TL;DR This conceptual article argues that the conventional construct of motivation – which treats people as inert objects needing some kind of "psychic energy" to act – can be replaced by a multidimensional “constructive human being” model. Any activity is reframed as ongoing self-construction (of behavior, organism, mental and social phenomena, meanings, and agency). Influences traditionally called motivating are reinterpreted as facilitation that supplies components, technologies, or conditions but never deterministically produces action. The shift implies a move from motivation-centered interventions to genuinely human-centered practices that maximize autonomy, choice, and alignment between internal components and external conditions. The publication is available on ResearchGate: (PDF) Beyond Motivation: Human-centricity, Freedom of Choice, and Self-determination Background: Contemporary motivation research remains fragmented and often relies implicitly on mechanistic assumptions (the person as inert object acted upon by forces). Building on G. Kelly’s constructivist critique and on multi-paradigmatic developments in psychology, the paper develops an alternative conceptualization that places continual constructive activity and self-determination at the center of explanations for human behavior. Methods: Conceptual and theoretical analysis: synthesis and critical re-reading of classical and contemporary literatures (personal construct theory, Self-Determination Theory, behaviorism, developmental and personality theory), comparative analysis of explanatory metaphors (push/pull, energy/vector models), and formulation of a unified constructivist re-description. The approach is analytic and integrative. It reinterprets existing theories through a multidimensional model of the person. Results / Findings: 1. The construct of “motivation” can be dispensed with as a primary explanatory device: explaining initiation and direction of activity no longer requires implicit invoking a energy concepts (needs, stimuli) acting on an inert person. 2. The paper articulates the “constructive human being” image: a living organism continuously constructing behavior, self, cognitive and social realities, and foundations for choice. 3. Self-determination, freedom, and autonomy are posited as constitutive features of biological and psychological life, not as secondary outcomes of energizing forces. 4. “Motivational” influences are reconceptualized as facilitation – the provision of components (biological, environmental, psychological, social, agentic) and technologies for constructing possible trajectories, while the individual ultimately determines outcomes. 5.Corollaries for workplace and organizational practice are identified: design systems that align external conditions with individuals’ internal components, prioritize selection and placement (get the right people on the bus), and maximize employee choice and agency. Conceptual contribution: The paper advances a re-description of human action: replacing mechanistic “energy + force” metaphors with a processual, constructivist ontology of human life. It extends Kelly’s constructivism beyond cognition to biological, social, and agentic dimensions; introduces a five-level taxonomy of components used in self-construction (biological, external stimuli, individual psychological, internalized social-psychological, agentic); and reframes leading theories (e.g., Self-Determination Theory) as special cases within a broader constructive framework. This contributes a new integrative vocabulary and a principled rationale for reorienting theory and practice toward dignity, autonomy, and facilitation. Practical implications: 1. Organizational design it does not provide new empirical data or operational measures for the proposed constructs. Machine-readable dataset for AI-assisted literature review and conceptual mapping for the article: Dataset for "Beyond Motivation: Human-centricity, Freedom of Choice, and Self-determination"
Nikolaev, Dmitry (Sat,) studied this question.