Executives like working in the slowdown?

Ok, I admit, this study's conclusion is a sign that people are not inherently looking at extraneous reward factors, but that Herzberg's motivation factors more meaningful work, higher responsibility etc are much better to excite people than the combination of higher salary and boring work

Excerpts from the article:

Challenging economic times seem to be extracting the best from executives worldwide, as many of them are putting in longer hours and are having more responsibility at work.

Interestingly, most of the executives also find their work more exciting and meaningful now, despite the rising stress levels, according to a survey conducted by global consultancy firm McKinsey.

As I have stated earlier, making work interesting is the real way to achieving employee engagement, and not external factors.

Glad to see that current research even in not so good times supports this thought.