Does Higher Rewards Trigger A Higher Motivation?
Motivation from the Latin word Motivus is the level of efforts one put into doing something (i.e effort exerted to reach a goal).
Without understanding motivations, you will find it difficult to
understand what induces specific behaviours at work and what drives determination, willingness and commitment.
mobilize your followers to perform, excel and contribute towards achieving goals.
In most groups and organizations, people simply believe that an increase incentive (salary, raise, bonus etc) do increase performance. This form of motivation is called extrinsic motivation which means doing something because it provides you with some external outcome. I remember when I started my first job long time ago (was 17 then), my boss used to say that the greatest form of motivation is money and I believed it at that time.
Now, as I have grown and gathered certain level of experience in team development, it's easy to argue that extrinsic motivation dulls thinking and blocks creativity. Whereas the other type of motivation which is intrinsic (doing something because you enjoy the activity itself), seems to improve performance over carrot/stick form of motivation.
This is a place for reward form of motivation to have it's highest impact and drive results. This is in a situation where the goal is narrowed and can be achieved in simple steps. When the task are simple and require mechanical skills (routine, automated kind of task), then reward should work well. In this case, the people focus their mind on reaching the goal thus having a narrow view of the result. Pretty straight forward and effective.
But most problems in life are not very simple with set-out narrow goals. They are complex, the rules are mystified and the solutions are not that obvious. With such tasks that involves rudimentary cognitive skills, the carrot/stick form of motivation produce poor performance. With the reward system, the followers tend to focus their attention on achieving any thing within the time frame to grab the reward points instead of exploring wide and allow themselves to bring out their creative part.
I watched a Ted talk video by Dan Pink on the topic The Puzzle Of Motivation. It is the greatest talk I have seen on the subject of motivation. He clearly explained why the carrot/stick model of motivation is failing in organizations.
In the video above, Pink mentioned the three elements of motivation which are:
Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
Mastery: The desire to get better and better at what we do.
Purpose: the desire to do something greater than ourselves.
The secret to high performance is the intrinsic desire to do things because they matters not because there's a reward attached to it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that rewards are not good source of motivation. Of course, there must be some level of rewards but this must be matched with favourable and free working environment for the individuals to expressed their creativity.
I wouldn't agree with you less, i believe intrinsic motivation supercedes extrinsic motivation..i say this because when your desire to be great, to be a better you is independent on external sources one can so go so far ahead in life. What people say or do to motivate you is important but what you tell or do yourself is more important..thanks for this piece @lordjames
I'm glad to read your comments. Yes, there's a place for extrinsic motivation, but when the desire to achieve something great comes in, it creates some sense of purpose which when combine with the extrinsic motivation gives a long lasting source of motivation.
Very true..thanks once again
The unintended consequences of extrinsic motivation is that it cut short creativity, reduces efficiency and hampers growth.
Intrinsic motivation is indispensable and imperative for the growth of any organization as well as individuals.
However, when intrinsic motivation is not rewarded adequately, in the long run motivation can die and mediocrity might set in.
Well done @lordjames for this amazing piece
You raise a very valuable points there which leaders should take note of. I always advised moderation in every decision and choices we make.
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This is a place for reward form of motivation....i think and ted talks are worth praising sir.....really getting some gas from there....this is the nicest thing u brought sir....this is really a very usefull post to me sir....@lordjames i check out ur post regularly sir...and i would say i found ur words so valuable to me....this is the first time im commenting here0.......io hope a lot more good post to come sir....wishing u8 a very good day...thank u sir
I think you will grow well if you take some time to read a post and add valuable/thoughtful comments. This kind of comments doesn't really contribute to the discussion.
ok sir thanks for ur words
Good perspective. I agree with your analysis though I will add another thing which I think is not normal in most management practices I have seen. Apart from fat salaries going to the top echelon of the management, why is it that it is those people at the managerial level that enjoy food, drinks and recreational facilities where companies offer them as free or for a token? There are son many companies in Nigeria that I am familiar with where the managerial level are the ones permited to eat or drink companies own cafeterias? Aren't those doing manual jobs that need good food and the management doing mental work just need coffee and fat salary? Who needs to eat solid food most between labour workers and the management? I think it is those who are doing the dirty jobs that need to feed well.