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Incorrect assumptions about what motivates employees have led to suboptimal HR practices, new research suggests.

Contrary to popular management beliefs, individuals are naturally intrinsically motivated, academics Marylène Gagné and Rebecca Hewett argue in their recently published paper, assumptions about human motivation have consequences for practice.

But according to agency theory, which dominates management practices, humans are self-interested, rational beings who need to be controlled and coerced through external means such as rules, monitoring and rewards, because they won't naturally align their actions with organisational goals...