Work-life balance and other debated issues often include discussions of motivation. People like to assign motives to others and do so quickly and easily. Sometimes the motives are inaccurate; often they reflect the values of the person attributing the motive.
An example: Someone may conclude that a lawyer is working too much to fill a void in her life or to run from personal problems. The person in question may not think she is working too hard and may be working for any of a number of other motives. And these motives can vary in time, situation, or as a result of many other factors, too. Motivation is very complex.
Experts, authors, and consultants often try to simplify the complexity. For example, motivation is supposedly divided in two: intrinsic and extrinsic. An Ohio State professor believes that division is too abridged. In "Intrinsic Motivation Doesn't Exist, Researcher Says," the reporter writes:
While some psychologists still argue that people perform better when they do something because they want to—rather than for some kind of reward, such as money—Steven Reiss suggests we shouldn't even make that distinction.
Reiss . . . argues that a diverse range of human motivations can't be forced into these categories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Psychologists say intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within – doing something because you want to – while extrinsic motivations mean people are seeking a reward, such as money, a good grade in class, or a trophy at a sporting event.
“They are taking many diverse human needs and motivations, putting them into just two categories, and then saying one type of motivation is better than another,” said Reiss, who outlines his argument in [his article "Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation at 30: Unresolved Scientific Issues" (PDF) published in The Behavior Analyst.]
In his research, Reiss believes that he has isolated 16 different motivations: power, independence, curiosity, acceptance, order, saving, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, vengeance, romance, eating, physical exercise, and tranquility.
The above lawyer can be working for any of many of these reasons or some combination of motivations. For a third party to assign the motivations may be folly. But as mentioned above the third party often is reflecting his own values and motivation when he does that assigning. The assigner actually may mean: "You and I are different; I think you should change."
The work-life balance people are often in that policing mode, walking the beat to find WLB violations—as they define WLB. Wonder what their motivations are for paying attention to other people's work-life balance? Tranquility? Power? Acceptance? Idealism? Vengeance? The reasons people become WLBers are as complex as those who choose to work long hours. A bit of examining self-motivation is probably good for all of us. But it is for each of us to do; what is gained by trying to divine another's motivation (unless he or she seeks your counsel)?
As the author of "The 16 Basic Desires That Guide Us" says:
There is nothing wrong with workaholics, schoolchildren who aren't curious, or timid people, maintains Steven Reiss . . . . While much of society may believe these people have problems that need to be fixed, he suggests they are probably happy just the way they are. They merely have personalities that don't fit in with their critics.
A good post, raising interesing issues. I think that awareness is the issue here - being awake to the motivation - supposedly 'good' or 'bad' - so as to achieve the outcomes sought.
Posted by: John Bowie | October 24, 2007 at 01:44 AM