Motivation and Environment
Social Psychology has long studied the social influences on
motivation. In the context of creativity research, this has also
proved to be a valuable entry point. What is the relationship
between creativity, motivation, and the environment?
To be motivated, means to be moved to do something.
Unless we are moved to do something, it is unlikely we will
be creative in doing that task. Motivation can therefore be
thought of as a person’s attitude toward a task, which ranges
from being highly motivated and therefore wanting to move
towards a task, to being highly unmotivated to do it, and
wanting to move away from it, presumably as fast as possible.
Research indicates that intrinsic motivation is a key factor in
creativity. Intrinsic means ‘from within.’ Intrinsic motivation
literally means that we are moved from within to do something.
The intrinsically motivating factors can include fascination
for the subject, enjoyment while performing the task, or a
feeling of accomplishment. Intrinsically motivated people
enjoy what they do, and they do so because they find the task
itself rewarding. The journey is the reward.
Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from external
sources rather than the pleasure of the task itself. Financial
incentives and social approval are examples of extrinsic motivation.
Extrinsically motivated people do the task because
there is an external reward attached to it. The task itself is not
what they enjoy; it is the reward (financial or otherwise) that
provides the appeal.
There is ample evidence to suggest that people are much
more creative when they are intrinsically motivated, rather
than when they are driven to perform by extrinsic motivation.
This finding makes intuitive sense: performing a task because it
provides personal enjoyment or a basic feeling of gratification
is a very different type of motivation than doing something
because of external pressures or extrinsic rewards, or ‘just to
make a buck.’ Yet, using rewards to manipulate or control
behavior, achieving an expected reward, meeting deadlines,
winning or competing, or managerial edicts are all frequently
used motivators.
A particularly interesting implication of this research of
course is that whether a job is intrinsically interesting to us or
not is on some level a personal choice. This choice as to how
we view a task or job reflects a subjective dimension of work.
We can choose to find our particular task boring, or we can
find something fascinating about it. Even dishwashing can
be interesting if performed with certain states of mind. It is
possible to focus not on the nature of the task itself (dishwashing
does not strike most people as an intrinsically
fascinating task), but on the nature of our awareness while
we perform a task. If we are not interested in a task, we tend
not to do such a good job. If our interest is in doing a good
job, and working at our peak regardless of the nature of the
task, we can actually ‘be moved’ by the task. It is also possible
to reframe the task at hand, from one that is desperately
boring to one that is potentially exciting – finding a new
way of performing the task, or finding something that we
can learn while we do the task.
Intrinsic motivation is diminished when external rewards
are used to make people perform. The presence of such extrinsic
factors alters peoples’ perceptions or reasons for engaging in
the task. Creativity will be inhibited if the perception is that a
task is being performed for the purposes of getting a reward,
rather than because of intrinsic interest in the task itself. This
does not mean that creativity requires the total absence of
rewards or recognition for good work, simply that external
reward should not be the main motivation.