Matthew J. Monnot, PhD

The Effect of Incentives on Intrinsic Motivation and Employee Attitudes: A Multilevel Study Across Nations and Cultural Clusters (2018)

Author: Matthew J. Monnot
Journal: Thunderbird International Business Review, 60(5), 675–689
DOI: 10.1002/tie.21949

1 · TL;DR

This study explores how incentive systems relate to intrinsic motivation and employee attitudes across multiple countries and cultural clusters.

Key takeaway: incentives are not uniformly “good” or “bad” for intrinsic motivation – their effects depend on how they are structured and interpreted within cultural and organizational contexts.

2 · Methodology (Technical)

  • Design: Multilevel, cross-national field study.
  • Sample:
    • Employees nested within organizations across several countries and cultural clusters.
  • Measures:
    • Perceptions of incentives (e.g., performance-contingent rewards, recognition).
    • Intrinsic motivation.
    • Employee attitudes (e.g., satisfaction, commitment, possibly engagement).
    • Country-level and cluster-level cultural indicators.
  • Analyses:
    • Multilevel modeling (employees nested within organizations and countries).
    • Cross-level interactions testing whether the relationship between incentives and intrinsic motivation depends on cultural cluster.¹

3 · Methods in Plain English

Employees in different countries were surveyed about:

  • How their organization uses incentives,
  • How intrinsically motivated they feel,
  • Their attitudes toward their job and employer.

The analysis looks at:

  • Within-country patterns (how incentives relate to motivation and attitudes inside organizations), and
  • Between-country patterns (how those relationships vary depending on regional culture).

4 · Key Findings & Nuances

  • Incentives can support intrinsic motivation when they are experienced as:
    • Informational (recognizing competence),
    • Fair and autonomy-supportive.
  • Incentives are more likely to undermine intrinsic motivation when experienced as:
    • Controlling,
    • Threatening, or solely contingent on external approval.
  • Cultural context matters: some clusters (e.g., more collectivistic or high power-distance cultures) may interpret the same incentive practice differently than others.

5 · Implementation Ideas

For Global HR & Rewards

  • Avoid treating financial incentives as a one-size-fits-all solution.
  • Design reward systems that:
    • Acknowledge competence and contribution,
    • Preserve autonomy where possible,
    • Are clearly communicated and perceived as fair.
  • Tailor messaging and implementation to local cultural norms.

For People Analytics

  • Use multilevel models (or at least segmented analyses) when examining incentive effects across countries.
  • Look for:
    • Interaction effects between incentive perceptions and cultural indicators,
    • Nonlinear effects (too little or too much emphasis on incentives can both be problematic).

For Leaders

  • Pair incentives with rich feedback about mastery and growth, not just outcomes.
  • Be explicit about the why behind rewards to avoid interpretations of control.

6 · Endnotes (APA Style)

  1. Monnot, M. J. (2018). The effect of incentives on intrinsic motivation and employee attitudes: A multilevel study across nations and cultural clusters. Thunderbird International Business Review, 60(5), 675–689. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21949
  2. Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627–668.