Managing Individual Autonomy to Increase Intrinsic Motivation within a New Product Development Organization in Japan

Intrinsic motivation is one of the most important individual factors to enhance the team’s creativity in New Product Development (NPD). Many social psychological studies have pointed out that intrinsic motivation is heightened through enhancing individual autonomy. However, managing individual autonomy in a work situation has not yet been adequately addressed nor discussed in detail. In this research, we investigated how to improve individual autonomy focusing on NPD personnel, such as those in design, development, manufacturing and quality-control, as well as in marketing departments. From questionnaire data collected from 242 NPD members within a Japanese industrial machine manufacturing company, we quantitatively analyzed the effects of various ways of giving autonomy to individuals. The results of this statistical analysis showed that individual autonomy was enhanced only when individuals could decide what they should accomplish in their work and how they should do their work. We revealed the importance of autonomy in motivating working professionals intrinsically, and how autonomy could be effectively given to individuals in a work situation. Also, we found that autonomy given to individuals had no direct effect on intrinsic motivation.Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering & Technology (PICMET 2008), 27-31 July, Cape Town, South Afric