abstract

We need people to work at their best effort voluntarily to have the best performance We have to understand the psychological motivation and create the good condition in which people are motivated Psychological motivation is of two types: intrinsic and extrinsic Intrinsic motivation comes from internal or self stipulation Extrinsic motivation comes from external or contingent rewards The study based on Self-Determination Theory that focuses specially on intrinsic motivation and its effect on job performance The study has carried out a survey of

239 respondents from companies in the Ho Chi Minh city based on the well designed self-reported questionnaire Using multiple regression model, three intrinsic motivators – perceived autonomy, perceived competence, perceived relatedness – have showed their positive effects on in-role job performance Interestingly, relatedness has the strongest effect, autonomy has moderate effect and competence has lowest effect The mean analysis has not been found statistically significant difference among demographic groups This study also contributes to the theory of motivation and initially confirms the validation of Self-Determination Theory in the Viet Nam context

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Many studies have been carried out to understand about the motivation According

to definition of Psychology Today, Motivation is literally referred to the desire of a person to do things (Psychology Today, How to get motivated, 2012) Ryan & Deci asserted that motivation concerns energy, direction, persistence – all aspects of activation and intention Motivation relates to the person who are managers, teachers, leaders and involves mobilizing others to act (Ryan & Deci, 2000) Kinicki and Kreiner suggested that motivation presents psychological processes that cause stimulation, persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2001) Employees that are motivated to work long and hard are normally more productive than that are not motivated (Daniels, J.D and Radebaugh, 2001) Motivation is of two general types: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation As defined by Gagne and Deci (2005), intrinsic motivation refers to internal factors such as interest, enjoyment, choice, perceived competence, relatedness etc Satisfaction of these factors causes and maintains intrinsic motivation Aronson, Wilson and Akert (2002) defined “Extrinsic motivation refers to external factors which can be measured in monetary terms such as salary and bonuses etc” (cited in Mundhra & Jacob, 2011) These are external to the people According to Ryan and Deci (2000), the term extrinsic motivation is the attainment of separate outcome from the performance of an activity; and intrinsic motivation is the performance of

an activity for the inherent satisfaction from the activity itself They also mentioned that fun and challenge are of greater significance to an intrinsically-motivated person than external pressures, contingencies and rewards

In this study, based on the Self-Determination Theory proposed by Deci and Ryan (2000), I refer to perceived competence, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness as three intrinsic motivators to evaluate the motivation of the company

on employees

Performance has the important concern for the leaders to pay attention and it can be used to evaluate the leadership effectiveness Performance of an individual depends

on his ability and motivation There are two types of employee performance in-role and extra-role as the overall motivation It is used to assess the motivation through perceived performance by himself As suggested by William and Anderson (1991),

a person undertakes his job responsibilities and requirements, he has done his role performance A person takes the actions beyond his job responsibilities and requirements at his voluntary behavior, he has taken extra-role performance (William and Anderson, 1991) In this study, I refer to in-role performance to measure the overall motivation of employee

in-1.2 Problem Statement

Morgan (1997) (cited in Mundhra & Jacob, 2011) stated that people are valuable resource that may contribute in several different ways to a company’s outcome provided that the company creates them an appropriate chance to do Mundhra and Jacob (2011) mentioned that a company needs its employees working at their best effort towards its goals for its success Employee also have a desire to remain and work for long time in the company

However, according to a report, in average, every three new employees are recruited, there are two current employees leaving the company The turnover rate

is about 40-50% (Tran, 2011) Also, this paper reported that a survey by Navigos in

208 enterprises in 2005 with 35,000 participants, the job leave rate was very high: 18.2% for management level; 14.8% for experts and 23% for office staff and workers And research of Kevin and Keri (2006) confirmed that the primary principle for employment loyalty and commitment in the twenty first century is of leadership factors Moreover, the absenteeism and bad attitude (stress, negative effort, tardiness, stealing) are also important issues for the companies

Such loyalty and commitment comes from motivation Motivation has been defined

as the amount, quality and direction of the employee, effort that energizes their behavior within the work environment (Perry and Porter, 1982) Schultz (1998)

stated that motivation is aimed at achieving higher work productivity and job satisfaction as highly motivated persons tend to work harder and perform effectively

in their job

From these comments and reports, I realize that motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, is very important and it would affect the performance of employee and ultimately the result of the company That is the main reason I decide to investigate relationship between intrinsic motivation and performance in the Viet Nam context (in the area of Ho Chi Minh City)

1.3 Purpose and Significance of the study

The success of the company contributes to the prosperity and the wealth of the society and is the desirable purpose of all businesses All businesses are comprised

of people from all levels of the organization and are managed and operated by these people So, the success or failure of a company is depended on the performance of everybody The leaders will set the objectives and manage all organizational activities and the employees will undertake the specific tasks related to their job responsibilities and requirements However, the leaders will take responsibility for the outcome of the company

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between intrinsic motivation and in-role job performance of the employee Specifically, I shall investigate the relationships of perceived autonomy and in-role job performance; perceived competence and job performance (from now on, in this research, job performance also is referred to as in-role job performance); and perceived relatedness and job performance Besides, some other variables of personal respondents are also tested to find any relationship to the job performance or as the influence on intrinsic motivation and job performance

From the result of the study, we can understand the importance of employee intrinsic motivation and its affect to the job performance of the employee

For theory, it contributes to academic knowledge about motivation and job performance and the relationship between them It introduces another research

model of theory It will create more stipulation for further study for deeper understanding about this field

For management, the study gives more empirical evidence for managers to understand and apply to their managerial practices In order to achieve the highest employee job performance, the leaders must understand and know how to motivate intrinsically all people to exert their best ability for the highest result By understanding the motivation theory, we can mobilize the right motivators to drive the people to the utmost effort and performance

This study will also help test the hypotheses and give some specific findings in the Viet Nam context

1.4 Delimitations (related theories/concepts/sectors)

There are many theories related to the field of motivation and were researched by a number of empirical studies all over the world, from demand theory of Maslow, two factors theory of Henzberg, expectancy theory of Vroom to investment theory and cognitive evaluation theory However, in this study, I choose and focus on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan (2000) and Deci et al (1989) that concentrate on the three innate psychological needs of natural human being They are need for competence, need for autonomy and need for relatedness These are psychological needs of people and when satisfied, people will get more motivated intrinsically The influence of age, experience, education of people on intrinsic motivation is also considered demographically

The study is limited to the employees who are working in Ho Chi Minh City and the samples are based on non-statistical and convenient sampling basic SPSS 18.0 and Amos 18.0 softwares will be used to analyze the data and the outputs are discussed

1.5 Outline of the study

Chapter 1: Introduction

Generally mention about the background and statement of problem, purpose of the study and its significance, the assumptions and research model, limitation of the study and structure of the paper

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Summarize the theories of motivation, model of job motivation, nature of motivation Go deeply into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, especially the Self-Determination Theory by Deci and Ryan with three components: competence, autonomy and relatedness From this review, a framework of research will be formulated with hypotheses

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter will discuss the method and how to carry out the research Mention about the measurements, questionnaire adjustments and variables testing including sampling method

Chapter 4: Data Analysis

Describe the data and analyze the characteristics of the data Discuss the correlations and regression assumptions Test hypotheses

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Discuss and suggest further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 1 has introduced generally about the thesis In the chapter 2, I shall introduce the concerned concepts of job performance and intrinsic motivation and its relationship Especially, Self – Determination Theory will be discussed Upon that, the hypotheses and research model will be built for this study

2.1 Job performance

Job performance is the key indicator to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization (Wall et al., 2004) Job performance of an employee is measured by his ability and motivation Ability refers to the knowledge, skill, competence of an individual to fulfill the specific job However, that person will not accomplish fully the job if he has not received adequate support or expected motivation Self expectation and desire to do the job is also very important Sometimes, the motivation is the key factor for an employee to complete and achieve high work outcome Motivation creates the desire to do the work and the suitable context helps the work done successfully Therefore, the overall motivation is the indicator of levels of employee job performance

2.2 Two measures of Job Performance

Most people often think of job performance as the financial figures such as sales revenue, high salary or income, productivity or profitability However, job performance is more than these references It can be the combination of task related activities and organizational behaviors (Motowidlo, 2003) Actually, job performance including specific figures and relative aspects may be considered as overall organizational job performance (Wall et al., 2004) In reality, job analysis includes work behaviors and other aspects such as knowledge, skills, education required of the job specification

Schmit and Chan in Motowidlo (2003) classify the job performance as “will-do” and “can-do” types Will-do relates to the personal’s KSAOs specified to perform specific job Can-do relates to the motivation that an employee may have in

carrying out their work In a similar way, Motowidlo and Van Scotter (1994) suggest that job performance should consist of task related activities and organizational context behavior Two aspects are structured by different factors Job related activities determine task performance and personal characteristics determine organizational behaviors or conceptualized as organizational citizenship behaviors

In general, there have been many researches on activities related to task and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) concluding that they have influence and relationship independently on job performance (Christensen and Whiting, 2009) Most results find the equivalent affect that task and OCB have to explain the variance of job performance assessment Managers can use task and OCB with the similar importance in evaluating the job performance of employee In another research by Wright (2004), after controlling the effect of intrinsic motivation, the result concludes that extrinsic job motivation does not found much related to the employee job performance And in some other researches, OCB have strong influence and effect on job performance

2.3 Motivation

Despite a large body of research in the field of psychology, work motivation is a difficult and wide area to study or conceptualize (Rainey, 1993) There are many theoretical frameworks defining the concept of motivation Each theory inherits and develops from the previous concepts and generalizes additional items However, no one theory can be comprehensive and explainable for all contexts, especially when the changing and complex working conditions were emerging over the recent decades (Wright, 2004)

In his book, Muchinsky (1996) states that motivation is referred to as the expectation of individual to illustrate the behavior and reflect willingness to express the effort Similarly, Robin and Coulter and Coulter (1998) define motivation is

“the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs.” (cited in

Mundhra and Jacob, 2011) Motivation can be considered as the quantity, quality and direction of employee’s behaviors in his/her working situations

2.4 General Self – Determination Theory

Most up-to-date theories of motivation presume that people take activities in believing that the behaviors will entail some expected goals or results (Deci and Ryan, 2000) According to Self-Determination theory (SDT), a person is interested

in the goals of the behaviors and what stipulates this behaviors The theory employs

an organismic perspective that human is active agent to their social and inanimate environments (Grolnick et al., 1997) SDT is based essentially on the three assumptions The first assumption is that people have the natural tendency to integrate Integrating relates to the attention of interconnections the aspects of one own world, other individuals or groups into one’s social world Ryan and Deci (2002) state that “all individuals have the natural, innate and constructive tendencies

to develop even more elaborated and unified sense of self.”

The second assumption is that the fact of social context may foster and enable the integration tendency or may frustrate or hinder the process of desirable integration

As stated by Ryan and Deci (2002), “SDT posits that there are clear and specifiable social-contextual factors that support this innate tendency, and that there are other specifiable factors that thwart or hinder this fundamental process of human nature.” Differently spoken, there are the relationships between an active organism and an environmental context That environment acts and has affects on individual and in reverse, individual changes or modifies the surrounding factors Within SDT, this is called organismic dialectic

The third assumption is that the human being has three psychologically fundamental needs: the need for autonomy or self-determination, competence or effectance and relatedness or affiliation According to SDT, three basic needs help categorize the social-contextual factors to be supportive or antagonistic to the integrating process (Deci and Ryan, 2000) Within SDT, autonomy is defined as being the admitted origin or source of one own behavior It brings the meaning of self-initiating and

self-regulating of one own ideas Competence is defined as the feeling of mastery or effective in one’s ongoing interactions with the social environment and experience

of fulfillment of one’s ability It involves understanding how to achieve the outcome and being efficacious in undertaking the actions And the relatedness refers to the feeling related to the others, to caring for and being cared for by the others Relatedness also includes the desire of belongingness both with other individuals and with one’s community It has the meaning of developing secure satisfying connections with others in the social context (Deci et al., 1991) Motivation, performance and development will be supported in the contexts that can create the opportunity to satisfy their basic psychological needs It contributes to the being motivation and self-determination rather than amotivation and control

One important approach to theory of motivation is to study the difference of two broad types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (Deci and Ryan, 1985)

A person is intrinsically motivated if he is doing an activity because of its inherently interesting or enjoyable If a person is doing an activity because of its separate outcome, he is extrinsically motivated (Ryan and Deci, 2000) Self-determination separates the intentional regulation into two different types: one is self-determined state and the other is controlled state Self-determined people engage in an action with wholly volition and their own sense Controlled people engage in an action with feeling of pressure by some interpersonal or external force

2.5 Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to engagement in an activity that is instrumental to some different outcomes (Grolnick et al., 1997) Cited in Valas and Sovik (1994), Ryan, Connel and Grolnick defined extrinsic motivation as “pertains to activity that is more directly instrumental and adaptational, based on people’s needs to respond to socially prescribed demands, limits and patterns of behaviors.” Extrinsic motivation concerns behaviors which will bring some external rewards, avoid some threats, gain some recognition by the others or to conform to some extant values When extrinsically motivated, people behave in order to achieve some purposes different from merely enjoy in activity itself According to agency theory, people are

motivated by extrinsic stipulation and most employees act on their self interested and take part in activities that help potentially increase their extrinsic benefits For example, generally, money is an important factor of motivation They will pay attention to the works that brings opportunities to increase their income Most of things are concerned of the compensation or pay system As Gupta and Mitra (1998), (cited in Kluvers and Tippet, 2009) found from their meta-analysis study that financial rewards have a strong relationship with performance

Notwithstanding, it is uncertain to have the same conclusion regarding the quality of its performance There are many other researches finding the contradict conclusion

In the theory of Herzberg, money is classified as “hygiene factor” and cannot be a source of motivation Ryan and Deci (2000) confirm that fun and challenge have greater influence on motivation of people than external pressure or rewards have Kluvers and Tippet (2009) asserted in their paper that researches of Gaertner and Gaertner (1985), Dowling and Richardson (1997), Redman et al (2000) and O’Donnell and Shields (2002) confirmed that if we base only on extrinsic rewards,

it is not enough to have motivation for employee to do their best

Performance appraisal policy that focuses on the development needs had potential

to increase the performance Employee motivation also involves intrinsic rewards such as pride of doing good jobs and feelings of doing something meaningful Many people can do their works despite relatively low pay if they consider the tasks to be worthwhile Berry, Broadbent and Otley (1995) mentioned in Kluvers and Tippet (2009) that employees in the caring services tend to evaluate the remunerative rewards less important than normative rewards These authors quoted the conclusion from Osterlor and Frey study that intrinsic reward could be crowded out

by extrinsic reward However, Frey (1997) (cited in Kluver and Tippet, 2009) also clearly stated that when the pay is above the subsistence level, people concern for the meaning of works that means the intrinsic motivation becomes important

There are different types of extrinsic motivation in the extent to which they represent self-determined and controlled responding In the recent researches of education, there are four levels of extrinsic motivation that are external regulation,

introjected regulation, identified regulation and integrated regulation (Ryan & Deci,

1985, 2002) Ryan, Connell and Deci stated that there is the movement from the extrinsic control to self regulation through the internalization process in which the regulation is transformed by the external events into internal events And this process is considered as the internalization process in the theory of self-determination

On the concept of self-determination, Hayamizu (1993) assumes that there is no clear distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and the change from external motivation to internal motivation can be happened continuously It is not dichotomous but continuous (Hayamizu, 1995) (cited in Matsuzaki, 2005)

Gaertner and Gaertner have concluded that external rewards accompanied with training or supportive feedbacks could assist the individuals to improve the performance than extrinsic factors alone

Table 2.1: Types of extrinsically motivated behavior

Types Degree of

Self-Determination

Description

external contingencies or awards Introjected Moderately low Behaviors controlled or demanded by

contingencies inside the person Identified Moderately high Behaviors identified with the

importance or value of the actions

autonomous or integrated by one’s self

2.6 Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation reflects the internal tendency of human being eagerly to take an action that are new and interesting As defined by Ryan, Connel and Crolnick, intrinsic motivation is an “innate, rather than derivative, propensity to explore and master one’s internal and external world It is manifested as curiosity and interest, which motivate task engagement even in the absence of outside reinforcement and support.” (page 170, quoted in Valas and Sovik, 1994)

From birth onward, humans, in their healthiest states, are active, inquisitive,curious, and playful creatures, displaying a ubiquitous readiness to learn and explore, and they do not require extraneous incentives to do so This natural motivational tendency is a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical development because it is through acting on one’s inherent interests that one grows

in knowledge and skills development (Ryan & Deci, 2000)

Intrinsic motivation is a desirable state of employee The locus of causality of an intrinsically motivated employee is not external to his inner desire He will work hard because he wants to, not because he is being pressed to When an employee is offered a reward for carrying out a specific task, that employee will perform the task for the reward, possibly not because of the native interest

Payment for achieving a standard is considered as a contingent reward Contingent rewards are physical rewards offered for fulfilling a specific task or achieving a clearly stated goal When contingent rewards are offered repeatedly, the employee will think of the reward and they do their tasks in order to have the rewards as the main reason for their fulfillment That change over the time is a shift in the locus of causality Non-contingent rewards should be offered to employees Research of Deci shows that verbal praise often has greater positive effect compared to contingent reward And intrinsic motivation will be increased if praise is offered in

an autonomy supporting environment

As SDT mention, when satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness is to be ensured, the active engagement or intrinsically motivated behaviors are to be maintained Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for separable outcomes (Ryan and Deci, 2000)

people need to experience a sense of choice to maintain high intrinsic motivation Similarly, together with competence and relatedness, SDT developed by Adward Deci and Richard Ryan, autonomy constitutes the natural needs of motivational basic of human nature They confirms that the factors that enhance one’s feeling of autonomy will facilitate intrinsic motivation The theory states that autonomy is defined as a psychological need that it must be nurtured properly If not, the human development and functioning will be thwarted (Deci and Ryan, 2000) The authors also stress that autonomy is not an illusion but a phenomenon firmly evidenced by philosophical and empirical investigations and it is the very nature of human existence

Another comment on autonomy in other researches (referred more in Chirkov et al 2003) states that “modern understanding of autonomy as a psychological state which includes intention to act, originated from one’s self…” and the author continues to note “if a choice is autonomous, then the self is responsible for his actions and it regulates a person’s self-determined actions…” Finally, the research concludes “in order to be fully humans we need to be autonomous in our actions.”

Autonomy is universal: Some researches tried to answer the question whether the

autonomy, as a person basic need, is pervasive and valid across the cultures or the nations SDT confirms that autonomy is the natural and universal tendency of human beings to express their behaviors willingly and to fully support the actions in which they are engaged (Ryan, 1995) Regardless of the culture in which people have been socialized, they need to fulfill this ownership of their behaviors in order

to be healthy Although different cultures may value autonomy and differentiate its manifestations, but the functional roles of autonomy is universal Levels of autonomy support in different countries may vary, the more people experience autonomy support, the better their psychological health is (Ryan and Deci, 2000) Shirkov also cites the findings of Sheldon (1998) and his colleagues that the pursuit for autonomous personal goals is relatively high compared to non autonomous personal goals across countries And the autonomous regulation on personal strivings was predictive indicator of personal well-being both within and across

group samples These results were consistent with the suggestion based on the SDT propositions Autonomy is concerned to all people in different countries regardless

of their cultural membership and the specific nature of their behaviors and goals

Autonomy support is universally beneficial: According to SDT, if autonomy is

universal tendency involved in actions that originates from one’s own, then autonomy support for that social environment (work settings) should also be universally beneficial for people’s well being and optimal functioning In one writing, Shirkov mentions that he and his colleagues have carried out some researches about the role of autonomy support in countries Brazil and Rusia versus Canada and United States One extreme is known as relatively authoritarian and controlling and the other extreme is known as relatively liberal and egalitarian Despite the different levels of autonomy support, the functional role of this support

is similar in all countries (refer more in Chirkov et al., 2001; Chirkov et al., 2005)

By studying the data survey of white-collar workers in companies from the Bulgaria and United States, Deci and his colleagues (2000) discovered that the superior’s autonomy supportiveness predicts the psychological need satisfaction and in turn this need satisfaction predicts the work engagement and well-being

And several researches conducted in Taiwanese and Pakistan come to the same conclusion that an autonomy supportive environment is an important condition for people to develop their work career or personal characteristics (as mentioned in Shirkov) Grolnick and Ryan (1989) as referred to the paper of Deci et al (1994) showed that autonomy support factor has the important significance of the process

of self determination They surveyed the parenting styles, including the autonomy dimension on children and found that the positive relationship was confirmed between autonomy support and self-determined forms of regulation both in the academic domain and school performance

Autonomy, if considered as one’s underlying motivation of their actions, is relatively universal that can create benefits to various aspects of human being across different countries and cultures Autonomy support includes the acknowledgment of

one’ point of view and emotions, providing options, concerning for others’ feeling, supporting a person’s opinion and idea, giving positive feedback in an informative instead of controlling channel Autonomy may be considered differently in various societies but the functional expectation is universal The more people perceive the support for their basic needs, the better their well-being is and the better their functioning will be

2.7.2 Competence

It is the need of a person to be effective in the social environment It reflects the desire to prove one’s ability and skills People always want to look for continuously any optimal chances and conditions with strong challenge to express their competence (Reeve and Sickenius, 1994) White (1963) argued that the feeling of competence is a basic organismic demand that underlies self-esteem and self-confidence (cited in Sheldon et al., 1996) This psychological need is source of a variety of directed, selective and prolonged behaviors that results in mastery of activity (Grolnick et al., 1997) Therefore, the experience of competence can be supported as one kind of intrinsic satisfaction that people can freely pursue and promote

There are studies related to the searching for the relationship of contextual conditions and intrinsic motivation in which they focus on the experience of competence For being intrinsically motivated, the activities must provide the optimal challenges and interesting stimulation for the people It must be relatively discrepant from one’s skill capability (Deci, 1975; Csikszentmyhalyi, 1975, cited in Deci et al., 1996) If the task is too simple, it will tend to be boring If it is too difficult, it will tend to create the pressure and over capability Study of Danner and Lonky (1981) confirmed that students tend to select the tasks slightly higher their competencies, as examined by a pre-test (referred to in Deci et al., 1996)

Positive feedbacks were found to support intrinsic motivation through highly perceived competence For example, Deci (1971) carried out a laboratory experiment to indicate that when student were reported to fulfill well their puzzle-

solving tasks, they expressed better subsequent fulfillment of their activity compared to students who did not receive the positive feedbacks

Some theorists have suggested the proposals that the feeling and experience of competence in interacting to the environment are impotent factors for promoting intrinsic motivation, internal interest, behavior change and self-regulation (Bandura,

1977 as cited in Deci et al 1996) And in contrast, negative feedbacks give pressure and bad outcome for the people through less perceived competence and decreasing motivation Studies suggest that it does tend to have detrimental to intrinsic motivation

2.7.3 Relatedness

It is the need of a person to create the bonds and relationship with people it reflects the desire to be emotionally connected or interpersonally attached in social activities (Reeve and Sickenius, 1994)

A study in 1958, Harlow confirmed that individual needs love and interpersonal contact to grow optimally And a numbers of research on attachment demand have concluded that people need the experience the sense of interpersonal security or psychological closeness in their social relationships (Deci et al., 1996) Intrinsic motivation only appears when there is the underlying support of relatedness with others A “secure base” (term used in Bowlby, 1979) or sense of relatedness (term used in Ryan et al., 1995) is necessary environmental condition for all humans to freely expressing their exploratory spirits and activities

The specification of innate psychological needs suggests a basis for making predictions about what social-contextual conditions will enhance versus diminish the healthy learning and development processes of human being

2.8 Influential factor of social contexts

A lot of researches have been carried out to examine how the socially contextual factor has influence on people’s intrinsic motivation and self-determination and as a result on their performance The main concept of self-determination theory is that contextual environments as support to human needs – autonomy, competence and

relatedness- will ensue motivated actions Firstly, support for autonomy will facilitate self-determined state This support is very important and closely relates to the effectiveness of competence and relatedness support Secondly, support for competence will enhance intrinsic motivation Vallerand and Reid (1984, 1988) mentioned in Deci et al (1991) confirmed that positive feedback helps generally create the intrinsic motivation because of higher perceived competence And negative feedback usually finds decreasing the intrinsic motivation because of lower perceived competence as found in research of Deci, Cascio and Krusel (1973) (cited

in Deci et al., 1991) Thirdly, the social support for relatedness will help create more internal recognition Studies of Grolnick and Ryan (1989) showed that the close relationships between teacher and student or parents and children help increase motivated actions and self-determined feeling In the social contexts that

do not allow the satisfaction of these three basic psychological needs, they will hamper or diminish motivation It could constrain the natural developmental process and lead to poor performance or alienation (Deci et al., 1991)

Previous studies of Zurkerman, Porac, Lathin and Deci (1978) as referred to in Deci

et al (1991) found that when giving the free choice about what tasks to engage and how much time to distribute to finish each task, people tend to be more intrinsically motivated compared to people who are nominated or assigned to do Acknowledging the feelings of people also help them more self-determined about what they are doing Giving the opportunity to take part into the decision process also helps produce beneficial and enhanced outcomes through more self-determination or autonomy support Deci and Ryan (1985) suggested that factors such as rewards, deadlines, threats, surveillance, and evaluations as well as demanding and pressuring words tend to be experienced as controlling and thus to

be detrimental to intrinsic motivation The second particular aspect of intrinsic motivation is optimal challenge (Deci, 1975) Harter (1974) (cited in Grolnick et al., 1997) studied that when the task is a little high difficult relatively to student’s ability, they are more interested and focused and it motivates them to strive for mastery Fisher (1978) studied the positive competence feedback enhances intrinsic

motivation The third aspect is relational support Frodi, Bridges and Grolnick (1985) found that secure connection did relate to mastery motivation There is evidence that intrinsic motivation is more likely to flourish if individuals have the security of relational support

Factors in the surrounding environment that support autonomy, competence and relatedness can conduce toward integrative influence Domains and situations in which people find their basic psychological needs supported will be those in which integrative processes will be most experienced And in which, people will tend to experience the greatest well-being and satisfaction

2.9 Motivation and Job Performance

Job performance has become one of the significant indicators in evaluating the organizational performance (Wall et al., 2004) Motivation and job performance have close influence each other The paper of Motowidlo (2003) confirmed that task performance involves psychological process including motivation process Employees’ job performance can be measured through the combination of expected behaviors and task-related aspects (Motowidlo, 2003) Job performance can be divided into two levels: “can-do” and “will-do” Can-do refers to the level of motivation that the employee may have in performing their work and the will-do depends on the personality of employee (Schmitt and Chan in Motowidlo, 2003) Interpersonal effectiveness (relatedness in SDT) is also considered part of tasks performance (Gormez, Mejia et al., 2007)

Several researchers separate extra role and in-role behaviors (Brief and Motowidlo, 1986; George, 1991; O’Reilly III and Chatman, 1986, Werner, 1994) Extra role performance refers to activities performed by the employees that are outside the boundaries of formal job descriptions and are under their own discretion (Wiliam and Anderson, 1991)

In-role job performance mentions about the activities that are related to the formal job requirements of employees (Borman & Motowidlo, 1997) Brown (1996) stated that generally, higher employee’s motivation and effort lead to higher levels of in-

role job performance Taris (2003) in his research refers to in-role job performance that officially required outcomes and behaviors that directly serve the goals of the organization or in others words, the formally prescribed job responsibilities (Turnley, Bolino, Lester and Bloodgood, 2003) Moreover, Krazmien and Berger (1997) added, an ongoing managerial process helps managers develop job competence of subordinates and improve their job performance by using the underlying coaching behaviors (Krazmien & Berger, 1997) Research by Boerner, Eisseinbeiss and Griesser (2007) showed that supervisors through coaching motivate subordinates by providing challenge in their jobs which then increases their job performance Furthermore, there is positive and significant relation between coaching behavior and performance (Ellinger, 2003; Liu and Batt, 2010) Psychological motivation has the positive and direct effect on performance Another idea is that positive feedback (related to the perceived competence factor) has significantly positive effect on in-role job performance (Chakrabarty, Oubre and Brown, 2008) From these conclusions, we can understand and confirm that the motivated behaviors lead to better in-role job performance And in-role job performance is chosen and given more importance and measured to find overall motivation

2.10 Research Model and Hypotheses

Barrow (1976) and Lowin and Craig (1968) (cited in the research of Pelletier and Vallerand) found that when supervisors are more supportive and kind then subordinates are recognized more productive And when superiors are more controlling or based on punishment to motivate then subordinates are recognized as unproductive

In this study, three components of intrinsic motivation are investigated in the relationship with in-role job performance of the employee They are perceived competence, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness Competence is the psychological need to be effective as one interacts with the working condition (Deci

& Ryan, 1985)

When people feel more perceived competence then it will enhance the intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000) It concerns succeeding at optimally challenging tasks and being able to achieve the desired result They wonder to experience the mastery attainment and social growth People feel more interest and enjoyment that leads to higher performance Level of employee job performance has significant relationship with perceived competence

This drives us to the hypothesis (H1): Perceived competence has potentially

positive relationship with in-role job performance

Autonomy is a psychological need concerns experiencing choice and feeling like initiator of one’s own action (Mundhra & Jacob, 2011) As mentioned by Ryan (1993), at a phenomenological level, autonomy is reflected in the experience of integrity, volition and vitality that accompanies self-regulated action (Ryan, 1993) Autonomy is a physical need to experience self-direction in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior As Maturana and Marela (1992) pointed out, the more autonomous an individual’s action, the more the individual has processed in unfettered manner in relation to environmental affordances When autonomous, individual’s actions are self-organized with respect to the inner and outer circumstances Human will act effectively in changing context Higher job autonomy leads to increased productivity And most researchers found and confirmed this relationship (Weber, 1991; Yammrino and Dubinsky, 1990) And in the result of the research of Strain (1999) showed that perceived autonomy is positively related to supervisor evaluation of performance Strain (1999)

This drives to the hypothesis (H2): Perceived autonomy has potentially positive

relationship with in-role job performance

Relatedness is the need to establish close emotional bonds and attachments with other people or involve the need for warm relationship (Baumeister & Leary) Mundhra and Jacob (2011) reported that relatedness concerns establishing a sense

of mutual respect and reliance with others (Mundhra & Jacob, 2011) Relatedness is the tendency to cohere with one’s group, to feel connection and caring, to

internalize group’s need and value in order to coordinate with others (Deci and Ryan, 2000) According to Munhra and Jacob (2011), relatedness has strongest influence on performance comparing to autonomy and competence based on the samples in manufacturing sector

This drives to the hypothesis (H3): Perceived relatedness has potentially positive

relationship with in-role job performance

Figure 2.1: The research model of the study

Summary: this chapter has discussed the importance of motivation effecting to the job performance of employee in a company It also discussed the definition of intrinsic motivation and in-role job performance and its relationship Some studies have been referred to help understand the proven benefit of motivation support In this study, I chose the intrinsic motivation of self-deternimation theory proposed by Deci and Ryan (2000) as the research model The model will study the relationship

of autonomy, competence and relatedness as three main intrinsic needs and in-role job performance of employee In the next chapter, I shall discuss about the methodology conducting the research

H1+

H2+

H3+

Perceived Autonomy

Perceived Competence

Perceived Relatedness

In-role Job Performance

SDT

IM

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Chapter 3 will present the method used to carry out the research through the steps such as research design, questionnaire conversion, measurement adjustment, sampling method, preliminary measurement evaluation, data collection and methods

of data analysis

3.1 Research design

The research is designed to carry out in two stages: pilot study stage and main study stage Since this study is replicated from a foreign theorized model (self-determination theory) as mentioned in the chapter two about the literature, however,

it needs to undertake the pilot test process to adjust contextually the measurement

In the pilot stage, discussion with the instructor and focus group of people who can give comments and ideas about the questionnaire (number of items, translation and wording modification) and model estimation will take place After that, a pilot interview is proceeded and a quick investigation by softwares (SPSS 18.0, AMOS 18.0) is run to test some indicators (Cronbach’s Alpha, Kurtosis and Skewness) This stage aims to examine the questionnaire understanding, the internal consistency and reliability of the scale, response rate and quality of the answered questionnaires The final version of questionnaire is attached in the appendix

In the main stage, after some adjustments about the questionnaire, I shall conduct the survey using both online questionnaire method (docs.google.com) and paper questionnaire method The online questionnaire are created and sent (internet link)

to a number of email addresses The paper questionnaires are composed and printed and administered directly to the target respondents The two methods give some differently interesting experience The purpose of this stage is to confirm the measurement scales, to test the hypotheses, and to assess the model in the current context

Figure 3.1: Research process

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The relationship of Intrinsic Motivation and

In-role Job Performance Personal groups analysis

LITERATURE REVIEW

Self Determination Theory Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Hypothese and Research Model

DISCUSSION AND PILOT STUDY

Stage 1: Discussion and Questionnaire Conversion Stage 2: Pilot test (50 samples) and Adjustment

MAIN STUDY

- 239 clean samples collection

- Data Coding and Inputting into computer

- Scale Reliability test (Spss 18.0)

- Model test using CFA (Amos 18.0)

- T-Test and Anova Analysis

- Multiple Regression

REPORT

Report writing with discussion

3.2 Measurement development

3.2.1 Questions of questionnaire

The questionnaire in this study is including two parts The first part is the questions about the three psychological constructs as three independent variables: perceived autonomy (7 items), perceived competence (5 items) and perceived relatedness (3 items) and one dependent variable: perceived in-role job performance (5 items) The second part is the questions related to demographic and background information of respondents such as gender, education, position, experience A short introduction and instruction were given at the beginning of questionnaire to help the interviewee understand about the study and how to answer the questions All questions are designed to use Likert type scales with seven levels on which level 1 represents the

“strongly disagree” and level 7 represents “strongly agree” All questionnaire were administered and based on self-reported response (self-perceived) method

The questionnaire is based on the General Causality Orientation Scale used by Deci and Ryan (1985), Intrinsic Motivation Inventory used by Deci et al (1994) and Perceived Autonomy Support: The Climate Questionnaire used by Baard et al (2004) (Mundhra and Jacob, 2011)

3.2.2 Questionnaire Back Translation

Since the original questionnaire is in foreign language (English) and the study will

be conducted in Viet Nam situation, I need to translate it into Vietnamese for respondents to understand and answer Despite the translation process complied with Back Translation procedure (refer more in Harkness and Schoua-Glusberg, 1998), there were some difficulties to overcome We have to study carefully the intention of the question to have the right understanding of each item Sometime,

we have to refer to the literature for a clear and correct meaning We also looked at the dictionary (Oxford referred) to find the most suitable meaning We know that the items of the same construct investigate the similar aspects of construct The different words must be explained in a similar meaning (content validity) If it were explained uncarefully, the item could not be measurable to the target dimension or

could be misinterpreted into other different dimensions We discussed the meaning

of the sentence until to have a clear understanding and group consensus We tried to find the best way with expectation that the interviewee will not read the too lengthy and complex sentences If the questions are too long with many words, it is possible

to cause bored for the reader They will probably not read the whole sentence and obviously affect badly the result (unreal answer or misunderstanding) We also re-arranged the questions in adjacent items for the same construct It will help the answers more consistent

According to Harkness and Schoua Glusberg (1998), the back translation process requires the following procedure: the original questionnaire will be translated into the target language by a group of people Then, the two separate translators will translate independently this new version back to the original language The discussion of similarity or difference will be hold to conclude the final most appropriate translation in target language However, it is not easy to have the consensus about the final wording People can have many understandings and conceptually different aspects Dios and Perez (2007) in their writing have given some guidelines very valuable in order to have an appropriate and reliable instrument translation

3.2.3 Autonomy measurement

Autonomy is first one of three psychological needs to measure the intrinsic motivation This measurement refers to the experience of choice and feeling of self initiator of an action This dimension of perceived autonomy support is adapted from General Causality Orientation Scale used by Deci and Ryan (1985) and The Climate Questionnaire used by Baard et al (2004) Interviewees were asked to response the 7 questions to evaluate the levels of autonomy support

Table 3.1: Autonomy scale

Table 3.2: Competence scale

3.2.5 Relatedness measurement

Relatedness is the third dimension of three psychological needs to measure the intrinsic motivation This measurement refers to the sense of connection and mutual respect/reliance with others This dimension of perceived relatedness is adapted from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory used by Deci et al (1994) Interviewees were asked to complete 3 items as below questions

Table 3.3: Relatedness scale

3.2.6 In-role Job Performance measurement

Performance of an employee is evaluated based on his/her ability and motivation There are two general approaches of employee performance in appraisal: in-role and extra-role In this study, the author focuses on in-role approach to measure the job performance and consider the relationship with the intrinsic motivation support This dimension is measured by asking and answering 5 questions related to full recognition at work, adequate reward, prompt feedbacks and opportunities for self-development (Mundhra and Jacob, 2011)

Table 3.4: Performance scale

rewards

3.2.7 Demographic variables

Demographic information of respondents about age, gender, experience, income were used to group and evaluate the difference between groups on effect of performance as overall motivation Accordingly, there are some groups based on the categories as following table

Table 3.5: Demographic variables

Post Graduate Graduate Others

City Experience Discrete

Low Medium High

Low Medium High

Private State-owned Foreign joint-venture

3.3 Pilot Study

Pilot study is very important for every research, especially for research replicated in different context (language, target population, target sample, culture, method, purpose) There are many adjustments during the pilot stage This step is to ensure that the methodology of carrying out the study is suitable and reliable to current context (Cooper and Schindler, 2003) The purpose of the research can be achieved

as expected

The group discussions were taken to study more about the questionnaire In the original version, the scale is 5-point Likert, however, in the Vietnamese version, the author added two points to have the 7-point Likert scale It created more options for the respondent to response reflecting more accurate their feeling at working environment The questions were also arranged in groups according to their dimensions (Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, Performance) The feedbacks received mostly concern the meaning of words and sentences We tried to find the suitable Vietnamese in order the respondent, in a short time, to understand and give