Organization Behavior

Academy of Management Review 2006, Vol. 31, No. 4, 889–913.

INTEGRATING THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

PIERS STEEL University of Calgary ¨ CORNELIUS J. KONIG Universitat Zurich ¨ ¨

Progress toward understanding human behavior has been hindered by disciplinebound theories, dividing our efforts. Fortunately, these separate endeavors are converging and can be effectively integrated. Focusing on the fundamental features of picoeconomics, expectancy theory, cumulative prospect theory, and need theory, we construct a temporal motivational theory (TMT). TMT appears consistent with the major findings from many other investigations, including psychobiology and behaviorism. The potential implications of TMT are numerous, affecting our understanding on a wide range of topics, including group behavior, job design, stock market behavior, and goal setting.

The fields of economics, decision making, sociology, and psychology share a common desire to understand our human nature—that is, our essential character, disposition, or temperament. This extensive, multidisciplinary interest in establishing who we are reflects the enormous ramifications of the endeavor. As Pinker (2002) catalogs, theories of human nature have been used to direct relationships, lifestyles, and governments—with disastrous effects when based on faulty models. On a smaller applied scale, treatments, training, compensation, and selection all depend on our theories of human behavior. Even job design, which is an overtly physical enterprise, requires positing human elements such as “growth need strength” (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). To ensure the efficacy of our interventions, we need to determine what describes, drives, or decides our actions. Ironically, our understanding of behavior has been hindered by the very extent of our efforts. There is a superabundance of motivational theories. Not only does each field have its particular interpretation, but there are ample subdiviWe are thankful that the editor of our...