Management Controls and Intrinsic Motivation: Insights from a Lean Organizational Setting

Using survey data from 300 employees, we examine whether feedback, training, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and visual management are positively related to intrinsic motivation, and, in turn, performance, via perceptions of autonomy. Specifically, we consider these relationships in the context of a lean organizational setting. We aim to contribute to the management accounting literature by investigating when and how employees' perceptions of control mechanisms facilitate intrinsic motivation and ultimately performance. Our results show that perceptions of training, feedback, and visual management are positively related to intrinsic motivation (and, in turn, performance) via autonomy. In a supplemental analysis, we decompose intrinsic motivation into two dimensions, challenge and enjoyment. We find that our original model holds but is driven by the intrinsic motivation employees receive from challenging tasks. We also show that SOPs are not related to autonomy but are directly related to the enjoyment dimension of intrinsic motivation.