On the Folly of Rewarding

8/14/2019 On the Folly of Rewarding

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Group 1 | Sec B



Goal ‐ Reinforcement of desired behavior Assessment

‐

Too often reward systems discourage truly

desired behavior

while

encouraging

disagreeable

ones

Frequently ignoring valuable contribution during

performance evaluation



Politics –Operative goals have few takers

Public votes for politicians promising “high

acceptance BUT low quality goals”

Typically punishes

frank

leaders

doing

the

HARD

TALK

War –World War II vs Vietnam

Organizational Motive –WIN

Individual Motive – GO HOME ALIVE



Medicine

Type1 Error – Pronounce a healthy man sick

Type2 Error – Pronounce a sick man healthy

Doctors prefer

Type1

because:

▪ Less risky

▪ Increased earnings

Public REWARDS this behavior while HOPING

that the doctor does not make them



Rehabilitation Centers and Orphanages

Budget, reputation, size ALL depend on the

number of inmates reducing motivation of the

staff to

encourage

adoption

Adoption criterion are thus made unnecessarily

stringent

Rehabilitation counselors

spend

more

time

with

relatively skilled clients to improve their own

ratings



Ecology‐ easy to get away with non

conformance Evaluation of training

same set

of

people

delivering

the

program

are

also ones who evaluate the outcomes – clear case

of conflict of interest

Top management

prefer

to

ignore



Football –

Coaches prefer TEAMWORK over individual performance‐ at least while SPEAKING

People SCORING

are

REWARDED

ahead

of

the

ones who set the move

For RATIONAL players‐ individual performance

comes ahead

of

team’s

show

Management by Objectives –

Unquantifiable goals

get

unrewarded



Manufacturer of industrial goods complained

about dysfunctional

organizational

climate

A 7 point Likert scale questionnaire was

administered Observations‐

Behaviors termed as dysfunctional by managers were seen as rewarding by lower level employees

Conservatism and apple‐polishing perceived as

RATIONAL by

employees



Under‐payments provoke outrage while Over‐

payment is

met

with

silence

Additional standards like timely closing of claims promoted‐

“When in doubt, pay it out” Annual raises for “Outstanding” and “above

average” employees

were

too

close

for

any

differentiation

“Hoping for performance, while rewarding

attendance”



Fascination with an “Objective” Criterion

May work for predictable jobs, but wont for other areas of the businesss

Overemphasis on

Highly

Visible

Behaviors

Ignoring qualitative features of performance

Hypocrisy Emphasis

on

Morality

or

Equity

rather

than

efficiency



Selection

Select employees whose individual goals and

motives match with the organizations

Training Aiming to mould employees goals

Effectiveness is questionable

Altering the Reward System



THE END

On the Folly of Rewarding

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