On Friday, December 05, 1997 8:29 AM, learning-org-approval@world.std.com On
Behalf Of Simon Buckingham wrote:
> Gray Southon wrote:
>
> > Could you expand a little on what you mean by
> > incentives and incentivising?
> >
> Only by rewarding directly for
> effort- which turns out to
> be almost impossible within organizations- can
> we expect the individuals
> to perform to the highest of their abilities,
> serve customers excellently
> and so on.
>
> As such the whole notion of providing adequate
> and accurate incentives
> within organization strikes me as inherently
> problematic.
Simon,
There are a couple of contradictions here and I think you were aware of
that. The paradox of "rewards" for effort" when our markets reward
results achieved through "non space/time events" i.e. wisdom, knowledge,
innovation which are indirectly representative of effort <at least at some
point> are of course problematic for organizations.
In almost everything I have seen regarding incentives, compensation and
rewards, it is impossible to build a system which accurately portrays
contribution. I guess the only thing would be some type of stock
incentive system but then how you allocate that again plays into the
paradox.
I've been studying incentives for six months, even talked with Alfie<g>
and several gracious people at fortune 50 organizations and everyone has
there own little "plan" and almost in every case they are flawed but even
the "doctors of compensation" have no choice but to "invent" something
with which to "spur" performance.
Basically, they ignore one or another facet of "theory" in order to make
the program swim. And candidly, if every one is using incentives and
you're not, you have a problem--even if you don't call it an entitlement,
in a tight labor market, it's the ticket to the game. I wish I wasn't so
confused. It all feels like manipulation to me "Doc." Yet, like one of
the gurus said, what's a person to do? It's so inculcated in our society
from crib to grave. My 9 year-old informed me of their "incentive
program" at school and how much she liked it--being a performing
conformist--she reaped various kudos from the variety of
"performance-based" prizes.
How are we going to tell people that their effort is not connected to
gain? Like somebody said a long time ago...who will be the first among
you?
Just some thoughts, I wish somebody had the answer...
mike
--"Mike Jay" <Quarterback@classic.msn.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>