Performance and Compensation Management - Motivation

Effort beyond rewards…

What motivates us to do great work? It’s an age-old question. But the age-old answers - rewards, recognition, money, stability are no longer adequate. I agree with Daniel Pink’s argument, that extrinsic motivation (or reward) does not work in the current economy. Many people believe that rewards and punishments are the most effective way to motivate, however 50 years of extensive research says otherwise. Because we’ve shifted to a knowledge-based economy, 21st century work requires less extrinsic motivation and more intrinsic drive.

Rewarding employees in the 21st Century

                                “Too many organisations […] still operate from assumptions                                 about human potential and individual performance that are out-dated, and rooted more in folklore than in science”

(Pink 2009, p.9)

There has been an extensive amount of research on motivation and rewards over the past century, however it seems that adopting the knowledge we’ve gained has been rather slow to say the least.  As stated by Daniel Pink (TED 2009), ‘there is a mismatch between what science says and what business does.’ Frederick Herzberg researched employee motivation during the 1950s and 1960s only to discover a dichotomy that baffled managers, and still does today (Shields 2007, p. 71). The things that make people satisfied and motivated on the job are different in kind from the things that make them dissatisfied. His work influenced a generation of scholars however his conclusions do not seem to have penetrated through the business world. 

Using extrinsic rewards to motivate employees has been the most widely practiced management process. The large amounts of time, effort and money that are put in compensation and incentive packages serve as an indication as to how significantly important this practice is to managers in today society. These contingent motivators control an individual’s work performance with a promised reward, money, praise, critical feedback, surveillance etc.  (Amabile 1993, p.189).  Stemming from Skinnerian behaviourism, this ‘carrots and sticks’ approach is the most commonly used motivational technique to date, however research tells us it is a recipe for reduced performance (Kohn 1998, p.27). As derisively referred to by Herzberg, it is the ‘KITA’ (‘Kick-In-The-Ass’) view of employee motivation (Tietjen & Myers 1998, p.227). Brought about by Scientific Management, tasks were broken down into smaller procedures thus depriving workers of any autonomy (Kreitner & Kinicki 2013, p.226). Based on the assumption that human beings are utility maximisers (maximise reward while minimising effort), businesses are still operating on the idea that we only work in order to obtain rewards (Bridger 2014, p.58). It makes intuitive sense that when an opportunity is dangled in front of us, as rational human beings we will do what we can to obtain it.