A clean desk, it has been said, means that the individual has either made no committment to the organization or if they have, soon plan to create a committment somewhere else.

However, with regards to motivation, one must first understand people in general and then the individual in particular. With regards to employees in general, I think it was B. F. Skinner who postulated that depression occurs when an individual feels they cannot make an impact on their environment. Therefore it would seem logical that for motivation to occur, the opposite must occur: the individual would have to believe that they are making an impact on the environment/company/business or whatever. Meeting a deadline alone is insufficient to acheive this: rather, in meeting a deadline if the individual sees that they have successfully impacted the bottom line, then some degree of satisfaction should result. This leads to future motivation when the individual believes they will again have similar results.

This goes against the conventional business concept that an individual must conform, and must not change things and must not know the value of their contribution (for fear that the individual in question will demand more money!).

...A