In Alfie Kohn's book "Punished by Rewards" he reviews the damaging effect of reward thinking or positive re-enforcement. The basis of which is "Do this and I will give you that." It is a technique designed to enhance our motivation. But the actual outcome is that as individuals we move our motivation away from the this - the task - and onto the that - the reward. Instead of thinking about the challenges of the task we start to concentrate on how we can maximise the reward. The technique may work for activities that require no intellectual effort such as widget production, but it is a retrograde step when any real innovative thought has to be applied to the task. Reward thinking is widespread in our society and so are its damaging effects. .
Reward thinking is a manipulative and controlling. It reinforces the power of the individual giving out the reward. The result is that it eats away at our self-esteem and intrinsic motivation. Our pride wants us to associate with the task and do the work to the best of our ability. When we find that we are persuaded to chase the reward at the expense of the task, it is our pride that comes under attack.
The damaging effects of reward thinking include:It is popular because it works in the short term, supports the "Direct and Control" (X Theory) mentality of many organisations and is a quick fix. But in Alfie Kohn's words "it requires no courage, no thought, no effort, no patience, no talent and no time - hence its popularity."
There are many many important implications to this thinking even out with standard bonus and commission systems. Our education is driven by the reward of a qualification rather than by the securing of knowledge. We seek ISO 9000 certification to make sure we are on tender lists rather than improve our systems (the same can be said of IIP and "First Point Assessment"), right down to the use of "gold stars" in our primary school.
Reward thinking is damaging because it is at the expense of our our intrinsic motivation.
We strongly recommend reading Alfie Kohn's book and also visiting his web site:www.alfiekohn.org
We do have copies of an audio tape of his presentation to The British Deming Association - It would be available to members at a cost of £10 each. If you want a copy contact Gordon Hall on g.hall@harehall.co.uk