Motivating knowledge workers

Sammanfattning: The emergence of a knowledge based economy facilitated by the globalisation has changed the rules of the game for many organisations. The most valuable assets within many organisations are no longer the physical resources but the knowledge capital. In contrary to the era of industrialisation, these assets are no longer owned and controlled by the companies but by the employees. The largest challenge for management in the knowledge economy is the need to increase the productivity of the knowledge workers. The most effective approach to increase knowledge worker productivity is by improving their level of motivation. The question for how to best motivate people in an organisation is neither new nor does it have a single clear answer. To create a situation characterised by satisfaction and motivation, focus should be on the motivator, the factors with the potential of creating long time sustainable results. Factors influencing motivation can be described as either intrinsic or extrinsic relating to their nature of effect. Traditionally, most organisations have been focusing on extrinsic motivators such as monetary incentives to increase motivation. Intrinsic motivators include factors relating to the work itself as autonomy, mastery and purpose. This study has included a survey where 355 knowledge workers have ranked 29 different motivational factors. The results show the top five factors all are typical intrinsic factors which indicate employees’ true commitment and motivation originates in the intrinsic nature of the task being performed. Another important finding from this study is each of the factors investigated can play a role in order to motivate the individuals in a group of knowledge workers. As a result of that insight, all organisations with the aim to increase knowledge worker productivity have to take the time to find out how to best motivate each single employee. One way for an organisation to increase individual employee motivation is to start paying attention to personal interests and try to direct different work tasks in accordance with that.