RuEn

Journal section "Theoretical issues"

Theoretical Approaches to Studying People’s Motivation for Creative Labor Activity in the Socio-Humanitarian Thought

Shabunova A.A., Leonidova G.V., Ustinova K.A.

Volume 11, Issue 4, 2018

Shabunova A.A., Leonidova G.V., Ustinova K.A. Theoretical approaches to studying people’s motivation for creative labor activity in the socio-humanitarian thought. Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast, 2018, vol. 11, no. 4 , pp. 90–109. DOI: 10.15838/esc.2018.4.58.6

DOI: 10.15838/esc.2018.4.58.6

Abstract   |   Authors   |   References
The article raises the issues of motivation in the context of individual approaches (Freudian, behavioral, cognitive-psychological, etc.) in the framework of theoretical-personal and theoretical-associative fields. The goals of the article are as follows: to structure the main existing approaches to the study of motivation, and to determine the provisions that can be used in the framework of the motivation for people’s creative labor activity. The study used general logical methods and techniques, such as system approach, generalization, analysis, and synthesis. We conclude that the main source of people’s activity is need-based tension, and the aim is to eliminate it using external incentive factors. We show that the nature of behavior will be determined by the degree of consistency between different groups of motives, correlation of motives and external goals, and in the absence of such coordination – by volitional mechanisms of regulation. We point out that scientific literature contains no unambiguous definition of motivational-stimulating mechanism; the paper provides its interpretation from the standpoint of behavioral approach and A.N. Leontiev’s theory of subjectified motivation. We focus our attention on the fact that the development of motivational-stimulating mechanism should take into account the specific nature of activity. We provide motives of creative activity, among which we highlight the cognitive and communicative motives, achievements, etc. We prove that the system-wide management of creative labor activity can be achieved by creating a motivational and stimulating mechanism, which would take into account direct and indirect methods of management, both external and internal factors that contribute to and hinder the development of subjectivity and have a different nature. Having reviewed the relevant literature, we conclude that most of the methods to promote people’s creative labor activity are empirical and arise mainly outside the study of scientific problems of creativity. So far, studies focus on cognitive aspects that provide creative thinking and behavior, while motivational aspects and those focused on overcoming negative effects of external stimuli are not given due attention. Theoretical aspects of our study can be used to develop a system of measures aimed to promote creative activity and motivational-stimulating mechanism

Keywords

labor activity, creative activity, motivational-stimulating mechanism, motive, stimulus

View full article