The Progress Principle

This book relates the detailed findings of a study by the authors designed to understand what influences employee motivation at work. The study involved tracking 238 members of 26 project teams at seven different companies over a period of two to six months,
depending on the project. They asked participants to briefly describe a notable event in each working day and evaluate its impact on their mood, thus creating a database of nearly 12,000 slice-of-life reports. They analyzed these daily reports based on a model designed to define employees’ “inner work life,” which combines perceptions, thoughts, and feelings and the resulting sense of motivation.
They cross-referenced this data with performance evaluation criteria, and came up with a
goldmine! Their most remarkable conclusion concerns the generally underestimated impact on motivation of the sense of being able to make effective progress toward objectives at work. They illustrate this with detailed examples taken from their observations and delve into the practical implications.
This book, based on an impressive study, provides a wealth of useful information in a lively and readable style, thanks to the many excerpts from participant logs.