Thomas Benjamin suggests alternatives to extrinsic rewards:
>1) Instead of productivity linked rewards, would investments in quality
>of life for the whole team(including family) be more appropriate under
>conditions mentioned by Roxanne, for instance. In other words, employees
>would feel cared for, rather than being manipulated.
>
>2) Increase the scope for intrinsic rewards that are not neccessarily from
>the task but from the community. I remember visiting an Ashram in
>Pondichery(India) where several inmates are engaged in routine tasks, but
>seem to derive their reward from the sense of community and the role of
>the task in the overall purpose. (Ashrams are similar to monastries but
>could be secular where the inmates choose simple life styles)
>
>Just thoughts. Maybe, this has no relevence in a society were comparisons
>are made on materialistic(extrinsic) factors.
I believe these concepts have real value but would not translate easily to
most sectors of the United States. In many of our leading companies we
talk about family values and the importance of building community,
however, I have not heard of any organization that correlates pay to these
factors. In fact, very often the opposite occurs. The employee who
sacrifices their family and personal life for the sake of the company is
the one who is rewarded with higher pay and promotions.
I do know of one company that relies entirely on intrinsic motivation.
They set a market pay rate for each job and then *reward* their employees
by offering an exciting, challenging place to work. They expect and
require all employees to do their best and they have had great success
with this philosophy. They do no performance reviews but give regular
performance feedback. All employees receive the same percentage pay
increase to keep them at the market rate. Their employees love working
there and they have almost no turnover.
Roxanne Abbas
Roxanne Abbas
Abbas Compensation Strategies
rabbas@comp-web.com
http://www.comp-web.com
--Roxanne Abbas <rabbas@comp-web.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>