Startups vs empresas estabelecidas

: a autonomia e o excesso de trabalho na motivação dos trabalhadores

Abstract

The present study seeks to explore the relationship between employees’ intrinsic motivation and their perception of autonomy and work overload, as well as the moderating effect of different work contexts (i.e., startups and established companies), in this relationship.Autonomy and work overload influence employees’ motivation, therefore it is relevant to assess these job characteristics, particularly in startups where employees’ perceptions have not been thoroughly studied in published literature.Data was collected through an online questionnaire, obtaining a sample of 601 respondents – 353 working in startups and 248 in established companies. As expected, the results demonstrate that autonomy positively predicts intrinsic motivation, while work overload negatively predicts it. Although it was not possible to infer that startups increase the positive relationship between autonomy and intrinsic motivation, it was possible to conclude that startups reduce the negative relationship between work overload and intrinsic motivation.The limitations of this study and its implications for future investigations were also discussed.

Date of Award	14 Jul 2020
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filipa Sobral (Supervisor) & Catarina Morais (Co-Supervisor)