Do employees always want to “get out of” unsafe work?

Intrinsic work motivation (i.e., being motivated to work due to personal reasons such as fulfillment or curiosity) has generally been defended by researchers. Many studies show that intrinsically motivated employees often have better mental health and perform at work better, both of which bring many benefits to the employees themselves and their organizations. Researchers Kara Arnold (Memorial University), Nick Turner (Haskayne School of Business), Julian Barling (Smith School of Business), and the late Roderick Iverson (Beedie School of Business) challenged the general positive views of intrinsic motivation by studying it in the context of safety in sex work. Sex work is characterized as physically dangerous, socially degrading, and morally stigmatized, all of which threaten the safety of sex workers. 

Using the Melbourne Sex Industry Survey--data collected from hundreds of sex workers in the Australian state of Victoria-- Arnold and colleagues examined the type of motivation sex workers had for entering the sex work occupation (i.e., intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation) to understand the relationship between physically dangerous work and desire to leave the occupation. They found that sex workers who perceived their jobs as physically dangerous wanted to leave sex work if they entered the occupation for extrinsic reasons, such as money. In contrast, perceptions of physical dangers did not motivate sex workers to leave the occupation if they entered the occupation for intrinsic motivation reasons such as sexual curiosity or life experience.

Although this study was conducted in the sex work setting, it offers important implications for other occupations. First, the findings show that workers with intrinsic motivation may ignore the physical dangers of their work. Second, this study challenges universally-accepted research findings and questions the extent to which they are also applicable to marginalized, understudied populations of vulnerable workers. Based on Arnold and colleagues’ study, we recommend that organizational leaders consider the unique characteristics of their organization and industry and be mindful that intrinsic motivation could have a dark side.

 

Reference:

Arnold, K., Turner, N., Barling, J., & Iverson, R. (2020). Feeling safe while doing sex work: Motivation for entering sex work moderates the relationship between perceptions of physical danger and desire to leave sex work. Safety Science, 129. 1-8.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753520301922