The aim of this paper is to examine how verbal rewards (praise) from superior public managers influence subordinate public managers’ work motivation coming from experiencing work tasks as important, exciting, interesting, and fun, so-called autonomous motivation. We use self-determination theory (SDT) to theorize that depending on how they are provided, verbal rewards can enhance or undermine autonomous motivation. This is because different verbal reward practices have different effects on subordinate public managers’ basic psychological needs, which in turn influences their autonomous motivation. Based on a cross-sectional survey completed by 331 public managers in four Swedish local government organizations, we find that verbal rewards that are performance-contingent and provided frequently undermine public managers’ autonomous motivation. Verbal rewards enhance autonomous motivation when they are based on skills and results. Our study contributes to the public management literature discussing the applicability of rewards in public sector organizations where autonomous motivation is crucial for performance. It contributes to practice by suggesting that superior managers who provide skills/result-based verbal rewards are more likely to enhance than undermine the autonomous motivation of subordinates. In support of SDT, the overall conclusion is that the impact of verbal rewards on public managers’ autonomous motivation is contingent on how verbal rewards are provided by superiors. However, our results should be interpreted with some caution due to the circumstance that cross-sectional survey research can only ensure associations between constructs and not causality.

中文翻译：

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言语奖励与公共管理者的自主动机

本文的目的是研究上级公共管理者的口头奖励（表扬）如何影响下级公共管理者的工作动机，这种动机来自于将工作任务体验为重要的、令人兴奋的、有趣的和有趣的，即所谓的自主动机。我们使用自我决定理论（SDT）来推理，根据提供方式的不同，口头奖励可以增强或削弱自主动机。这是因为不同的口头奖励做法对下属公共管理者的基本心理需求产生不同的影响，进而影响其自主动机。根据瑞典四个地方政府组织的 331 名公共管理者完成的一项横断面调查，我们发现，与绩效挂钩且提供的口头奖励经常会削弱公共管理者的自主动机。基于技能和结果的口头奖励可以增强自主动机。我们的研究为公共管理文献做出了贡献，讨论了奖励在公共部门组织中的适用性，在这些组织中，自主动机对绩效至关重要。它有助于实践，因为上级管理者提供基于技能/结果的口头奖励更有可能增强而不是削弱下属的自主动机。支持SDT的总体结论是，口头奖励对公共管理者自主动机的影响取决于上级如何提供口头奖励。然而，由于横断面调查研究只能确保结构之间的关联，而不能确保因果关系，因此我们的结果应该谨慎解释。