notes-science-psych-peopleWantAutonomyNotInfluence

summary: "...why people desire power and how that desire can be satisfied....a position of power can be subjectively experienced as conferring influence over others or as offering autonomy from the influence of others....Nine studies show that subjectively experiencing one’s power as autonomy predicts the desire for power, whereas the experience of influence over others does not. Furthermore, gaining autonomy quenches the desire for power, but gaining influence does not." -- http://psp.sagepub.com/content/42/4/498.abstract?rss=1

summary of the studies:

" 100 participants took an online survey asking them to imagine that they’d been offered a promotion at work. Some participants were told that the promotion gave them more influence over subordinates but less autonomy; others were told they had more autonomy to set their own goals but less influence ... role-playing, with some participants playing managers and others assigned to be assistants. The participants were told that they would have to complete a list of tasks—some fun, some boring—and that the managers could choose who did what between themselves and their assistants...In an after-the-fact the survey...within the assistants, those who felt that lack of autonomy most strongly were more likely to desire power. Feeling the lack of influence didn’t have the same effect. ... in a group of priming studies...participants were asked to recall a time when they had power over other people, or when someone else had power over them (or what happened yesterday, as a control). Afterwards they answered questions about whether they were satisfied with the level of power and control they had in the situation. ... a survey of 986 readers of a Dutch magazine “aimed at professionals,” in which readers indicated how much power they had at their jobs (measured by where they fell in their company’s hierarchy), then completed surveys on the autonomy their positions afforded, their influence, and how much they desired more power. Top managers felt they had a lot of autonomy and didn’t indicate a strong desire for power, while middle managers, lower managers, and non-managers all desired power more than the top managers, at pretty similar levels. " -- http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/people-want-power-because-they-want-autonomy/474669/?single_page=true

discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11340137

some quotes from the discussion:

" This is obvious in the workplace. Here are some of the things that lack of power/autonomy will lead to:

" -- codeonfire

"Daniel Pink's book Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Pink says that people need 3 things to truly feel motivated at work. Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose." -- jhwhite

" I think Pink was making a even stronger statement than you give him credit for.

His statement in the book is that traditional methods of improving performance -- more pay for more work -- just doesn't work for tasks that require problem solving. In fact, counter-intuitively, experiments have demonstrated lower performance when paid to accomplish problem solving tasks.

What Pink outlines is that to improve performance on problem solving tasks (including creative tasks) you have to provide people with Purpose, Mastery and Autonomy. " -- ryanobjc