Motivation Science

This course has two general objectives. First, to learn how motivation works from recent conceptual and empirical advances in psychological science. Second, to use this knowledge to make motivation work for you—both in your own performance and as a motivator of others. Motivation science has exploded in the last 25 years. Despite this explosion, many people still believe that the best way to motivate others is by using incentives (“carrots and sticks”), which is based on the classic assumption known as the hedonic principle that what motivates people is to approach pleasure (carrots) and avoid pain (sticks). What we have learned is that motivation is more than “carrots and sticks,” and that, importantly, there are other motivational factors that determine how people make decisions, what they want to do, and how well they perform. There is one thing that all chief executives agree on, whether their organization is business, military, sports, or academia: there is nothing more important to be successful in their job than to be successful in motivating others (and yourself). But how can you make motivation work for you? For the answer, you first need to know how motivation itself works. The class sessions in the course will be informed by a combination of class lectures, discussions, breakout exercises, readings, and out-of-class assignments. The goal is: to build a bridge between the science of motivation and its application to solving everyday problems of management.