Abstract:
Organizations in developing nations are characterized by scarcity of resources.
On the other hand environmental dynamics such as globalization, technological
advancements, changing customer needs, to mention but a few, are very
unforgiving. Thus organizations in developing nations need to go beyond
management: they need to be developed in this context of scarcity of resources.
The concept of intrinsic motivation is one of self-determination characterized by
competence, autonomy and relationships (Ryan and Deci, 2000) and is one
where, according to psychologists, one performs an action or a behavior
because they enjoy the activity itself. It is different from extrinsic or controlled
motivation that characterizes those activities that yield specific outcomes in
terms of rewards or avoided punishments (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Review of
literature regarding motivation reveals that an organization that uses the
intrinsic approach to motivate its employees is bound to benefit more without
spending much of its resources. Organization development is a completely
different paradigm compared to traditional management in that it is
characteristic of a learning organization that with collaborator decision
making, continuous improvement, efficiency and teamwork as its main tenets.
Both intrinsic motivation and organizational development result in exponential
growth, high employee and organizational performance, highly motivated staff
with reduced absenteeism and employee turnover. Whereas organizational
development, due to use of Total Quality Management (TQM) emphasizes
efficiency, intrinsic motivation does not cost the company much of its resources.
Developing countries are looking to industrializing fast in the face of scarcity.
This paper espouses the use of intrinsic motivation for organization development
in developing countries as an approach that will help them to keep up with
developmental momentum in the midst of environmental dynamics on one hand
and scarcity of resources on the other.
