Motivation of Young Project Professionals: Their Needs for Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, and Purpose

Most of our workforce consists of members of Generation Y, making it necessary to understand their motivations to work on projects. In this article we investigate the motivation of young project professionals in the context of four case studies. Based on self-determination theory, we outline the Conceptual Model of Young Project Professional Motivation, which is comprised of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and purpose. The study offers several contributions to theory and practice. First, the article extends the understanding to self-determination theory by operationalizing the different needs of young project professionals in projects. Second, it explicitly adds the need for purpose as a central motivator to our theoretical understanding. Third, it puts the motivators in contexts and shows that these motivators have varying levels of importance in different project and organizational contexts. From a practice perspective, the study contributes to a better understanding of how to attract and retain young project professionals in organizations, for example, by fostering work environments and career opportunities that are aligned with their needs. We conclude this article with a research agenda.