I am certain that many members of this list are familiar with the work of
Alfie Kohn, in this case, his book, Punished by Rewards". But, I will
give a brief summary.
Although it has been a while since I read the book, the gist of it is in
the title. Reward systems do not motivate or encourage creativity or
performance. I don't believe Kohn conduct the research himself, rather he
reviewed the published studies looking for a connection between rewards
and their effect on performance and behavior. Overwhelmingly, the effect
was negative, regardless of the age and gender of the study group.
Traditional reward systems like commissions, bonuses, grades, praise,
cookies, etc. do effect motivation. They change the motivation to
receiving the reward. Take away the reward, and the motivation is gone.
Now, usually statements about reward systems being bad are rebuffed with,
"How else are you going to get someone to do something?" or "You don't
think some one should be rewarded for doing a good job?" Not after
reading the book I don't.
A simple example of the bonus system. I have a niece in third grade. In
order to "encourage" reading, the students were given a coupon for pizza
for every ten or twenty books they read. Something like that. So she
read a lot of books. Did she learn to value and appreaciate books? Will
she be doing any reading over the summer or in fourth grade? Even if she
had previously loved to read books, by adding the "incentive" the
motivation changed from enjoyment to reciving pizza. From an early age,
"we" are taught that anything worth doing is worth being rewarded for.
So, I don't know if there are any "right" incentives. I think Rol's
example from raising children is a good example of creating an environment
where learning can occur.
I highly suggest reading the book. I know how long posts can be
frustrating. So, I will leave it at that.
[Host's Note: Long postings are OK here. There was a discussion of this
book a couple of months ago here under the same subject line.
In association with Amazom.com, learning-org provides this book link
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395710901/learningorg
Purchases made using this link will result in commissions that help cover
the costs of learning-org. ...Rick]
--Brent Honadel <brntnsuz@mail.winternet.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>