Case Incident 2 Attaching the Carrot to the Stick This ercize contribuE mothatIo

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Case Incident 2 Attaching the Carrot to the Stick This ercize contribuE mothatIon Learning Outcome: Decbe the major theories of mothation and relate them to organicational It seems like common sense that people work harder when there are incentives at stake, but many scholars question this premise. Alfie Kohn has long suggested that workers are punished by rewards" and urges that organizations avoid tying rewards to performance because of the negative consequences that can result. As an altemative to rewards, some experts recommend that managers foster a positive, upbeat work environment in hopes that enthusiasm will translate into motivation Although rewards can be motivating, they can reduce employees' intrinsic interest in the tasks they are doing Along these lines, Mark Lepper of Stanford University found that children rewarded for drawing with felt-tip pens no longer wished to use the pens at all when rewards were removed, whereas children who were not rewarded for using the pens were eager to use them And neuroimaging researchers at Cal Tech found that when incentives reached a certain threshold, the brain's reward center began to shut down and people became distracted. According to Vikram Chib, the lead researcher on the project, people begin to worry about losing the carrot when the stakes get too high, which leads to failure Rewards can also lead to misbebavior by workers. Psychologist Edward Deci notes, Once you start making people's rewards dependent on outcomes rather than behaviors the evidence is people will take the shortest route to those outcomes. Consider factory workers paid purely based on the mumber of units they produce. Because only quantity is rewarded, workers may neglect quality. Executives rewarded strictly on the basis of the quarterly stock price will tend to ignore the long-term profitability and survival of the

Explanation / Answer

Q8-17) Incentives should not be used regularly as a means to motivate employees to do the job due to the below reasons -

1. Incentives are over and above the salary that the employees receive for doing job more productively and hence employees get used to the incentives for doing their work that they meant to do for the firm.

2. Incentives will result in compromising on the quality of work as employees compete to be productive and complete the work somehow.

3. Rewards and recognition for work done over a period are better alternatives to incentives as the employees will not know in advance on when they will be given but will get motivated on providing the same.

Q8-18) The incentives that demotivated me during my student and professional life include -

1. Rewarding toppers in exams while not recognizing the talent of others.

2. Offering incentives at work for employees who provide sales to the firm while not considering employees who work towards building a long-term relationships with customers that help in long-term increase of customer value.

Q8-19) The employee behaviors that might be best encouraged by offering incentive rewards include -

1. Motivation to do a specific task in time

2. Competitiveness

3. Consistency in performance

4. Working productively by avoid wasting time

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