The end of motivational theories (part 1): critical and open questioning of the scientific claim of these theories

La fin des théories de la motivation (1 er volet): Interrogation critique et ouverte de la prétention scientifique de ces théories

Mathias Naudin ()
Additional contact information
Mathias Naudin: CEDAG (URP_1516) - Centre de droit des affaires et de gestion - UPCité - Université Paris Cité, UFR droit, économie et gestion [Sociétés et Humanités] - Université Paris Cité - UPCité - Université Paris Cité

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: How do theories of motivation fit into a research movement that claims to be scientific? For a theory to be relevant and interesting, it must be able to give a better account of the world, to make it more intelligible and understandable, and ideally it must enable us to interact with it better. The central concept of the theory must meet the same expectations. On what elements are those theories based? What observations? What ontological, dialectical, epistemological and phenomenological foundations and postures? What doxography? What demonstrations? Have the research methods been adapted to the research object or subject? Are there tangible results that allow the founding hypotheses to be held true and justify the practical interest of these theories? Our aim is to question theories of motivation (in the sense of Husserl, 1962), i.e., in a certain way, to see what might be behind the mirror of false pretenses and fine speeches, and to better identify the historical genesis and methodical approaches on which these theories are based. Through this first part of our interrogation, we question and expose the fragility and 'scientific' flaws of motivation theories. From a scientific point of view, theories of motivation appear to be based on an empirical-formal vision without any empirical basis and an ignorance of the unconscious and of hermeneutic approaches that seek to shed light on the meaning of human behaviour; this may raise questions when we are interested in motivation. They appear to be solely projective, focusing on the instrumental transformation of an ignored life and reified individuals. In so doing, they participate fully in a social movement of freely consented submission of the working masses to the service of an economic growth with relatively unevenly distributed benefits.

Keywords: motivation; theories of motivation; Epistemology; Epistemology of management sciences; Phenomenology; Critical management studies CMS; critique des sciences de gestion; management; critique du management; Motivation; Motivation autodéterminée; Théorie de la motivation; épistémologie; épistémologie des sciences de gestion; Phénoménologie (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme and nep-hpe
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03721139
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Et maintenant ? Quelles propositions du management ? Quels questionnements épistémiques ?, IP&M et Université Paris Cité (CEDAG), Jun 2021, Paris, France

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-03721139/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03721139

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().