The Perceived Effective Motivation Methods in China’s Creative Industries: The Managerial Perspective

Developing China’s creative industries are being prioritized as one of the solutions for maintaining the competitive advantage in order to sustain China’s economic growth. Motivating creative workers became one of the major issues that Chinese creative organziations ought to manage. Studies show that the higher motivation employees have, the better they perform. But motivating creative workers may have different requirement comparing to get general employees. Motivating employees' creative performance is quite a popular topic in organizational behavior study in western countries. However, motivation of Chinese creative workers remains less explored. This study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by investigating the current motivation methods that are being used in China's creative industries and the effective methods perceived by managerial level people. Qualitative research approach is employed as the methodology.Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with managers of creative organizations in China. Although some previous studies indicated that intrinsic motivation is more effective in motivating creativity than extrinsic motivation, the current findings show that tangible rewards and recognition are the most effective motivation methods perceived by managers. This study tried to reveal the management problems of motivating Chinese creative workers. Cultural background, economic factors and managers' knowledge background may be the reasons for the current findings.