Managing for Creativity by Richard Florida and Jim Goodnight, July-August 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Over many years, the leaders of SAS Institute have distilled a set of principles for getting peak performance from creative people. Among them: Value the work over the tools, reward excellence with challenges, and minimize hassles.
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Based in Cary, North Carolina, SAS has been in the top 20 of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year it’s been published. The employee turnover rate hovers between 3% and 5%, compared with the industry average of nearly 20%.
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since the pioneering work of Frederick Herzberg, managers have known that learning and being challenged motivate workers more than money or fear of disciplinarian bosses. What’s different about SAS is that it goes to uncommon lengths to find the right intrinsic motivator for each group of employees.
Much management knowledge is not put into practice. I do not agree “managers have known that learning and being challenged motivate workers more than money or fear of disciplinarian bosses.” Maybe good managers know this, but I would wager a vast majority of managers believe the opposite.
