What Drives Employees? A look at how Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery at work leads to increased motivation and employee engagement - Part 1 of 4

By Chris Atkinson, HR Consultant, Organizational Strategy, CPS HR Consulting  

There are a variety of different factors that motivate and engage employees. One of the hotly debated topics for decades has been whether extrinsic or intrinsic factors are more powerful in motivating employees.  One of the leading business thinkers in the realm of work motivation, Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, makes the case that using extrinsic motivators (such as money) is not the most effective way to motivate employees in today’s work environment. Rather, the key is to tap into employees’ internal reward system, their intrinsic motivators. He has identified three specific intrinsic motivating factors through his research that drive performance in today’s work environment: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

• Purpose: The desire to do something that has meaning and is important 
• Autonomy: The desire to be self-directed 
• Mastery: The urge to get better skills

You can hear more about these three factors in Pink’s TED talk , one of the top 25 most popular of all time.

The results of our national study examining employee engagement in the public sector support Pink’s theory. Our results show that one of the consistent key drivers of employee engagement across local, state, and the federal government was the “My Work” survey question category, which measures personal experiences related to the job. It is considered a key driver because from a statistical standpoint this category has some of the greatest influence on organizations’ overall engagement scores. In other words, this factor, if improved, will likely move the needle of engagement. 

Three of the questions in the “My Work” survey category include “I have a choice in deciding how I do my work”, “I am sufficiently challenged by my work”, and “The work I do is meaningful to me”. 

The motivational factors that Pink espouses tie very well to three of the questions in the “My Work” survey category.

• Purpose: “The work I do is meaningful to me”
• Autonomy: “I have a choice in deciding how I do my work”
• Mastery: “I am sufficiently challenged by my work”

Throughout this four-post series, we will be diving deeper into each of these three questions to explore what they mean and things organizations should consider doing to promote greater feelings of purpose, autonomy, and mastery in employees. Stay tuned for the next post where we will dive in deeper to the first motivational factor, purpose, measured by our survey question, “The work I do is meaningful to me”.