Positive and Negative Motivations Toward Work

Abstract

Much of the confusion concerning job motivations results from a failure to distinguish between positive and negative motivations. The theoretical framework developed by studies showing that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not caused by the same factors has not been adequately applied to the questions of why one remains with or leaves his organization. In this field study, interviews with 82 scientists and engineers indicate that the reasons for the scientist's remaining with his organization are quite different from (and not merely opposite to) those that might cause him to leave it. These two sets of reasons, then, are classified into work-process and work-context categories, and the resultant findings are related to existing theories of job motivation. Frank Friedlander is a research psychologist for the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake, California, and Eugene Walton is a research officer for the U.S. Information Service in Lagos, Nigeria.