1. Assessment of Intrinsic and
Extrinsic Motivation in for
Profit and Non-Profit
Organizations
SHELBY-LAIN BROWN
INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST

2. Introduction
 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation plays an important role in for-profit and
non-profit organizations (Lee&Wilkins, 2011).
 The purpose of the present study was to extend previous research by
worker motivation by assessing the extent to which employees working in
non-profit organizations are more likely to be intrinsically motivated than
extrinsically motivated.
 This study also assesses the possibility that intrinsically motivated
employees, who work in non-profit organizations, will be more satisfied with
their efforts in their organization.

3. Method
Participants
 Participants consisted of male and female professionals working for profit and non-profit
organizations 18 years or older.
 The 201 participants were recruited and provided their responses online using Qualtrics.
Measures
 The principle measures used in this present study included intrinsic and extrinsic motivation,
nature of the organization for profit and non-profit organizations, work and job satisfaction, job
performance and work effort.
 The assessment consists of four parts; demographics, Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation
(WEIMS), Employee Satisfaction-Job Passion and Self-Evaluation and Work Effort survey. After
participants click on the link, they answer yes or no to the question “are you 18-years old” if
they answer yes they move on to the rests of the survey. If they answer no the survey
populates to a “thank you for your participation” note.

4. Results
 As a measure of intrinsic motivation employees with non-profit organizations reported a higher WEIMS
score than for-profit employees
 (Ms = 73.51 vs. 67.14, p < .001).
 Non-profit employees reported a higher mean score on employee job satisfaction than for-profit
employees.
 (Ms = 36.70 vs. 32.71, p < .001)
 Non-profit employees reported a higher mean workload score than for-profit employees. (Ms = 7.51
vs. 6.45, p < .05)
 Non-profit and for-profit employees reported similar levels of workload stress (Ms = 7.51 vs. 6.45, ns)

5. Discussion
 Non-profit employees reported being of intrinsic motivation and having a higher level of job
satisfaction than the for-profit employees.
 Non-profit employees also reported having a higher workload than for-profit employees
without reporting a higher level of work stress than their for-profit counterparts.
 Future research should look into intrinsically motivated non-profit hourly employees vs. salaried
employees.