The Art of War for Talent. How Companies Can Gain a Competitive Advantage by Fostering a Culture of Intrinsic Motivation and Meaningful Work

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Review of Business Studies, grade: 1.3, Technical University of Munich (TUM School of Management, Chair for Management Accounting), language: English, abstract: The bachelor thesis combines theories, literature, lab and field experiments, event studies from the industry, and its very own empirical research to argue from both, a strategic as well as a financial perspective, that an inimitable organizational culture of intrinsic motivation and meaningful work may constitute a source of competitive advantage within the War for Talent. The thesis strives at highlighting the importance for firms to adapt to the newly emerged competitive environment that the ongoing War for Talent has created by considering their people as their most valuable asset for the success of the organization, as already hinted at throughout 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu in 500 BC; hence the reference in the title of this thesis. After a brief review of the circumstances that led to the emergence of the War for Talent and first implications for the industry, it is argued from a strategic perspective why motivated talent depicts the key resource for competitive advantage and why conventional extrinsic incentive measures aimed at maximizing productivity are no longer effective. Afterwards, a proposition will be made of how capitalizing on intrinsic motivation, human's inner drive to accomplish inherently interesting and challenging tasks, fostered through a framework of meaningful work, might be the decisive driver to get ahead in the quest for talent. A second string of argumentation draws a connection between meaningful work and superior financial performance. This proposition is then tested by an empirical analysis, comparing the financial performance of publicly traded companies featured on the 2017 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list against a control portfolio and the broad market, confirming significant differences for cumulative stock returns.