Principles of Organizational Behavior, 3rd Edition

22Stimulate Creativity by Fueling Passion

COLIN M. FISHER¹ AND TERESA M. AMABILE²

¹UCL School of Management

²Harvard Business School

How can organizations support the creativity of their members? Many managers think that tools like rewards and deadlines consistently motivate employees to do their best work. Although external pressures and rewards are motivating for simple, routine tasks, they can undermine interest and enjoyment from the work itself. And, from decades of research on creativity, one of the most important – and surprising insights – is: People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, and challenge of the work itself – and not by external pressures. This “Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity” (Amabile, 1996; Amabile and Pratt, 2016) suggests that the social environment, particularly the presence or absence of external pressures in that environment, can influence creativity by influencing people's passion for their work. Managers can catalyze creativity in their organizations by establishing work environments that support passion for the work.

Intrinsic motivation is the motivation to do work because it is interesting, engaging, or positively challenging. In its highest form, it is called passion and can lead to complete absorption in the work (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). The elements that make up intrinsic motivation include a sense of self-determination in doing the work (rather than a sense of being a pawn of ...