The Moralization of Intrinsic Motivation

Business research and practice have emphasized the value of intrinsic motivation for over 50 years. In this paper, I argue that this valuation can have unintended negative consequences for employees. Specifically, I suggest that employees may internalize the ways their colleagues, leaders, organizations, and society value intrinsic motivation and come to associate it with superior morality. I conceptualize this process as the moralization of intrinsic motivation and describe how it shapes employees’ negative value judgments of and behaviors toward others and themselves in the domains of performance appraisal, cooperation, and engagement. This research contributes to the management literature by investigating (a) the social nature of intrinsic motivation, (b) the unintended negative intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes of our long-standing emphasis on intrinsic motivation, and (c) the relative disadvantages for employees who do not—and cannot—experience intrinsic motivation. I end by discussing the role of business research and education in potentially reducing the moralization of intrinsic motivation and its negative impacts.