Emotional experience and motivation in startup context: A qualitative study
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2018
Department
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Mcode
Degree programme
Strategy
Language
en
Pages
77
Series
Abstract
Using data from a qualitative study, this thesis explores the relationship between emotion and motivation in the startup context. The data was taken from ten in-depth interviews with employees and founders of various startups based in Finland. Based on various existing theories and studies, I have developed an analytical framework to analyze the connection between emotion and motivation in narratives collected from the interviews. This framework's role is to assist the understanding of the link between characteristics of emotion: level of pleasantness, level of activation, individual or group, and elements of motivation: direction, intensity and goal orientation. Tens of examples have been collected, showings different behavioral responses to different states of emotion. Data from across interviews show a relatively consistent relationship between the pleasantness level and direction of behavior, especially in the case of positive emotion. Whereas, in many cases, individuals may develop emotion self-regulation mechanisms, which alter the motivation and behavioral outcomes as suggested by the felt emotion. The results also show important observation regarding group identity and group emotion: even within an organization, an individual may form either in-group or out-group identity. The perceived group-identity has a strong influence on how the person responds to emotion felt in a group context. Examples from the qualitative study also show that long-term, intensive engagement with group members can enhance the in-group identity and thus increase an individual's motivation to perform both in-role behaviors and extra-role behaviors.Description
Thesis advisor
Franck, HenrikaKeywords
emotion, motivation, startup, group emotion, group identity