Employee motivation is a crucial concern for organisations seeking to enhance performance through better employee engagement. In this article, Chen and Kanfer present a framework to understand team motivation, highlighting the impact of individual and team motivations on performance and provide immediate implications and directions for future research.
Traditionally, employee motivation has been studied as an individual concept, focusing on personal drivers. However, it’s crucial to consider the team dynamics, organisation structure and job design which provide cues and consequences for motivation. Chen and Kanfer offer a perspective recognising that employee motivation is influenced by both, individual motivation within teams and the motivation of the teams themselves. Their multilevel framework for motivation, presents motivation as a function of the psychological state and goal processes involving goal choice, which is identifying goals and ways to achieve it, and goal striving, which is initiating and persisting through the task. Work motivation is also influenced by individual differences in cognition and perception of the task environment.
Globalisation, technological innovation and a global pandemic has introduced new forms of teams and ways of teaming, altering workplace dynamics, goal identification and psychosocial dynamics. These new workplace realities necessitate greater attention to motivational processes – both at individual and team level.
Chen and Kanfer highlight two major impacts. The boundaries of teams have become less defined and expanded beyond single team systems, adding to the complexities in the social dynamics of involved entities. Additionally, workplace design changes such as hybrid and remote workplaces have affected how employees construct and modify their work identity.
Globalisation has led to the evolution of newer and complex team forms such as multi-team systems which involves coordinated contributions from teams with different roles. These teams require interdependencies and interactions outside of their immediate teams, with goals aligned to a larger system. Multiple team memberships have also emerged where an individual may belong to several teams with different roles. An individual may have to take on different identities and workloads aligned to each team. While it provides an opportunity for learning and creating wider impact, boosting motivation, it could also mean increased psychological pressure. It is crucial for organisations and researchers to understand how individuals regulate and adapt their team identities and the impact of the psychosocial dynamics on motivation.
The COVID-19 pandemic normalised virtual teams and remote work routines. While employees benefit from the autonomy of designing their work routine, trust is a key factor in virtual team motivation. However, building trust can be challenging due to limited interactions and communication issues, affecting creation of team identities and shared purpose. Motivation in remote workplaces is also influenced by factors outside of work such as family conditions or social and environmental context.
AI technology has created the potential of humans collaborating with AI, either as a tool or as interactive agent to enable teamwork. This raises questions for organizations and leaders as to who can effectively work with AI and its role in enhancing performance. It also influences employee motivation as individuals may struggle with trusting AI tools and regulating efforts to effectively collaborate with AI to pursue goals.
Chen and Kanfer’s research examines how societal, cultural and technological changes affect team motivation. They suggest that team inputs often impact individual motivation more than individual inputs affect team motivation, emphasising team interdependencies. Organisations need to rethink employee motivation, recognise the impact of team motivation and adapt to evolving team structures. Leaders should also consider the impact of their leadership style on employee motivation, focusing on empowering individuals, designing collaborative channels and creating psychological safety. Furthermore, organisations can enhance performance by exploring motivation within modern team structures and incorporating new technologies.
