THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INTRINSIC AND THE EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION FACTORS WHEN CHOOSING THE FIRST EMPLOYER

Employer attractiveness affects employee desire for employment and work in a particular organization. Organizations increasingly make effort to differentiate themselves from others in the sector and to create the image of a desirable employer in the minds of potential employees. At the same time, individuals can engage in action due to various motives, both intrinsic and extrinsic. The purpose of this paper is to determine the type of motivation that drives individuals to achieve their own goals and to identify the role of motivating factors when making a decision about the employment in a particular organization. The objectives of the research are the following: to determine the level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the respondents, to determine important employer features when selecting the first employer and to get an insight into differences in the desirable employer features among dominantly intrinsically and extrinsically motivated respondents. The research was conducted on two occasions over a period of two years using an online questionnaire survey on a sample of 165 respondents, mostly graduate students. Descriptive analysis revealed that the respondents were mostly intrinsically motivated. For highly educated young people the most important factors that defined employer attractiveness were the possibility to gain professional experience and good relations with colleagues. That confirmed a high level of intrinsic motivation among young people in Croatia. A group of least desirable motives was related with organizations themselves – their size and activities.