paper on Rewards to Motivate-Human Resource Management

paper on Rewards to Motivate-Human Resource Management

The most successful leaders are ones who create a motivating environment where everyone is able to contribute their individual and team best to meet the business goals.

External Motivation An extremely common response to motivating people is to reward them for the behaviors you want them to continue and punish them for the behaviors you want them to discontin- ue. Thus the common saying is “What gets rewarded gets done.” Presumably, the flipside of this belief is that what isn’t rewarded doesn’t get done.

The belief that “what gets rewarded gets done” arose during the Enlightenment. (The Enlightenment started at the turn of the 20th century and was founded on the belief that with enough scientific study and rigor, everything could be perfected. Moreover, whatever was not explained through the scientific method was only the result of a deficient methodology or technology and was only a matter of time before the proper method or tool would explain it.) Behaviorism was one such theory. It is based on a theory developed by John Watson in the early 1900s and even earlier by Frederick Taylor (the father of scientific manage- ment) and Edward Thorndike in 1898,

The field of behaviorism as we know it currently was popularized and devel- oped for popular consumption and application in the 1960s by B.F. Skinner.

The theories underlying behaviorism are…

• That the human is not a self (soul, me, or “i”), but is rather a collection of behaviors.

• If something of the human experi- ence cannot be explained through the empirical scientific method, it is not real and therefore not worth consideration.

• Finally, human behavior is not derived from initiative or self-will but rather is the result and response to either positive or negative reinforcement.

In practice, the theories of behaviorism suggest that if you do this (give rewards) you’ll get the behavior you want from people. Or, the flipside, if you give negative reinforcement (pun- ishment), you get less of the behaviors you don’t want. This is commonly referred to as “the carrot or the stick” approach to management.

The trouble with rewards is that they fail to tap into (or assume people don’t possess) initiative, selfhood, or free will. Therefore, in practice they don’t tend to produce motivation, they produce temporary compliance, but not long- term commitment.

According to motivation theorist Frederick Herzberg, rewards like pay, benefits etc. are what he called “hygiene factors.” They are like the temperature. When they are where they should be-not too high or too low- we don’t think about them. When they are too low, they tend to produce dissatisfaction. However, when they are too high, they do not produce higher levels of motivation. In sum, the absence of them can be de-motivating, but they are not, in themselves, motivating.

Ironically, there are other replicated studies (about 70) that have shown that inner motivation actually decreases when people are given external rewards. The reason for this is presum- ably because people believe that if they have to get paid to do the job, it must be something they wouldn’t want to do without payment. (Alfie Kohn “Challenging behaviorist dogma; myths about money and motivation.” Compensation and Benefits Review. 30, 3-17-98 and Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards, 1993).

Manager

inner Motivation In contrast to external motivation, inner motivation is something that motivates people to want to do something without expecting a reward.

So what creates inner motivation?

According to study after study, people report feeling motivated by intrinsic experiences of things like:

• A sense of accomplishment

• Pride in good work

• Sense of growth

• Challenging work

• Working with great colleagues

Does this mean that you shouldn’t reward people? Absolutely not! Rewards are important when they are given as recognition rather than bribe. When rewards are given to recognize the intrinsic motivation already in play, people cherish them for what they symbolize.

The promise of an external reward (like a trip to Hawaii, a new stereo system or a diamond pin) may push someone who is already doing a certain behavior to do more of it, but it is likely due to the accomplishment of the important goal than the reward itself. Rewards earned for this reason are remembered and cherished long after the item itself has outlived its usefulness. If you have ever moved a trinket earned early in your career from house to house to house and wondered why you kept hanging onto the item, the answer may be that, for you, it represents and reminds you of an important achievement in your life. Or, consider the situation in which an employee is given a plaque upon the completion of a major project. The employee doesn’t work hard for the plaque, nor does he/she value the

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plaque for its own sake. Instead, the employee values the piaque because it is symbolic of his/her accomplishment of a goal, personal growth, etc.

Create an Environment tbat Promotes Iriner Motivation

You cannot force someone to be motivated. They have to choose it. However, as a leader, you can create the kind of environment that naturally promotes inner motivation. The motivating environment includes the following elements:

1. Goals. A clear sense of what you are trying to accomplish and why it matters. Describe your vision of the completed goal and how others can make a difference in accomplishing that goal.

2. Challenge. The ability to improve ones’ own performance is incredibly motivating. It is one of the reasons we like to play and watch sports or video games. For example, if you

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shoot 10 baskets in a game, you will strive to shoot 11 in the next game. After you have communicated the final goal in a clear and inspiring manner, find ways to help people improve their own performance and give them feedback mechanisms so they can track their own growth.

Achievement. Give people the sense that their contribution matters in the larger scheme of things. People want rewarding things to do. Show them how their task is important.

Ownership. Give people ownership over their tasks. This relates to empowering leadership. Give them responsibility and the resources to do a good job.

Community. Although we know that some personality types prefer to work alone sometimes, most people are motivated when they get the chance to bounce ideas off of other people and work together on a task. Teamwork also tends to promote natural accountability.

Reprinted with permission from the Selecting and Leading Top Performers Trainmg Mariual published by Tero international. Inc. Tero International, Inc. is a corporate training company specializing in the research, development and delivery of training programs designed to build personal and interpersonal skills. Visit Tero online at wwiv.tera.com.

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