(MIT Sloan Management Review: Cambridge, MA) -- Flawed assumptions about what motivates people to work can lead to counterproductive management tactics, argues new research from MIT Sloan Management Review.

Psychology research has established that individuals are naturally intrinsically motivated and thrive when their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are satisfied. But most managers still operate under old assumptions, drawn from economic theory, that humans are chiefly self-interested and need to be controlled and motivated through external mechanisms such as rules, monitoring, and rewards.

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