
Local councils are being forced to cut back on everything including and especially on the salaries of their senior executives. You might think this means hiring less qualified or less competent people to fill those roles. But a new study from Bournemouth University Business School suggests that it may lead to the opposite result: higher-performing executives.
Psychologists talk about two different types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is reliant on external rewards, most importantly financial, but also status, perks, and so on. Intrinsic motivation what keeps people going even when these rewards are low or non-existent: it's the sheer satisfaction and enjoyment of doing a job well. Most people are motivated by factors on both side of the equation but the balance varies from job to job and person to person.
Public sector organisations ought to be looking for people who have very high levels of intrinsic motivation - who see their job as a calling, more than a means of making money. There is evidence to suggest, however, that by offering big salaries they are less likely to attract such people:
Using British longitudinal data, we find that individuals are attracted to the public sector by the intrinsic rather than the extrinsic rewards that the sector offers. We also find evidence supporting the intrinsic motivation crowding out hypothesis, in that, higher extrinsic rewards reduce the propensity of intrinsically motivated individuals to accept public sector employment.
Oddly, the researchers only found this effect in higher education and the NHS. I haven't bought access to the whole paper so I can't tell you why that might be. But this report might offer a scrap of comfort to local councillors who are trying to attract quality people with very little in the pot from which to pay them.
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