PERSONAL INVESTMENT
THEORY
Damon Burton
University of Idaho
PERSONAL INVESTMENT
THEORY HISTORY
 Maehr
& Braskamp (1994) applied
Achievement Goal Theory (AGT)
to business
 Identified 8 major goals that
define success and failure in
business
 Developed the Inventory of
Personal Investment (IPI) to
measure key components of the
theory.
PERSONAL INVESTMENT
Investment is a business-oriented term for
motivation.
 Individuals may have multiple incentives or
goals that they are trying to attain in any
business situation.
 Incentives interact with (a) sense-of-self
variables that define traits that influence
motivation, and (b) perceived options or the
other alternatives you have to meet
important incentives.
 The importance of different investment
options may vary according to situational
and contextual factors.

MEANING CORE OF
PERSONAL INVESTMENT
FACTORS COMPRISING &
INFLUENCING “MEANING”
PERSONAL INCENTIVES
Personal incentives are business-oriented
terms for goals.
 Individuals may have multiple incentives
or goals that they are trying to attain in
any business situation.
 The more incentives individuals are
striving to attain in a situation, the
generally higher the motivation and the
more resilient to failure and adversity.
 The importance of different SOS variables
may vary according to situational and
contextual factors.

8 PERSONAL INCENTIVES
 Competition,
 Power,
 Excellence,
 Task
Involvement,
 Affiliation,
 Social Concern,
 Recognition, and
 Financial Rewards.
8 PERSONAL INCENTIVES




Competition – gaining satisfaction & feeling
positive about yourself when you win.
Competitive & like to win.
Power – seeking out & enjoying positions of
leadership & authority. Confident working with
others and trust intuitions in making judgments.
Excellence – continually thinking of ways to
improve, working hard & enjoying solving
problems.
Task Involvement – totally involved in what they
are doing, regard work as exciting & fun, like
challenges and enjoy solving challenging
problems.
8 PERSONAL INCENTIVES




Affiliation – liking to be in the company of friends,
enjoy helping others, and are friendly, trusting
and show affection for others.
Social Concern – gain satisfaction by sacrificing
personal gains for others, committing themselves
to social and civic causes and follow “golden
rule.”
Recognition – want recognition for what they do
& work harder when receiving recognition. Want
respect from co-workers, and do best work when
others encourage them and praise them.
Financial Rewards – value money, seek positions
that provide bonuses and extra income. Money is
an indicator of success & monetary rewards
prompt best work.
SENSE-OF-SELF VARIABLES
Sense-of-self (SOS) variables are
personality traits that influence
motivation.
 Individuals may be strong on some SOS
variables and weak on others.
 The more SOS variables that are strong,
the generally higher the motivation and
the more resilient to failure and adversity.
 The importance of different SOS variables
may vary according to situational and
contextual factors.

3 SENSE-OF-SELF
VARIABLES
Competence,
 Self-Reliance, and
 Goal-Directedness.

3 SENSE-OF-SELF
VARIABLES
Competence – determined by (a)
consistently achieving one’s goals & (b)
taking credit for that success as indictive
of one’s skills or personally desirable
attributes.
 Self-Reliance -- taking responsibility for
pursuing and achieving one’s goals.
 Goal-Directedness – consistently &
enthusiastically pursuing one’s chosen
goals.

PERCEIVED OPTIONS
Perceived options are a way to
operationalize alternate choices or goal
opportunities.
 Individuals may have different types of
perceived options in different situations.
 The more perceived options, the generally
lower the motivation for the task at hand
and the less resilient one is towards
failure and adversity.
 The importance of different perceived
options vary according to situational and
contextual factors.

2 PERCEIVED
OPTIONS
Organization
advancement, and
 Marketability.

2 PERCEIVED
OPTIONS
Organizational advancement – extent to
which employees feel that they can
advance in the organization & are not
stuck in their current jobs.
 Marketability – extent to which
employees perceive that they can find
good alternative jobs or career
opportunities and feel positive about their
future.

MERCANTILISTS VERSUS
ACADEMICS
COLLEGE VS UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
HIGH ACHIEVERS VERSUS
EVERYONE ELSE
ENHANCING PERSONAL
INVESTMENT
Person-focused
strategies
Job-focused strategies
Organization-focused
strategies
PERSON-FOCUSED
STRATEGIES
Selecting
motivated people
Placement of putting the
right person in the
appropriate job
Developing new goals and
sense-of-self variables in
individuals.
JOB-FOCUSED
STRATEGIES
 change
job itself
 change larger organizational
network in which the job is
performed
 social
aspects
 inherent attractiveness
 evaluation
ORGANIZATION-FOCUSED
STRATEGIES
 establishing &
communicating a
mission
 establishing salient goals
 concern for individual in the
organization
 delegate power
 identify and reward excellence
WHICH INCENTIVES ARE
MOST HELPFUL?
 Which of
these personal incentives
are more personally controllable
and thus make success easier to
attain?
 Which personal incentives are less
personally controllable and thus
make success harder to attain?
Use Personal Investment
Theory to profile Brett
Favre’s motivation to play
football for the Minnesota
Vikings next season.
THE
END