Employees’ Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations in Innovation Implementation: The Moderation Role of Managers’ Persuasive and Assertive Strategies

Successful innovation implementation is key for organizations to benefit from the adopted innovation. In this study, we examine the impact of employees’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on their attitudes toward, and use of, the innovation, with both managers’ persuasive and assertive strategies as moderators. The sample consisted of 34 teams and 234 employees from a Taiwanese manufacturing company that implemented an e-learning system. The results showed that employees’ intrinsic motivation and managers’ persuasive strategy were positively associated with employees’ attitudes, whereas managers’ assertive strategy was negatively associated with employees’ attitudes. Employees’ extrinsic motivation and managers’ assertive strategy were both positively associated with employees’ behaviour. Managers’ persuasive strategy negatively moderated the relationship between employees’ intrinsic motivation and employees’ behaviour. Managers’ assertive strategy positively moderated the relationship between employees’ intrinsic motivation and employees’ behaviour and negatively moderated the relationship between employees’ extrinsic motivation and employees’ behaviour. Implications of managers using both persuasive and assertive strategies to motivate employees are discussed.