Work Motivation in Temporary Organizations: Establishing Theoretical Corpus

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to organize this literature, which will facilitate a systematic investigation of work motivation in temporary organizations. First, we highlight the limitations of current theoretical lenses of work motivation specific to temporary organizations. Second, we synthesize three major theories- Event-Systems (E-S) theory, Socio-Technical Systems (STS) Perspective/Job Design, and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to establish the theoretical corpus for our proposed model of work motivation. Our model conceptualizes project work characteristics as an ‘Event’ capable of producing an ‘event outcome’ which is work motivation. This is explained using E-S and STS/ Job Design theories. Propositions are introduced. The moderation effect is explained using ANT. Third, we present the academic contribution of our proposed model.