Support from managers and co-workers into different work contexts.

Recent studies have shown that not only managers can increase their subordinates’ work motivation by using an autonomy supportive leadership style; support from co-workers can even be more beneficial. Previous studies have not investigated if the impact of support is the same across different settings. In a vignette study, we manipulated the autonomy support (support vs. thwarting), the source (manager vs. co-worker) and the work context (office vs. restaurant). Participants were 383 (200 males; 178 females) U.S. workers who were recruited through the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT), an online contract labor portal. We found significant main effects for autonomy support and the work context but not for the source. More importantly, we found a significant three-way interaction, which indicated that informal contexts seem to invite a positive response to co-workers’ autonomy support whereas formal contexts seem to require managerial autonomy support to enhance intrinsic motivation

Flow on the rocks : motive-incentive congruence enhances flow in rock climbing

Flow is a state of optimal experience in which people get fully absorbed by a smoothly running activity that they pursue for the sake of it. Based on the classical approach to motivation, recent theoretical considerations suggest that incentives provided by the current activity that are congruent with one’s implicit motives will lead to flow. In a field experiment, we examined wall climbers’ achievement motive and compared their flow on four climbing routes with varying achievement incentive strengths. Only climbers with a high achievement motive experienced more flow after repeating an intra-individually skill exceeding route, which they had failed before. Performing better was a strong achievement incentive. The findings suggest that motive incentive congruence is another important precondition for flow

Wahrgenommene Leistungsanreize moderieren den positiven Einfluss von Leistungsmotiv-Kongruenz auf das Flow-Erleben beim Hallenklettern

Flow ist ein Zustand der Selbstvergessenheit und des völligen Aufgehens in einer Tätigkeit, welcher oft mit erhöhter Leistung und einem erhöhten Genuss des Tätigkeitsvollzugs einhergeht. Die Passung von Anforderungen und Fähigkeiten scheint eine wichtige, aber nicht ausreichende Vorbedingung des Flow-Erlebens zu sein. Diese Studie geht daher der Frage nach, inwieweit die Kongruenz des impliziten und expliziten Leistungsmotivs mit wahrgenommenen Leistungsanreizen des Kletterns das Flow-Erleben erklären kann. Wir haben das Flow-Erleben von Hallenkletternden während und direkt nach dem Klettern einer intra-individuell einfachen und einer intra-individuell herausfordernden Route untersucht. Es zeigte sich, dass Kletternde mehr Flow auf der herausfordernden als auf der einfachen Route erleben und dass dieser Zuwachs bei leistungsmotiv-kongruenten Kletternden größer war, wenn sie das Klettern als stark leistungsthematisch ansahen. Daher erscheint es wünschenswert, Sportlerinnen und Sportler motivational kompetenter zu machen, damit sie ihre impliziten und expliziten Motive mit den eigenen Tätigkeiten in Einklang bringen können

Whose autonomy support is more effective? Managers' or Co-Workers’? An experimental comparison of source and occupational context on intrinsic motivation

The purpose of this paper was to experimentally test whether support from different sources would lead to increased intrinsic work motivation and to examine whether occupational context moderated this effect. In Study 1, we manipulated autonomy support, source of behaviour, and occupational context. In Study 2, we allocated participants to a conventional or social work context depending on their real occupation to increase ecological validity. Altogether, 495 workers participated. We found a main effect for autonomy support, and that managers' autonomy support was more effective in a conventional occupational context, whereas co-workers’ autonomy support was more effective in the social occupational context. Findings highlight the importance of having both autonomy-supportive managers and co-workers for workers' intrinsic motivation

A self-determination theory approach to predicting school achievement over time: The unique role of intrinsic motivation

Although many studies have examined the relation of academic motivation to school achievement using the Self-Determination Theory perspective, the results have been inconsistent. The present investigation represents the first systematic attempt to use a meta-analysis and controlled, longitudinal studies to examine the relations of specific types of motivation to overall academic achievement. The meta-analysis (Study 1) pointed toward a potentially important role of intrinsic motivation in predicting school achievement. Three empirical studies of high school and college students in Canada (Studies 2 and 3) and in Sweden (Study 4) showed that intrinsic motivation was the only motivation type to be consistently positively associated with academic achievement over a one-year period, controlling for baseline achievement. Amotivation was significantly associated with lower academic achievement in Studies 3 and 4. Interestingly, intrinsic motivation was also associated with reduced amotivation in two of our studies and it was reciprocally associated with higher school achievement in another study. Overall, our findings highlight the unique importance of intrinsic motivation for the future academic success of high school and college students