Trends in Intrinsic Rewards on Employee Motivation: A Review of Extant Literature

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review and undertake a systematic study on the impact of non-financial incentives (also mentioned as intrinsic rewards/incentives in the text) on employee motivation by examining empirical evidences of selected articles. It identifies prevailing gaps and offers with possible future research directions. The review article is based upon 25 articles which is relevant in the areas of motivation, non-financial incentives and/or intrinsic rewards into consideration. Stated articles were extracted from 05 databases: Emerald Insight, Taylor & Francis, Wiley Online, Science Direct, JSTOR. Study findings revealed that non-financial incentives play a major role in many industries as a motivational tool. Further, the study revealed that, even though financial incentives are the significant factors which lead to attract employees, non-financial incentives play a major role in retaining the employees. The findings suggest that a significant focus is required to put on non-financial incentives. Thus, non-financial incentives are the major factor in retaining existing employees in a firm.