Search results

We present a framework for understanding the relationship between individual differences in leaders’ motivations and their engagement in leader development, and we empirically test that framework across three different operationalizations of engagement, demonstrating that the motivation to develop as a leader (MTDL) is distinct from other motivational constructs (specifically, motivation to lead and motivation to learn) and that MTDL differentially predicts engagement in leader development. Finally, we provide evidence that motivation and engagement mutually reinforce each other in a virtuous spiral during leader development.

Until recently, motivation has been considered to be an individual phenomenon. Motivational theorists have accordingly conceptualised key constructs in individualistic terms and emphasised the individual origins and nature of motivation, although they have also long recognised that contextual or social factors have a significant influence on these individual processes. Recently this conceptualisation has been questioned as theorists have suggested, after Vygotsky, that motivation, like learning and thinking, might be social in nature. This idea was first suggested by Sivan (1986) more than twenty years ago but it received a major impetus with the publication of an article by Hickey (1997) eleven years later. Since that time interest in the social nature of motivation has grown as a small number of book chapters and journal articles have been published and conference papers have been presented on the topic. Although some motivational theorists remain sceptical (e.g. Winne, 2004) of this theoretical development, the inclusion of a section on sociocultural approaches to motivation in Perry, Turner, and Meyer's (2006) chapter on classrooms as contexts for motivating learning in the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology suggests that this perspective is being seriously considered by motivational researchers. Similarly, the inclusion of a chapter (Walker, in press-b) on the sociocultural approach to motivation in the 3rd edition of the International Encyclopedia of Education indicates that this approach has achieved some recognition.

Workers have different motives to be employed at specialist contract work agencies, such as career development aspirations, or a desire for freedom and independence. The purpose of this paper is to study how these different motives relate to the appreciation of HR practices applied by agencies and consequently to employee retention at the agency.

Data were collected in a contract work agency for financial professionals. Management was interviewed about the HR practices used for employee retention. In addition, 291 agency employees filled out a questionnaire about their motives to be employed at the agency, their appreciation of the HR practices of the contract agency and their turnover intentions.

Regression analysis showed that career development motivation was related to retention at the agency, but that this relation became weaker when tenure with the agency increased. HR practices (like training, supervisory support, career development support, information sharing and employee participation) proved to be related to lower turnover intentions of flex workers with a career development motivation. For flex workers with a freedom motivation the HR practices had no relationship with retention.

Data collection in one agency may limit generalization. Additional research needs to zoom in on alternative HR retention practices that align with freedom motivation.

Specialist contract work agencies typically experience difficulties with employee retention. Agencies may retain their workers if they apply HR practices that are aligned with the motivation of people engaging in contract work.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how socio-technical factors inherent in organizational practices and knowledge management systems (KMS) lead to the emergence of autonomous motivation to use KMS and which in turn influences actual utilization and competency development as an impact of KMS utilization.

This research takes a quantitative approach to data collection on the constructs measuring socio-technical factors, autonomous motivation, KMS utilization and competency development. The survey consisted of 306 knowledge workers across different organizations in Malaysia with experience using KMS. The data collected were analysed using structural equation modelling approach with AMOS software.

The research findings indicate that the existence of innovative norms in organizations and KMS that provide adequate linkages or connections among knowledge workers are significantly and positively related with the development of autonomous motivation towards KMS use. In addition, autonomous motivation to use was found to have substantial influence on KMS usage and moderately influences the development of competency. Finally, the actual utilization of KMS was found to be contributing significantly to competency development among knowledge workers.

Although the approach of this study is aimed at generalization of results with the combination of responses from individuals working in different organizational settings, few limitations may still affect the scope of the study. First, only an innovative norm is considered as an organizational factor in this research, other constructs such as collaboration and structure are important factors which can be explored in a future study. Secondly, the study is limited to a single country; future studies may include knowledge workers from different countries with exposure to different cultures.

The research offers recommendations and suggestions to managers and top management on the organizational practices and KMS design that can make knowledge workers volitionally utilize the KM systems as well as how the impact of implemented KMS on knowledge workers can be measured.

The conceptualization of autonomous motivation to use KMS and the factors contributing to it, as well as identification of competency development as a benefit of KMS use, represent an innovation in the theoretical perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivates patients to participate in service development and how participation may influence their well-being. Health-care providers are increasingly adopting practices of customer participation in such activities to improve their services.

This paper builds on an analysis of data from a service development project in which lung cancer patients contributed by sharing their ideas and experiences through diaries. Out of the 86 lung cancer patients who were invited to participate, 20 agreed to participate and 14 fully completed the task. The study builds on participants’ contributions, in-depth interviews with six participants and the reasons patients gave for not participating.

This paper identifies a number of motives: non-interest in participating, restitution after poor treatment, desire for contact with others, volunteerism, desire to make a contribution and the enjoyment of having a task to complete. A self-determination theory perspective was adopted to show how the need to satisfy basic human needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness determines if and how patients participate. Participation may have important benefits for patients, especially an improved sense of relatedness.

Service providers must be prepared to meet different patient needs in service development, ranging from the need to express strong distress to expressing creativity. By understanding the dynamics of motivation and well-being, organizers may achieve better results in terms of improved services and in patient well-being.

This study makes a significant contribution to the study of customer participation in service development, especially in relation to health care, by offering a self-determination-based typology for describing different styles of patient participation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of Prochaska and colleagues' “stages of change model,” which has generated substantial support in the therapeutic literature as a useful framework for understanding the dynamics of motivation to change problem behaviors, in a leadership development context.

A group of over 70 supervisors/managers was studied over a period of nine months as they participated in a company‐sponsored leadership development effort.

Results provide initial evidence that the stages of change model has the potential for being reliably and validly assessed in a leadership development context. Participants' stage scores related in meaningful ways to relevant criteria such as job attitudes, perceptions of personal leadership areas needing improvement, and evaluations of actual development module content and presentation over a nine‐month period.

Participants were drawn from only one organization and this was the first major leadership development effort undertaken by this organization.

Study results provide support for the appropriateness of applying the stages of change model and its measurement in a leadership development context. Results demonstrate that the stages of change model appears to offer useful and pragmatic insight into motivation to learn and on improving the effectiveness of leadership development activities.

The present study is unique in that makes use of a stages of change model to empirically examine differential patterns of relationships between participants' stages of change and their organizational attitudes, leadership developmental needs, and longitudinal reactions to the development effort.

The study deals with the problems of development of critical thinking among university students, its connection with motivation for learning and academic achievements of students. The purpose of the study is to define the relationship between academic motivation and critical thinking.

The study involved a survey based on the academic motivation scale. A total of 520 students from four universities in Russia and one Bulgaria University were interviewed.

The analysis of the questionnaires showed that among the students surveyed the types of motivation contributing to self-development and analysis predominate, namely self-development, cognitive, achievement and self-esteem motivation. The null hypothesis of the study that there was no difference between the average score of the critical thinking test (Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, WGCTA) for total sample and the results of students with dominant types of academic motivation that contribute to critical thinking was rejected.

It was revealed that academic motivation has a notable effect on critical thinking and can become a predictor of its development. Several ways have been proposed to track and help students with low academic motivation: regular testing, identification of students with amotivation and strong extrinsic motivation, and psychological support for such students.

This chapter proposes the development of a compound personality trait termed “goal propensity”. Motivation is a key determinant of performance in virtually all contexts, and personality has long been viewed as an important influence on motivation. Despite the long history of exploring how personality influences motivation, we do not have a clear understanding of the linkage between individual differences in personality and work motivation or the tools to reliably and accurately predict individual differences in motivation. Advances in our understanding of personality and the convergence of motivation theories around models of self-regulation present the opportunity to achieve that understanding and predictive efficacy. Goal propensity would be a theoretically derived trait that would explain the role of personality in self-regulation models of motivation as well as allow the prediction of tendencies to engage in self-regulation. This chapter provides the rationale for the development of this construct, articulates the nature of the proposed goal propensity construct, and explores the value of such a construct for theory, future research, and human resource practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of instructor capability and learning motivation on learning performance of business students in Vietnam. It also explores the moderating effect of personal development competitiveness on the roles of instructor capability in both learning motivation and learning performance.

Two phases of study were undertaken. A pilot phase was used to preliminary assess the measures and a main survey with a sample of 1,278 undergraduate business students was conducted to validate the measures and to test the models.

Instructor capability was found to have a positive impact on learning motivation and, subsequently, on learning performance. The results further show that the impacts of instructor capability on both learning motivation and learning performance are greater in the group of students which has a higher level of personal development competitiveness.

A key limitation of this study is the examination of the roles of instructor capability and learning motivation in learning performance. There can be several other antecedents of learning performance of business students.

The results of this study suggest that university administrators should design suitable recruitment and training policies in order to have instructors with appropriate knowledge and teaching skills. Also, students' personal development competitiveness in learning should be encouraged.

The findings enhance one's understanding of key antecedents of learning performance, as well as the moderating role of personal development competitiveness in the learning of business students in a transition market, Vietnam.

Entrepreneurial support programs, like incubators and accelerators, often offer mentorship to new ventures. However, existing research on mentoring has mainly focused on the entrepreneur's perspective, leaving researchers with limited understanding of why experienced mentors provide support to new ventures. This study aimed to explore mentors' motives in mentor–venture relationships and their impact on the advisory process. It also examined different types of mentors (social and commercial) and their motivations for assisting and supporting new ventures.

The present study utilizes a qualitative research approach to investigate the motivations and mechanisms through which new venture mentors assist founders in their growth and success. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 mentors supporting both social and commercial ventures. These mentors were selected from ten accelerator and incubator programs situated in Belgium. The interviews aimed to gain insights into the mentors' motivations and their experiences in the role of mentors.

Based on the social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity, this study identified two main motives of mentors: “gaining back” reflecting mentors’ self-interest in deriving benefits from the relationship and “paying back” representing their altruistic reasons for supporting new ventures. Additionally, the study identified mentor functions that primarily involved providing career-related support to new ventures. Moreover, the research revealed intriguing similarities and differences in the motivations and mentoring functions between mentors of social and commercial ventures.

Future research should explore the evaluation process and criteria used by mentors and new ventures when selecting each other for a productive mentoring relationship. Additionally, further investigation is needed to examine the firm-level impact of various mentoring services on the performance of social and commercial new ventures at different stages of development. Comparing mentor motives and functions across diverse geographical settings would address the limitation of the study and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the topic.

The findings of the study can inform policymakers, accelerator and incubator program managers and new ventures seeking mentors and support initiatives. They can use the insights to design effective mentoring programs that align with the specific needs and motivations of mentors and new ventures. Understanding the different motives and functions of mentors can help in the selection of appropriate mentors who can provide the necessary support and expertise to new ventures.

The study highlights the importance of mentorship in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Accelerator and incubator programs play a crucial role in connecting new ventures with mentors who have the right motivation and expertise, contributing to the growth and success of new ventures and the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem. By identifying both altruistic and self-interest motivations in mentoring relationships, the study emphasizes the dual dimensions that characterize the mentor–venture relationship. This understanding can foster stronger collaborations and reciprocal exchanges between mentors and new ventures, ultimately benefiting both parties.

This research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by exploring the mentor–new venture relationship from mentors' perspective. It expands the existing research on mentor–protégé relationships, broadening the understanding of mentoring dynamics in different organizational settings. The findings offer insights grounded in social exchange theory and provide directions for future research on mentor–venture relationships, resource exchange and relationship development. The study also holds practical implications for policymakers and program managers involved in fostering mentoring initiatives for new ventures.