In response to Doc and Roxanne:
>Replying to LO14483 --
>
>Roxanne Abbas wrote:
>
>> Kohn quotes psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "to deemphasize
>> conventional rewards threatens the existing power structure." What would
>> cause a leader to give up the power that a reward system such as merit pay
>> gives him/her?
>Doc wrote
>Well, Roxanne, perhaps ethics? Perhaps vision? Perhaps satiation?
It is perhaps more fundamental than this. Max de Pree and Robert
Greenleaf both talk of the responsibility of leaders to prepare for
leadership. Part of the preparation must be to understand power. If
power is understood, then the enormous potential of influence, as opposed
to position/control, can be unleashed. Perhaps we spend too little time
on discussing power and politics in organisations, and too much on reward
systems. The result is that little or no effort goes into changing the
fundamental values of the organisation, to real and sustained culture
change. The continued use of "punished by rewards" by this thread points
to the problem. The system is in dis-equilibrium. Goal dissonance is
evident. A simple answer to Roxanne's question would be that leaders
would give up a "controlling" merit pay system if they could see that the
alternative was better for the bottom line, and what's good for the bottom
line reflects on the leader.
Shaun G Coffey
Postal Address:
CSIRO Tropical Agriculture
PO Box 5545
Rockhampton Mail Centre, Queensland 4702
AUSTRALIA
Telephone: 079 360 182
International: 61+79+360 182
Facsimile: 079 361 034
International Fax: 61+79+361 034
Email: shaun.coffey@tag.csiro.au
url: http://www.mda.csiro.au/
dreams preceed reality, they nourish it, perhaps even create it.
goals are dreams with timelines.
belief gives birth to reality.
believe in your dreams.
believe in yourself.
Source: unknown
--Shaun Coffey <Shaun.Coffey@tag.csiro.au>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>