Contrasts or Carryover? Demands–Capabilities Fit and Task‐Level Intrinsic Motivation Across the Workday

ABSTRACT In the course of a workday, employees attend to various tasks whose challenge might be equal to, higher than, or lower than employees' present level of capabilities. Moreover, employees encounter these tasks sequentially throughout the day with different levels of prior motivation. Investigating carryover effects in motivation from one task to a later task, we show how prior motivational states influence the effects of insufficient or excess capabilities relative to task demands within people. This demonstrates how our understanding of the effects of demands–capabilities fit on important outcomes might be incomplete without considering prior motivational states. We draw on person–environment fit and motivation research to develop a theoretical model examining the moderating effects of prior intrinsic motivation on the relationship between the characteristics of a later task and motivational states, in turn influencing task performance, engagement, and recovery. Results from time‐ and event‐contingent ESM studies indicate that when prior task intrinsic motivation is higher, the benefits of congruence between demands and capabilities are enhanced in a later task; however, the negative effects of any incongruence between demands and capabilities on later task intrinsic motivation are also strengthened.