Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Leadership Emergence in Teams

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and leadership emergence in order to mitigate extreme (too much or too little) leadership claiming and granting. The study examines DeRue and Ashford’s (2010) research, in addition to a host of other research articles, to hypothesize that intrinsic motivation is positively correlated to leadership claiming, while extrinsic motivation is positively correlated to leadership granting. The participants of this study are college students who have registered for course based credit at a midsize southeastern university. Each participant will join a team (three individuals per team), four teams per session. The four aforementioned teams will work as part of a larger problem-solving group to plan a civil infrastructure project in a fictitious developing nation. Before and throughout the study (at various time points), surveys will be administered that will collect information on motivation and leadership measures. After conducting analysis on the data, if the results support the aforementioned hypotheses, then extreme leadership claiming and granting can be mitigated by optimizing the amount of intrinsically and extrinsically motivated individuals on the team.