Amsterdam Business School, U. of Amsterdam, Netherlands
The democratization of work marks a significant shift toward more inclusive strategy-making in organizations. This paper investigates the underexplored aspect of employee motivation in strategy crowdsourcing. Focusing on framing as a key communication technique to influence perception, we examine how both radical and moderate framing in relation to the organization's status quo influence employee participation in strategy crowdsourcing. Utilizing Self-Determination Theory (SDT), we develop a conceptual model and conduct a controlled field experiment with 1,795 employees in a Fortune 500 company. In this experiment, we manipulate the framing of invitations and the nature of rewards offered to employees. Our findings reveal that framing aligns with employees' psychological needs, varies by tenure and hierarchy, and significantly influences their participation. These insights contribute to developing nuanced framing strategies that cater to the diverse psychological needs of employees at different organizational levels, enhancing our understanding of effective employee mobilization in strategy crowdsourcing.
