The introduction of New Public Management in the German system of higher education raises issues of the academics’ motivation to do research and to teach. We present evidence-based findings about contextual factors which influence intrinsic and related modes of internalized teaching motivation in German higher education institutions. We discuss parallels between internalized forms of motivation and public service motivation. In accordance with Self-Determination Theory, we empirically test factors which correlate with autonomous motivation to teach. We also address the issue of the crowding effect of intrinsic motivation by selective incentives.

Design/methodology/approach

Our analyses are based on the data of two online surveys among German professors (n=2061) representative for the population of state governed universities. To test our theory-driven hypotheses we used multivariate regression analysis.

Findings

Our results support the basic claims of the Self-Determination Theory that intrinsic teaching motivation is facilitated by social relatedness, competence, and partly by autonomy for German professors, too. If teaching is managed by objective agreements intrinsic motivation is significantly decreased.

Originality/value

We translated, reformulated, and applied the Self-Determination Theory framework to academic teaching. Our analysis presents evidence that the management of autonomy supportive work environmental factors is also superior to selective incentives in higher education institutions. Our study on academic teaching motivation is a specific contribution to public service motivation research. Academic teaching in public higher education institutions is a service to the public.