Introduction to special topic forum: The future of work motivation theory.

The topic of employee motivation plays a central role in the field of management—both practically and theoretically. Managers see motivation as an integral part of the performance equation at all levels, while organizational researchers see it as a fundamental building block in the development of useful theories of effective management practice. Indeed, the topic of motivation permeates many of the subfields that compose the study of management, including leadership, teams, performance management, managerial ethics, decision making, and organizational change. It is not surprising, therefore, that this topic has received so much attention over the past several decades in both research journals and management periodicals. Whereas several recent articles have examined how far we have come in researching work motivation, this special forum focuses on where we are going. That is, we ask the questions: What is the future of work motivation theories? What are the critical questions that must be addressed if progress in the field is to be made? What is the future research agenda? How can we extend or modify current models of work motivation so they continue to be relevant in the future? And where are entirely new models of motivation needed to further our understanding of employee behavior and job performance in contemporary organizations? To understand where the field is going, however, we must first understand where it has been. This introduction represents an overview of the field of work motivation from a theoretical standpoint and lays the foundation for the articles that follow. The term motivation derives from the Latin word for movement (movere.) Building on this concept, Atkinson defines motivation as “the contemporary (immediate) influence on direction, vigor, and persistence of action” (1964: 2), while Vroom defines it as “a process governing choice made by persons . . . among alternative forms of voluntary activity” (1964: 6). Campbell and Pritchard suggest that

[1]  Paul D. Sweeney,et al.  Workers' evaluations of the "ends" and the "means": An examination of four models of distributive and procedural justice. , 1993 .

[2]  Adams Js.  Towards an understanding of inequity , 1963 .

[3]  P. Earley,et al.  Face, Harmony, and Social Structure: An Analysis of Organizational Behavior Across Cultures , 1997 .

[4]  W. Mcdougall.  An introduction to social psychology , 1912 .

[5]  B. Skinner,et al.  Principles of Behavior , 1944 .

[6]  A. Bandura.  Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy.

[7]  E. Lawler,et al.  Behavior in Organizations , 1986 .

[8]  R. Kanfer.  Motivation theory and industrial and organizational psychology. , 1990 .

[9]  Lester C. Thurow,et al.  Head to Head: The Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe, and America , 1992 .

[10]  P. Cappelli.  The new deal at work , 1999 .

[11]  E. A. Locke.  Motivation through conscious goal setting , 1996 .

[12]  Richard M. Steers,et al.  Motivation and Work Behaviour , 1978 .

[13]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. , 1977, Psychological review.

[14]  C. Pinder,et al.  Work Motivation in Organizational Behavior , 1997 .

[15]  A. Maslow.  Motivation and Personality , 1954 .

[16]  D. Mcgregor.  The Human Side of Enterprise , 1960 .

[17]  R. Bhagat,et al.  Role of subjective culture in organizations: A review and directions for future research. , 1982 .

[18]  Lyman W. Porter,et al.  Managerial attitudes and performance , 1968 .

[19]  A. Bandura.  Social learning theory , 1977 .

[20]  Richard,et al.  Motivation through the Design of Work: Test of a Theory. , 1976 .

[21]  Robert C. Davis,et al.  The Achieving Society , 1962 .

[22]  Henry L. Tosi.  A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance , 1991 .

[23]  The equity context , 1976 .

[24]  D. Organ.  Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. , 1988 .

[25]  P. Christopher Earley,et al.  Time-dependency effects of Goals and norms : the role of cognitive processing on motivational models , 1991 .

[26]  Richard M. Steers,et al.  Organizational, work, and personal factors in employee turnover and absenteeism. , 1973 .

[27]  Lyman W. Porter,et al.  The role of task-goal attributes in employee performance. , 1974 .

[28]  Richard M. Steers,et al.  Major influences on employee attendance: A process model. , 1978 .

[29]  Carol T. Kulik,et al.  Old Friends, New Faces: Motivation Research in the 1990s , 1999 .

[30]  F. Herzberg,et al.  The motivation to work , 1960 .

[31]  Reinhard Bendix,et al.  Work and Authority in Industry , 2001 .

[32]  Joseph G. Rosse,et al.  Yours, Mine, and Ours: Facilitating Group Productivity through the Integration of Individual and Group Goals , 1995 .

[33]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[34]  F. J. Roethlisberger,et al.  Management and the Worker , 1941 .

[35]  V. Vroom.  Work and motivation , 1964 .

[36]  K. Lewin.  The conceptual representation and the measurement of psychological forces , 1939 .

[37]  E. A. Locke.  Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives , 1968 .

[38]  E. Mayo.  The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization , 1934, Nature.

[39]  B. Skinner,et al.  Science and human behavior , 1953 .

[40]  William H. Mobley,et al.  Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover. , 1977 .

[41]  John W. Atkinson,et al.  Introduction: Motivation , 1964 .

[42]  F. Herzberg.  Work and the nature of man , 1967 .