Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation and Employee Performance in a Western Philippines University: A Quantitative-Correlational Study

Abstract

Purpose - Organizational performance is basically driven by employee motivation. Nevertheless, there is still little empirical research on Western Philippine University, especially regarding the association between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and self-perceived performance of the employees.

Methodology - The design adopted in this study was a quantitative correlational design. The data was gathered by means of 205 employees of Western Philippines University-Main Campus using the formula of Slovin and stratified random sampling. A face-to-face administration of an adopted survey tool based on the validated scales was implemented. Frequency counts, weighted means, and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data.

Findings - The main characteristics of the respondents were that they were mostly female (62.9%), aged between 26 and 30, unmarried, and were college graduates on permanent employment, serving one to five years. The extrinsic motivation (M = 3.44) was found to be a little more motivational factor than intrinsic motivation (M = 3.42). Job satisfaction, cooperativeness, and continuous improvement reflected the best perceptions of the employees on their performance (Grand Mean = 3.41). The correlation analysis of Pearson showed that intrinsic motivation and perceived performance (r = 0.2823, p < 0.001) and extrinsic motivation and perceived performance (r = 0.3342, p < 0.001) had a statistically significant and low positive relationship, and thus rejected the null hypothesis at the 0.01 level of significance.

Implications and Value - Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors are strongly related to employee performance, with the extrinsic motivation being the most influential factor. The results are empirical evidence of the Two-Factor Theory and Self-Determination Theory proposed by Herzberg in a public higher education setting, as well as having practical implications for the human resource management policy in Philippine state universities.