Congruent Motivation: As an Indicator of Occupational Preference

Orientation among First Year and Fourth Year Students of

College of Arts and Sciences in the
University of the East ± Manila

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Rhodora N. Eliquio, Michele V. Navarro, Nicole Kris L.Silva

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This study was focused mainly on the students¶ congruence of intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation of whether or not serves as an indicator of occupational
preference was investigated. The sample of 416 college students: 229 are from
first year and 187 fourth year of the said university. Results show that
respondents have a congruent motivation intrinsically and extrinsically.

Every people moves, every second, minute, hour and every day, and individual
moves for a certain reason and goals in which there is an internal and external force
that drives an individual to induce into a certain action and as psychologists explain this
driving force is called motivation. The "labor of love aspect" driving human behavior is
what psychologists have, for several decades, called intrinsic motivation the motivation
to engage in work primarily for its own sake, because the work itself is interesting,
engaging, or in some way satisfying. The contrasting concern with "editors and
publishers and critics and the world" fits the definition of extrinsic motivation: the
motivation to work primarily in response to something apart from the work itself, such as
reward or recognition or the dictates of other people (T. Amabile et. al.; 1994).
Moreover, some studies shows that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be
both found as a factor in inducing a certain behavior and it was called congruent
motivation. Congruent motivation is an equal or a balance level between intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation that drive an individual to induce and perform an action.
Furthermore, there have been studies shows that congruent motivation serves as an
indicator or affecting the occupational preference among individual. Occupational

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preference is an aspects or types of work that people report preferring (Robert
Morgan, 2008). A factor affecting the ideal job of among individual may somehow vary
depending on its motivation.

METHOD
The purpose of this study was to investigate the congruent motivation of first year
and fourth year college students which can be an indicator of occupational preference
orientation. In this context, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation appears to be the main
problem which the result might be congruent to each other and serves as an indicator of
occupational preferred by the respondents. In this study the researchers tried to find
answer to the following questions:
 What is the level of congruent motivation of the respondents?
 What is the level of occupational preference orientation of the respondents?
 Is there a significant relationship between congruent motivation and
occupational preference orientation of the respondents?
 Is there a significant relationship between the occupational preference
orientation and the demographic profile of the respondents?

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¦ 
The sample of this study consisted of 416 students from 229 first year and 187
fourth year college students of the College of Arts and Sciences in the University of the
East, Manila campus. Sixty- six percent (66%) of the students (273) who received the
tests were female and thirty-four percent (34%) were male (143).




Two standardized tests are used in gathering the sufficient data needed. The
researchers administered simultaneously the Brainard Occupational Preference
Inventory and the Work Preference Inventory to the entire respondents of the study.
The said tests were conducted in the classrooms of the respondents.

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      Students completed the 120-items
which was made 1922 and received some revision and completely new norms in
1956. It samples six fields of occupational interest for each examinee: commercial,
mechanical, professional, esthetic, and scientific (for both sexes), agricultural (for boys
only), and personal service (for girls only). The test was used to measure and identify
on which career job they prefer in the future.

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      Students completed the 30-items which is equally
divided into two which will measure students¶ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation towards
work was constructed by Teresa M. Amabile, Karl G. Hill, Beth A. Hennessey, and
Elizabeth M. Tighe which was validated in 1994. This test was designed to assess
individual differences in intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations.

0ESULTS

@ata regarding students¶ level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the

respondents are shown in Table 1.

As can be seen in the table, this denotes that the majority of the respondents
have a congruent motivation. This implies that the respondents are extrinsically and
intrinsically motivated which means that they are likely influence both by the
environment around them and by their own selves.

Male respondents have a higher occupational preference in terms of all the

result in every dimensions compare to female respondents, which means that males
are more likely career oriented compare to female respondents. Findings with regard
to this are shown in Table 2.

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Congruent Motivation Average Weighted

Verbal Interpretation
Mean

Intrinsic 2.03 Average

Extrinsic 2.18 Average


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Dimensions of
Female Male
Brainard
Occupational Weighted Weighted
Preference Verbal Verbal
Mean Mean
Orientation Interpretation Interpretation
Score Score
Commercial 66.84 Average 64.43 High
Mechanical 51.79 High 57.11 Low
Professional 67.78 Average 66.68 High
Esthetic 64.70 Average 65 High
Scientific 61.21 High 59.25 Average
Agricultural/ Personal
53.96 Low 54.36 Average
Service



 There is no relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic to the dimensions of

Mechanical, Professional, Esthetic, Scientific and Agricultural/Personal Service. This
means that regardless of the type of motivation the respondents have; it does not
significantly affect the type of occupational preferences the respondents have. Thus,
the r- value between intrinsic and extrinsic in Commercial denotes an average
correlation. Therefore, there is a marked to substantial relationship between intrinsic
and extrinsic in Commercial. This means, a fair level of intrinsic and extrinsic

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motivation prefers a Commercial related occupational preference among individual.
Findings to this data regards to Table 3.

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Agr./
VA0IABLES Int. Ext. Comm. Mech. Prof. Estn. Sci.
Pers.
Intrinsic 1
Extrinsic 0.64 1
Comm. -0.12 -0.16 1
Mech. 0.08 0.01 0.25 1
Prof. -0.06 0.05 0.33 0.12 1
Estn. 0.06 -0.06 0.27 0.17 0.20 1
Sci. 0.09 0.03 0.15 0.27 0.11 0.18 1
Agr./Pers. 0.04 0.08 0.25 0.16 0.25 0.24 0.06 1


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x2 values
Profile
Variables C.V. (’
Commercial Mechanical Professional Esthetic Scientific Agricultural df =0.05
level
Age 32.51 36.26 26.11 88.01 37.42 23.12 48 67.5

Gender 7.16 31.43 10.02 11.6 25.8 10.48 4 9.49

Course 55.05 32.15 24.15 25.31 27.82 17.27 20 31.41

Year
12.83 10.5 2.29 16.23 15.97 6.27 4 9.49
Level


Table 4 shows the relationship of the demographic profile of the respondents

among the six dimensions of the Brainard Occupational Preference Inventory. Most of
the results show a significant relationship regarding to age, gender, course and year
level.
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 DISCUSSION

The study of Amabile, Goldfarb, & Brackfield (1990) the findings suggest that
individuals who are strongly extrinsically motivated may view their work environment in
terms of its extrinsic controls and they may seek occupations where extrinsic
motivators are salient and individual who are strongly motivated may view and seek
out complex, difficult tasks, are related only to certain components of intrinsic
motivation, such as challenge, fun and satisfaction. Moreover, the result was
contradicted by the theory of Leeper and Greene (1978) proposed that individual¶s
intrinsic motivation will decrease to the extent that their extrinsic motivation increases.
In the table 2, the result of the study was contradicted by the study of Pulkkinea
et. al (2002) that career stability is strongly related to women than men because
women are more likely better in terms of socialization and handling interpersonal
relationship compared to men.
A fair level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation prefers a Commercial related
occupational preference among individual. The findings is supported by the study of
Savickas (1997) where it stated that a motivation attends to how individuals construct
and negotiates their work lives and specifies predictable tasks and coping behavior
that an individual¶s encounter as they develop their careers.
Based from the findings in gender it is supported by the study of Wiley and
Sons (2006) stated that sex differences in both temperament and cognitive ability,
which are products of our evolutionary history, predispose men and women toward
different occupational behavior. The tendency of men to predominate in fields
imposing high quantitative demands, high physical risk, and low social demands, and
the tendency of women to be drawn to less quantitatively demanding fields, safer jobs,
and jobs with a higher social content are, at least in part, artifacts of an evolutionary
history that has left the human species with a sexually dimorphic mind. These
differences are proximately mediated by sex hormones. Moreover, the findings in the
relationship between ages are supported by the study of @e Lange et. al. (2003)
stated that age and company tenure is related, and that effects of aging are often
confounded by the effects of tenure, and vice versa.
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 0ECOMMENDATIONS
Since congruent motivation serves as an indicator of occupational preference
orientation among the respondents of this study, the researchers recommends the
following in lined and ruled with the limitations of the study. Consider the role of
culture and nationalities as one of the variables regarding the demographic profile of
the respondents in order to determine if cultural differences varies among the
respondents.
Look for more accurate standardized test when it comes to measuring the level
of motivation whether it is congruent or higher from each other so that it will result for
better interpretations, findings, and understanding. The researchers recommend
administering the test in a wide range of heterogeneous group sample to obtain a
better result. There should be enough time in answering the Brainard Occupational
Preference Inventory Test so that the respondents¶ could focus in answering the test
in accordance to their interest. To search for more related journals concerning the
present study that will further support the relationship between a congruent motivation
and occupational preference orientation.

0EFE0ENCES

Morgan, Robert L.,(2008). ³Job Matching: @evelopment and Evaluation of a Web-Based Instrument to
Assess @egree of Match among Employment Preferences´, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation,
Volume29 Issue1 pp. 29-38

Pulkkinea, Ohranen, Tolvanen (April 2002),´Personality Antecedents of Career Orientation and Stability
among Women compared to Men´, Journal of Vocational Behavior Vol.54, Issue 1, Finland

@e Lange, Annet, et al. (2003). ³Age as Factor in the Relation Work and Mental Health: Results of
Longitudinal TAS Survey´, @epartment of Social and Organizational Psychology,

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