Pleasure and Displeasure: The conspiracy in self-regulation of Employee Action

The proposed motivational gratification theory explains how employee’s self-regulate ‘production’ and ‘reduction’ of effort for achieving assigned organisational goals using the coactive activation of pleasure and displeasure, a theory of emotion. In management literature the coactive activation is rarely used to explain self-regulation of employee action compared to the commonly explained bipolar or antagonistic effects of pleasure and displeasure on approach and withdrawal behaviour. The discussion focuses on theoretical evidence of motivational gratification to unravel the conspiracy of pleasure and displeasure in self-regulation of effort. The practical and empirical implications suggest motivational gratification is a new ground to explore the understanding of employee disengagement, and behavioural outcomes of work motivation such as persistence and intensity.