Tag Archives: extrinsic motivation

Incentivizing Behavior Doesn’t Improve Results

Posted on May 28, 2010 by John Hunter

In the webcast Dan Pink shares research results exploring human motivation and ideas on how to manage organization given the scientific research on motivation. “once a task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill a larger reward led to poorer performance” “Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. Pay people enough so they are not thinking about money they are thinking about the work.” “3 factors lead to better performance: autonomy, mastery and purpose” [not additional … Continue reading →

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The Trouble with Incentives: They Work

Posted on January 28, 2010 by John Hunter

Gipsie B. Ranney has a great new article – The Trouble with Incentives: They Work I have wondered whether the escalation of pay, perks and parachutes for CEOs actually tends to attract individuals who are primarily extrinsically motivated, rather than individuals who are seriously interested in creating value. Several recent examples appear to be consistent with this view. … An important issue with regard to incentives is possible effects on teamwork and cooperation. If the incentive system is set up … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Deming, Management, Management Articles, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Habits

Posted on December 10, 2009 by John Hunter

Some things about what people do also have their roots in psychology. Deming had an understanding of psychology as one of 4 areas in his system of management. A huge factor in what people do is based on what they are used to doing – habits. It is often difficult for people to change – not necessarily because they don’t want to, or the alternative is more difficult or they think it is unwise. It is difficult just because they … Continue reading →

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Extrinsic Incentives Kill Creativity

Posted on September 21, 2009 by John Hunter

If you read this blog, you know I believe extrinsic motivation is a poor strategy. This TED webcast Dan Pink discusses studies showing extrinsic rewards failing. This is a great webcast, definitely worth 20 minutes of your time. “you’ve got an incentive designed to sharpen thinking and accelerate creativity and it does just the opposite. It dulls thinking and blocks creativity… This has been replicated over and over and over again for nearly 40 years. These contingent motivators, if you … Continue reading →

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What’s the Value of a Big Bonus?

Posted on November 21, 2008 by John Hunter

What’s the Value of a Big Bonus? by Dan Ariely To look at this question, three colleagues and I conducted an experiment. We presented 87 participants with an array of tasks that demanded attention, memory, concentration and creativity. We asked them, for instance, to fit pieces of metal puzzle into a plastic frame, to play a memory game that required them to reproduce a string of numbers and to throw tennis balls at a target. We promised them payment if … Continue reading →

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Righter Incentivization

Posted on November 5, 2008 by John Hunter

Incentive schemes to get people “motivated” often backfire. Why can’t we figure out how to incentivize the behavior we desire and have it not backfire on us? What is the righter way to dangle incentives in front of our employees to get them to do what we want? Well aiming at that is a bad strategy. Using extrinsic motivation less badly is possible but the correct answer is just don’t do it. The problems of individual incentives seem to far … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #45

Posted on October 15, 2008 by John Hunter

Read the previous management carnivals. Also see the management Reddit for popular new blog posts to include in future carnivals. Hire them, fire them, do what you want with them by Jay Padinjaredath – “A quote from Deming: “In Japan when a company has to absorb a sudden economic hardship… First the corporate dividends are cut. Then the salaries and the bonuses of the top management are reduced…. Lastly, the rank and file are asked to accept pay cuts…” The … Continue reading →

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Restaurant Eliminates Tipping to Improve System Performance

Posted on October 13, 2008 by John Hunter

Why Tip? by Paul Wachter When he opened the Linkery [the broken link was removed], Porter said, he hoped his employees would become as emotionally invested in the venture as he was, sharing a sense of purpose and joy in their work. … Porter instead proposed a service fee of 18 percent, to be pooled and split roughly 3 to 1 between the restaurant’s front of the house and its kitchen. … Porter, like the anti-tippers of yore, was persuaded … Continue reading →

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Management Improvement Carnival #34

Posted on May 1, 2008 by John Hunter

Please submit your favorite management posts to the carnival. Read the previous management carnivals. Introduction to Factorial Designs by Jonathan Mendez – “I like the idea of velocity in marketing — test, learn, test, learn, test. Instead of one large test I prefer focusing attention on certain areas or elements to achieve deeper understanding.” MIT’s Message about Lean Enterprise Transformation by Mark Edmondson- “1. Market leaders are good at embracing enterprise change; 2. Enterprise change requires a holistic approach that … Continue reading →

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Losses Covered Up to Protect Bonuses

Posted on March 24, 2008 by John Hunter

Does it surprise you to learn traders would cover up losses to protect bonuses? It shouldn’t, it happens over and over. Would it surprise you that almost any bonus (or quota) scheme increases the odds that the data will be doctored to meet the goals? It shouldn’t. Intelligent measures to make such doctoring difficult can help reduce the practice. But it is a likely risk of any such goal. As we have quoted Brian Joiner as saying: there are: “3 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Investing, Management, Psychology | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Why Extrinsic Motivation Fails

Posted on December 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Why Motivation by Pizza Doesn’t Work This completely changes the role of the manager as motivator. Rather than being the source of motivation (kind of a ludicrous idea in itself), the manager must help employees to find their own intrinsic motivation. Lean thinkers understand this idea as respect for people. Dr. Deming talked about joy in work. Douglas McGregor talked about theory x and theory y thinking. All of these perspectives incorporate an understanding of workplace systems and human psychology. … Continue reading →

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Dangers of Extrinsic Motivation

Posted on August 10, 2006 by John Hunter

The Econ 101 Management Method by Joel Spolsky. Once again Joel presents interesting ideas very well – past posts referencing Joel. But when you offer people money to do things that they wanted to do, anyway, they suffer from something called the Overjustification Effect. “I must be writing bug-free code because I like the money I get for it,” they think, and the extrinsic motivation displaces the intrinsic motivation. Since extrinsic motivation is a much weaker effect, the net result … Continue reading →

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Problems with Bonuses

Posted on April 3, 2006 by John Hunter

What sort of bonuses should we pay? by Seth Godin: Money, it’s been shown time and time again, is a demotivator. I’m not talking about a fair or even generous salary. Being a cheapskate is no way to find a great employee. But once people have joined your team, incremental money–bonuses and the like–usually demotivate people. He is right. Why salary bonus and other incentives fail to meet their objectives by Dale Asberry. Lean Manufacturing Visionary Jim Womack On Frontiers … Continue reading →

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