Ivan wrote:
"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."
Right!! I think the conceptual problem here is that a self reinforcing
loop has been established in the ways of thinking about compensation and
incentives. If my job has been designed in such a way that it is difficult
or impossible for me extract personal satisfaction and cognitive growth
from it, and I have no other or no better job options, then I am likely to
say 'screw the job - I'll just turn up for the money, and satisfy my other
needs elsewhere.'
This encourages the managers and policy makers of that organisation to
believe that money is the only incentive that employees respond to. When
they begin to see the inevitable declines in performance that are
associated with jobs stripped of their capacity to supply cognitive and
emotional growth, and therefore intrinsic motivation, they respond by
applying more cash incentives (linked to performance), and penalties for
poor performance - a strategy which merely reinforces the alienation of
the employees.
A good example is skills based pay systems. The research evidence is that
where the PAY is used to try and drive skills acquisition the strategy is
likely to fail. Where access to training and personal development is used
to drive multi/up-skilling, and the pay system is modified to reinforce
the strategy and maintain congruence in the system, it is likely to
succeed.
The problem is that the reinforcing loop has developed to the point where
it is almost received cultural wisdom in whole industries and countries.
It seems to me that this is a case of the Sengean addiction archetype.
Phillip Capper
Centre for Research on Work, Education and Business
PO Box 2855
Wellington
New Zealand
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