[Ailist] incentives

[Madelyn Blair]

Roger,

You said, What is the
>
> outcome for an organization whose members feel that they have to  
> violate
> their values in order to remain within the organization?

Having lived through a reorganization that led to the organization  
changing its values -- and coming into conflict with my own -- I left  
the organization. As it turned out, most of the best staff in the  
organization did the same thing. (The organization lost about 10% of  
staff who voluntarily left in the first year.) An organization risks  
losing those who have the greatest flexibility in their careers, and  
these are very often those who are the best performers.

And while I have you, et al, nowhere in this discussion has anyone  
talked of the natural incentives that comes from working in a  
particular field with good colleagues who inspire you regardless of  
the management. In some recent work with scientists in the Federal  
Government, I have found many who are more concerned with performing  
well in order to remain a solid member of their profession. Surely  
this exists elsewhere, too. As a manager myself, I am always looking  
for ways in which I can harness this natural drive for excellence.  
With a little thought, it is effortless and is appreciative and  
generative as the individual feels more valued because you are drawing  
from them as a person, not as a 'human resource'.

Madelyn


Madelyn Blair, Ph.D.
Pelerei, Inc.
Turning Vision into Reality
www.pelerei.com
301-371-7100
301-371-7957 (fax)
301-471-8721 (mobile)
Skype ID: madelynblair


On Jan 28, 2009, at 9:41 AM, Roger Davies wrote:

> Hi Alice,
>
> Your last paragraph explains why incentives should not be used. I am
> interested in what incentives are present at every moment in every
> organization every day. Maybe it's a definition thing. We do exchange
> 'reward' and 'incentive' very freely and in my humble opinion very
> incorrectly.
>
> The main difference is that an incentive is a guaranteed outcome  
> that you
> know about before you decide to act e.g. if you complete the project  
> by a
> certain date you WILL receive a monetary bonus
>
> A reward is something that you may know is possible but is in no way
> guaranteed e.g. If you find a purse full of money and hand it in to he
> police rather than keep it you MIGHT be rewarded.
>
> There are many occasions when the definition is not clear e.g. If you
> achieve all of your personal targets for the year then you MIGHT be
> considered for promotion. On the surface that's a harder one to  
> define.
> There is no guarantee of promotion but there is a guarantee that you
> definitely won't get considered if you don't meet your targets. In  
> reality
> it's an incentive worded as a reward. It sounds like a reward  
> because there
> is no guarantee. However, you are now put in a position that to even  
> be
> considered for promotion you might consider making a decision that  
> will
> violate your values (be morally or ethically incorrect).
>
> You are correct incentives are everywhere , all the time and it is  
> how we
> choose to react to them that counts. However in many for profit
> organizations currently driven by data and cascaded KPI's the  
> outcome of
> your choice can mean the difference between having a job or not.  
> What is the
> outcome for an organization whose members feel that they have to  
> violate
> their values in order to remain within the organization?
>
> Roger
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
> [mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Alice  
> Leibowitz
> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 5:11 PM
> To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
> Subject: [Ailist] incentives
>
>
> I'm a bit confused by the idea that "incentives should not be used" if
> possible. My belief is that incentives are always present in every
> organization at every moment of every day. The choice is whether to be
> intentional or not.
>
> It's true that there are intrinsic motivations, but as the Nazi  
> project
> showed us, almost anyone can violate their values if the incentive  
> is strong
> enough.
>
> -- 
> Alice Leibowitz
> Partner
> Insight Unlimited LLC
> Non-profit, Community, and Grassroots Consulting
> Hartford, CT
> alice at insightunlimited.org
> www.insightunlimited.org
> (860) 956-9299
>
> ~Contact us for a free 1-2 hour consultation~
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