Intrinsic Motivation

Employs a literature review to describe intrinsic motivation as the force behind pro-social behavior, or when individuals willingly engage in behavior that is costly to them but benefits others. Regarding health workers, motivation stems from possible appreciation of provision of health care, experiencing a warm glow from helping people, or earning esteem from being seen to have helped people. A typology, focusing on the sources of motivation and social preferences, leads to classification of eight categories of intrinsically motivated physicians ranging from status seeking to altruistic and to approval seeking. Intrinsic motivation plays an important role in the decision to become a health worker, what sector to work in, whether to exert effort, and what services to provide, while questions remain about extrinsic incentives' possibly negative effect on intrinsically motivated workers