Extrinsic motivation describes the effect of external factors on an employee’s motivation level (Qayyum & Sukirno 2012). It is motivation which originates from outside a person and motivation in this context can be considered extrinsic rewards, for example, financial incentives and status. These rewards should compensate for the lack of fulfilment and enjoyment regarding the actual task (Thomas 2009). When extrinsic motivation is used incorrectly, this may result in employees shifting their focus towards only achieving financial gain. This may, therefore, divert their attention away from developing his or herself to being mainly focused on completing a task purely for financial gain (Zobal 1999). Furthermore, this author states that financial rewards may lead to negative effects on employees when goals are not achieved, such as a lack of confidence or being demotivated. Zobal (1999) states that financial rewards may strip employees of the pride associated with their work.

Salary, benefits and incentives are examples of extrinsic motivators (Qayyum & Sukirno 2012). Researchers disagree about the role of money as a motivator (Khalid, Salim & Loke 2011). Although financial rewards can have a number of negative impacts, organisations still look for some monetary opportunities to motivate their employees (Prendergast 2008). Taylor (2007) claims that money is the best motivator. However, Anyim et al. (2012) point out that motivation depends on various factors and is fairly complex. For example, the economic conditions of a country affect the significance of money to its people. These same authors maintain that although cash is an important stimulus for low-income groups, it does not have the same importance for high-earning individuals, who have already satisfied their basic needs.

In contrast, Darling, Arm and Gatlin (1997) claim that nowadays researchers and practitioners are aware of several drawbacks of monetary rewards, as monetary driven motivation is often short-lived. According to Mundhra and Jacob (2011), extrinsic motivation is built on external factors and is only temporary. Extrinsically motivated behaviours are linked to basic ambitions, which normally work in the form of a cycle that disturbs intrinsically motivated behaviour (Deci & Ryan 1985). For this reason, money is usually only the means to an end, and which has negative consequences.

Referring to 128 experiments Ryan and Deci (2000) claim that tangible rewards seem to have a considerably undesirable influence on intrinsic motivation. Pink (2009) claims that autonomy, mastery and purpose are three elements which enable a workforce to be motivated, more so than extrinsic monetary rewards.

Intrinsically motivated undertakings are the ones for which the action itself is the reward. Individuals appear to participate in the activities because of the enjoyment derived from the task and not because of the expectation of receiving an extrinsic reward (Deci 1975; Ryan & Deci 2000; Deci & Ryan 2008). The task itself or the related target satisfies a direct need in its own right. Intrinsic motivation reveals an individual’s core aspiration for meeting internal needs, and it originates from emotions (Qayyum & Sukirno 2012).

Frey and Osterloh (2002) claim that intrinsic motivation is highly important for every action in the business world. Intrinsic motivation is considered to be the main influential dynamic behind the creative process in business (Hennessey 2000). It is unimaginable that employees are only or even mostly motivated by extrinsic rewards and it is for this reason that intrinsic rewards are so essential (Pink 2011). If intrinsic motivation develops as a consequence of self-determination and a feeling of ability combined, then a reward can motivate individuals to manage tasks which are original and observed as extremely difficult at the outset. As the individual’s knowledge increases over a period of time, new intrinsic motivation is encouraged (Frey & Osterloh 2002).

Osterloh and Frost (2002) claim that the management of intrinsic motivation has been neglected. Present management systems have also failed to address this matter. Instead these management systems have concentrated on extrinsic financial remuneration systems (Osterloh & Frost 2002).

The fulfilment employees develop from the intrinsic features of their work, such as responsibility and task attraction, is imperative for intrinsic motivation and retention in the organisation more so than extrinsic rewards (for instance, monetary benefits) (Burke, Arkowitz & Dunn 2002).

According to Arnolds et al. (2010), it is still uncertain which intrinsic and extrinsic factors in particular motivate employees. Occasionally a verbal ‘thank you’ is sufficient, whereas with some individuals this may not be the case. The difficulty in rewards is that unrewarded accomplishments on the jobs can be de-motivating to employees (Ciorbagiu-Naon 2010).

Previously it was assumed that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation acted independently of each other. However, various socio-psychological researchers have revealed that an interchange between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be found. For example, children, who are enthusiastic about their schoolwork in the beginning, show less interest in the activity itself after being offered a reward (Frey & Osterloh 2002). Ryan and Deci (2000) provided evidence that individuals in general, and not necessarily only school children, show less interest in something which was previously only intrinsically rewarding as soon as an extrinsic reward is introduced.

Variables such as gender, age, literacy, work experience, relationship status and the number of children can influence the perception and preference of employees regarding certain rewards (Ciorbagiu-Naon 2010). The section that follows discusses the differences according to gender, age, income and culture with regard to intrinsic motivation.

The researcher conducted a pilot study to ascertain language problems with the questionnaire or scales, and to conduct a trial of some of the analysis procedures to be undertaken in the main study. The pilot study included 20 working individuals and was conducted in April 2013. The pilot study produced satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha results (0.83–0.84). However, in the pilot study the results of the exploratory factor analysis were not satisfactory enough. The statistics specialist pointed out that there might be different factors for the two different countries, but unfortunately the sample size did not permit an exploratory factor analysis per country (D. Venter [statistician, Unit for Statistical Consultation, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University] pers. comm., 16 August 2013). For this reason, the researcher and the statistical expert agreed to proceed with the research instrument and to work with the results of the main study.

Non-probability sampling was used in the form of convenience and snowball sampling. The researcher made use of existing contacts and distributed the questionnaire by means of email.

The following control measures had to be put in place for the target population. The respondents had to be either German or South African. These two countries were selected so as to have one European country represented and one African country. It allowed for a comparison between developed and non-developed countries. This was verified by a mandatory question in the demographic section. The respondents were also required to have work experience and a tertiary education. Additionally, the respondents were asked questions pertaining to their gender, age, marital status, managerial position at work and annual income. A total of 256 people were contacted via email and asked to participate in this study, as well as to forward the questionnaire to colleagues who fit the relevant criteria. In total, 374 individuals fully completed the online questionnaire, including 193 Germans and 181 South African respondents. This sample size was deemed adequate for this research by the researchers’ statistician.

Table 1 shows the characteristics of the sample with regards to nationality, gender, age, marital status, and annual income. As can be gleaned from the table, 52% of respondents were German and the remaining 48% are South African. As evident from Table 1, the majority of the sample was male (52%), and female respondents made up the remaining 48%.

Age was split into five categories: 20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59 and 60+. From Table 1, it can be seen that the majority of the sample was made of respondents between the ages of 30 and 39 (38%), followed by respondents between the ages of 40 and 49 (21%) and 20 and 29 (20%).

Table 1 shows that the vast majority of the sample is married (57%), followed by those in a relationship (26%).

Finally, Table 1 shows the characteristics of the sample according to annual income. However, as the sample incudes respondents from Germany and South Africa, and these two countries have different currencies and the Euro is a stronger currency than the rand; respondents had to be grouped into similar annual income groups for ease of comparison. Table 2 provides the breakdown of the income groups. As is evident from Table 1, the majority of the respondents in this sample fall into income group 6 (above R600 000 or above €60 000 annually), followed closely by income group 2 (R120 000–R239 000 or €12 000–€23 999 annually).

Finally, the table shows that 48% of the sample is not in a managerial position, with 42% in a managerial position and 10% in a supervisory role more than a managerial position.

The questionnaire was designed by Cinar, Bektas and Aslan (2011) as a two-dimensional measure of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Questions 1–9 dealt with intrinsic motivation and questions 10–24 with extrinsic motivation. The researcher obtained permission from the developer regarding the questionnaire to use it and adapted it accordingly. As the questionnaire would be answered by both English and German speakers, the researcher felt it was necessary to adapt the level of English to accommodate both countries.

The specific rating scale that was used in the questionnaire was the Likert scale, which forces the respondents to reveal their degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a number of statements about the stimulus object (Malhotra 2010). A five-item scale was decided upon, which had five response categories ranging from ‘not at all motivating’ to ‘highly motivating’.

The questionnaire is divided into two sections consisting first of questions about intrinsic motivation, followed by extrinsic motivation. These sections were followed by the demographic questions.

Once the questionnaire had been selected, the researcher chose to use an electronic survey method, as this was the easiest and most convenient method for reaching the wide spread target group.

Both inferential (analysis of variance, t-tests) and descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency, mean scores, and Cronbach’s alpha) were used for data processing. The statistical package STATISTICA, version 11.0, and SPSS 9.0 were utilised for this purpose.

Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics for the sample. The means, standard deviation, minimum and maximum are all included for intrinsic factors, extrinsic factors and overall. As is evident from this, the levels of intrinsic motivation were the highest (mean of 4.17 out of 5), with extrinsic motivation being rated as moderately high.

Table 3 also provides the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the study. These scores show an acceptable level of reliability as they are above the 0.60 level (Maholtra 2010).

Table 4 shows the intervals for the means so that one may interpret how strong the motivation is for that particular type of motivation.

The validity of a scale can be defined as the determination of whether the scale measures what it is intended to measure (Phillips & Gully 2012). In order to show that the questionnaire demonstrated acceptable validity, the researcher conducted an exploratory factor analysis. The results of this are presented in Table 5 The table shows that the questionnaire comprised of five factors as five of the factors are above the 1.0 level cut-off (Maholtra 2010).

Once established that there were five factors, the researchers established which questions loaded onto which factors. A factor loading of 0.30 is considered as significant for a sample size higher and larger than 350 (Hair, Black, Babin & Anderson 2010). Table 6 shows which items loaded onto which factor, by highlighting the questions above the 0.30 level for that factor. Based on Table 6, the questions have been grouped into factors as shown in Table 7.

It is important to note that questions 6, 7 and 11 do not load onto any factor. Questions 14, 18 and 21 load into more than one factor, with question 14 loading onto factors 1 and 2, question 18 loading onto factors 1 and 3, and question 21 loading onto both factors 3 and 5. However, for question 14, factor 2 had a higher loading, for question 18, factor 3 had a higher loading, and for question 21, factor 3 had a higher loading. This then determined the factor loading for these questions. Moreover, it is important to note that the questions which pertained to pure intrinsic rewards related to factors such as autonomy, and mastery which Renard (2015) previously identified as ‘pure intrinsic rewards’ in that they link entirely to the job itself and not to any other external sources.

The main finding of this study showed that significant differences did exist in terms of motivation between South Africa and Germany. This was found in the case of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In fact, cultural factors were shown to be the strongest influence on employees’ motivation. The differences in terms of power distance and uncertainty avoidance, and differences in terms of masculinity/femininity between South Africa and Germany may account for this. As previously mentioned, culture is defined within the context of this study as the personality of a region and incorporates objectives and the criteria of a particular group of people (Worthley et al. 2009).

Furthermore, the study has revealed that South Africans show higher levels of intrinsic motivation than their German counterparts. The results show that South Africans demonstrate higher levels of intrinsic motivation than they do extrinsic motivation. This supports the findings of Nujjoo and Meyer (2012).

With regard to German respondents it was found that they too showed higher levels of intrinsic motivation than they did extrinsic motivation. This aligns with the findings of Stettes and Zimmermann (2013).

The results of the study showed that in both countries females were more intrinsically motivated than what males were. This aligns with what was suggested by Stettes and Zimmermann (2013). The researchers believe that females may be slightly more intrinsically motivated than their male counterparts because of women often being tuned into their emotions and thus more able to be rewarded by them.

The results show that South African females have not only the highest levels of intrinsic motivation but also the highest levels of extrinsic motivation. It is, however, interesting to note that these differences were not found to be statistically significant, which, therefore, suggests that motivation is influenced more so by culture than it is by gender as culture was found to be a statistically significant difference.

The results show that intrinsic motivation at its highest within individuals of the ages 50–59. While this was a statistically significant difference, there were no statistically significant differences between age groups in terms of their extrinsic motivation. The works of Truxillo (2009) and Inceoglu et al. (2012) align with the findings of this study in that these authors also found that older employees (50–59) were more intrinsically motivated than their younger counterparts.

The researchers suggest that this may be because of the fact that older employees are entering the final stage of their career leading up to their retirement and are often no longer interested in working long hours to earn more money and feel less of a desire to climb the corporate ladder. Owing to this, older employees may be likely to be more motivated by intrinsic factors rather than extrinsic ones.

In this study it was found that, contrary to what was suggested by Del Mar et al. (2010) and Renard (2015), the lowest income group actually demonstrated the highest levels of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This, therefore, suggests that when designing these employees packages, consideration should be given to increasing both the intrinsic and extrinsic forms of reward as this group is demonstrated by both intrinsic and extrinsic sources.

In this section, recommendations for further research are provided. An area for potential research could be the effects that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation have in organisations. This could explore the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on productivity, company success or even retention and engagement.

In particular, intrinsic motivation does not happen in a vacuum. In this study, it was not possible to compare motivation in different stages of a process or determine if motivation changes over time. A possible research question could be to ask how an organisation can increase and maintain motivation over time. In order to achieve this, a questionnaire could be sent to the same respondents over a period of time or several times.

Furthermore, motivation in relation to demographic variables should be researched in detail. In particular, the role of the management as a demographic variable could be looked into in more detail as management occupies a key role when it comes to motivation.

The researchers only limited the target group by a few characteristics, namely, working experience, nationality and tertiary education, for the participation of this research. The reason for this decision was to achieve a reasonable sample size. Further research could be undertaken with an increased number of limiting characteristics such as industrial field, managerial position or age group to make more specific assertions and inferences. In addition, this research was limited to two countries. Other countries could be taken into consideration to receive further insights.

Furthermore, although the online questionnaire had the advantage of being easy to access by the respondents and the data could be processed easily, the researchers had little control over composition of the sample or the industry to which the respondents belonged. It was not possible to calculate an accurate response rate because it was difficult to determine how many questionnaires were distributed. Although the respondents were provided with written instructions and the offer to contact the researcher in case of questions, misunderstandings may also have taken place.

This study has highlighted the importance of intrinsic motivation within employees and additionally has highlighted the essential role that culture plays in shaping one’s motivation. As a result of these findings, management should have a well-formed and clear understanding of the culture within which their employees exist so that they are easily able to find manners of motivating their employees in accordance with this.

In order to fully develop intrinsic motivation, management could introduce four things into employees’ work: meaningfulness, a sense of choice, a sense of competence and a feeling of progress or mastery, according to Thomas (2009). Meaningfulness involves showing employees that the work they are performing is valuable and is contributing to a larger overall purpose. Increasing employees’ sense of choice occurs when employees are given autonomy and freedom to schedule their own work tasks, whereas increasing employees’ sense of competence involves adequately developing employees’ skills so that they may feel proud, satisfied and motivated when they are able to perform their work well. Finally, Thomas (2009) states that a feeling of progress is introduced into employees’ work by allowing them to see what they have accomplished and by providing feedback when tasks are performed well so that the employee may feel that he or she is mastering a particular skill.