Beyond the paycheck

: unraveling the influence of intangible rewards on employee motivation, with autonomy as a key moderator

Abstract

Employee retention poses a significant challenge for modern organizations, and understanding how to motivate employees to improve their performance is of critical importance in the current business environment. In this context, the strategic use of incentives becomes crucial to increase employee engagement. While traditional tangible rewards, such as salary and bonuses, have been widely utilized, their effectiveness may be limited by the inherent nature of pay as a form of compensation for work and the financial constraints of the organization. Consequently, firms should consider alternatives forms of incentives, such as intrinsic and extrinsic intangible rewards, which are emerging as viable alternatives to boost employee motivation and productivity. This paper investigates the differential impact of intrinsic and extrinsic intangible rewards on employee motivation, as well as the influence of employee autonomy on task performance in the presence of rewards. Through experimental research, it was observed that while intrinsic rewards did not have a statistically significant impact on motivation universally, they exhibited the tendency to motivate employees in certain situations. Moreover, the study revealed that employees were more satisfied when they received intrinsic intangible rewards over extrinsic intangible rewards, and that employees exhibited a preference for high autonomy at work when they received intrinsic intangible rewards, whereas they tended to prefer low autonomy at work when they received extrinsic intangible rewards.

Date of Award	26 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Niza Braga (Supervisor)