Defeating the potentially deleterious effects of externally imposed deadlines: practitioners' rules-of-thumb.
The authors interviewed people to determine whether they devise strategies to offset the damaging effect that externally imposed deadlines have on intrinsic motivation. Interviewees' "practitioners' rules-of-thumb" strategies were consistent with the tenets of self-determination theory and were tested empirically in three experiments. In each of the experiments, complete or partial self-determination of initially externally imposed time limits negated the otherwise deleterious effects of deadlines on intrinsic motivation. Participants who actively co-opted a deadline as their own (Experiment 1), who self-imposed sub deadlines within an overall externally imposed deadline (Experiment 2), and who self-imposed more stringent deadlines than those imposed externally (Experiment 3) spent significantly more free-choice time engaged in target tasks than did their counterparts in externally imposed deadline conditions where no self-determination was permitted. Given the ubiquity of deadlines, the results can directly be implemented by both deadline setters and deadline recipients to protect people's interest in their work.
Burgess
Mark
M
Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, England. burgesm@hope.ac.uk
Enzle
Michael E
ME
Schmaltz
Rodney
R
D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D017748:Time Management