Extrinsic and intrinsic incentives on motivation in the aviation industry

Abstract

Motivation is a major part of employee satisfaction and contentment which correlate to performance. Extrinsic motivation is driven by outside factors, financial rewards, punishments, or incentives. The motivation to perform a task is driven by the want to gain or avoid an outcome. Intrinsic incentives can be described as coming from within a person, it is natural interest, curiosity, and pursuit of happiness. Through psychology and motivation, organisations can utilise the knowledge to motivate their employees and offer incentives based on their motivational factors. The literature review covers the theoretical background of the thesis, introducing motivation, motivational theories, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and how research has built a foundation for incentive schemes for organisational use to motivate their employees. The thesis incorporates a quantitative research method by conducting a survey to Aviation Business Students in Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the survey is to attempt to discover what motivational factors, which were selected based on the literature review, the respondents consider motivating. About 20 intrinsic and extrinsic factors or incentives were listed, and the respondents had to rate those based on the 5-point Likert Scale. The primary research results from the survey are presented as graphs and tables, providing an average score for each motivational factor. Based on the basic information, relating to past job experience, age, and gender, the results are analysed, and any trends are identified. The data analysis summarises the results from the survey, discussed with references to the theoretical background. The results of the survey provided average scores for the extrinsic and intrinsic incentives. Looking at the extrinsic factors, financial incentives, such as high salary, airline travel perks, and long vacations were rated high on the one to five scale. Advanced technology and health care were also at the top of the list. Overall, intrinsic incentives were rated higher than extrinsic incentives. Trust, feeling of purpose, respect, and communication came at the top, scoring more than 4,40 on average. Differences between men and women and those with and without work experience in the aviation industry were identified. The research in the thesis brought up questions of accuracy on perception versus reality in work life. Future proposals discuss studying the effect of listed incentives in action and explore how they affect work, productivity, and contentment. The sample in the research was small compared to the size of the population, which indicates that generalisations cannot be made based on the survey results. Motivation is a complicated topic influenced by external and internal influences of personal values, experiences, culture, and personality.