Employee Motivation in Remote Work : Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Efficacy’s Role in Employee Motivation for Remote Environments

Abstract: Information technology (IT) has enabled organizations to implement significant, beneficial traits of virtual organizations into their own structure such as the ability to work remotely. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the business world was forced to shift towards a virtual environment where remote working has become the new norm. Thus, this study seeks to contribute to the understanding of motivation and self-efficacy for workers in this relatively new environment. This is guided by three main research questions: (1) What are the aspects of intrinsic motivations that employees feel affect employee motivation in a remote work environment?, (2) How do employees perceive incentives and other extrinsic motivators within the remote work environment?, and (3) In which possible ways does an employee believe self-efficacy has altered due to remote work? Self-determination theory (SDT) and self-efficacy were utilized as the main theoretical tools to examine the motivation of remote workers within the engineering industry along with inductive reasoning. Data for this qualitative study was gathered through the conduction of seven semi-structured interviews on two engineering companies, which are identified as Sim Co. and Mech Co. It was found that extrinsic motivators within the more autonomy supportive environment—that is remote work—will not be as influential and prominent from the individual’s perspective. Hence, supporting an individual’s perceived locus of causality (PLOC) and intrinsic motivators will be much more beneficial to motivate remote workers. It was also observed that project burnout and personal disinterest continues to conflict with remote workers as the separation between work and personal life may be an issue for the individual. Vicarious experience and physiological and emotional states were primarily affected for the interviewees during the transition to remote work. This led to a change in self-efficacy for the individual along with competence and autonomy. This research has concluded: (1) remote employee motivation is influenced more by intrinsic motivations rather than extrinsic motivations similar to the in-office environment, and (2) self-efficacy judgment was affected in two components by remote work一vicarious experience and physiological and emotional states.