Results control and introjected motivation: the case of academia

Drawing upon Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the purpose of this paper is to explore when and why results control supports and thwarts the basic psychological needs of individuals to feel autonomous, competent and related, in such ways that they only partially internalise the control system and become introjectedly motivated. This paper is based on a qualitative interview study of researchers at Swedish universities who were exposed to results control in the sense that there were clear performance targets that were systematically followed up and incentivised. This study shows that introjected motivation could be understood as an effect of how results control supported and thwarted the basic psychological needs of researchers to feel competent, related and autonomous by means of a conditional logic. The authors find that researchers dealt with such a conditional logic through a coping strategy referred to as “willing compliance”, which allowed them to satisfy some aspects of the needs. However, as the coping strategy at the same time meant that other aspects of their needs were frustrated, it led to feelings of inner pressure and tension, which is a hallmark of introjected motivation. The findings not only contribute to existing management control literature, where the relationship between results control and introjected motivation has been an underexplored area, but also to the more general SDT literature. Specifically, it adds to the current understanding of how conditioning elements in the environment are experienced and handled by individuals and why this can result in them developing introjected motivation.