The Unlearning Organization LO10384

Dr. Ivan Blanco (BLANCO@BU4090.BARRY.EDU)
Tue, 8 Oct 1996 17:32:48 -0400 (EDT)

Replying to LO10174 --

> Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 13:59:20 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Rol Fessenden <76234.3636@CompuServe.COM>
>
> Roxanne correctly challenged my statement that 90% of reward systems are
> benign. Wrong, Rol, you dummy. The reward system is very important, and
> too often rewards different people for achievements that are in conflict
> with other people in their organization.

I think that the reward systems is very important in that the money I get
pays my bills. And the bills allow me to have a house, food in the
fridge, a car, etc. They also allow people some social status (if that is
important to them). I don't know that it is crucial for job performance.
I think that people have been educated into this supra system where all
the these rewards are attained through work. This has been done to the
point where people would not be satisfied with rewards without any effort
associated to them. Work is the instrument used to get the rewards, but I
don't see the relationship between these rewards and motivation (an
internal thing!).

> What I wish to throw out as a hypothesis is that the unofficial and
> informal rewards are also very important. What I have seen in a number of
> large organizations is that people in different departments -- all having
> the same corporate reward system -- can have dramatically different senses
> of job satisfaction. I attribute this to the departmental aura, and it
> appears that this can outweigh the corporate reward system. What do
> others think?

I would say that one could find all those people performing tasks that are
equally challenging and rewarding, reporting similar levels of job
satisfaction. This would be true even considering that some might be
complaining about the rewards they receive.

> The other point I continue to make is that in surveys of what people would
> like to make their jobs more satisfying, money, corner offices, windows,
> and the other trappings of power do not rise to the top of the list. What
> does this imply about what motivates?
>
> I leave this as a homework assignment.

B. F. Skinner, the developer of the Reinforcement Theory, the consequences
of one's actions is what make one do what one does (my own wording), was
interviewed back in 1988 (I think), by the The New York Time. There he
recognized the intrinsic value of jobs. I remember that he implied that
new technologies have taken the excitement out of the tasks. One example
he used was that of the homemaker. In this example he said that washing
dishes the old way was more intrinsically rewarding than putting dishes in
a diswasher to be done by the machine. There is more satisfaction in
cooking a meal from scratch than putting a T.V. Dinner in the microwave
and eating it. I believe that "modern, technological advanced processes
at home" lead to some depression. THis is my own notion, taken out of
some highly unscientific observations. Skinner believed more on the
external rewards when one wanted to get someone else to do something, but
it seems that later is his life, he had changed his own main notion in
favor of the intrinsic notion of motivation (I need to find this article,
but I hyave not been motivated enough to go through a few boxes that wait
for me in my garage).

While money is important (or as Carol Sager said, the green stuff), the
intrinsic motivation, both informal and informal, of the job itself is
more important when it comes to the individual's motivation to the job
right. If money were that much more important, would life a lot easier
for many top executives trying to improve the performance of their
organizations, and we would not be discussing this today! (well you did
it yesterday, and it is me the one discussing it today because I am behind
in reading my mail).

-- Ivan,

--

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