I thought this might be of interest to futureworkers.
/* Written 11:23 AM Mar 25, 1998 by [EMAIL PROTECTED] in web:twn.features */
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WHEN MONEY DOES NOT MOTIVATE
Rewards can have counter-productive effects. If a reward - money,
awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to be seen as the
reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity will be viewed
as less enjoyable in its own right.
By Alfie Kohn
In the laboratory, rats get Rice Krispies. In the classroom
the top students get As, and in the factory or office the best
workers get raises. It's an article of faith for most of us that
rewards promote better performance.
But a growing body of research suggets that this law is not
nearly as ironclad as was once thought. Psychologists have been
finding that rewards can lower performance levels, especially when
the performance involves creativity.
A related series of studies shows that intrinsic interest in
a task - the sense that something is worth doing for its own sake
- typically declines when someone is rewarded for doing it.
If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest -
comes to be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that
activity will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.
With the exception of some behaviourists who doubt the very
existence of intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely
accepted among psychologists. Taken together, they suggest we may
unwittingly be squelching interest and discouraging innovation
among workers, students and artists.
Young children who are rewarded for drawing are less likely to
draw on their own than are children who draw just for the fun of
it. Teenagers offered rewards for playing word games enjoy the
games less and do not do as well as those who play with no rewards.
Employees who are praised for meeting a manager's expectations
suffer a drop in motivation.
Much of the research on creativity and motivation has been
performed by Theresa Amabile, associate professor of psychology at
Brandeis University. In a paper published early last year on her
most recent study, she reported on experiments involving elementary
school and college students. Both groups were asked to make 'silly'
collages. The young children were also asked to invent stories.
The least-creative projects, as rated by several teachers,
were done by those students who had contracted for rewards. 'It may
be that commissioned work will, in general, be less creative than
work that is done out of pure interest,' Amabile says.
Rewards, Amabile says, have this destructive effect primarily
with creative tasks, including higher-level problem-solving. 'The
more complex the activity, the more it's hurt by extrinsic reward.'
But other research shows that artists are by no means the only
ones affected.
In one study, girls in the fifth and sixth grades tutored
younger children much less effectively if they were promised free
movie tickets for teaching well.
The study, by James Gabarino of Chicago's Erikson Institute
for Advanced Studies in Child Development, showed that tutors
working for the reward took longer to communicate ideas, got
frustrated more easily, and did a poorer job in the end than those
who were not rewarded.
Such findings call into question the widespread belief that
money is an effective and even necessary way to motivate people.
They also challenge the behaviourist assumption that any activity
is more likely to occur if it is rewarded.
But Kenneth McGraw, associate professor of psychology at the
University of Mississippi, cautions that this does not mean
behaviourism itself has been invalidated. 'The basic principles of
reinforcement and rewards certainly work, but in a restricted
context' - restricted, that is, to tasks that are not especially
interesting.
Researchers offer several explanations for their surprising
findings about rewards and performance.
First, rewards encourage people to focus narrowly on a task,
to do it as quickly as possible and to take few risks. 'If they
feel that "this is something I have to get through to get the
prize," they're going to be less creative,' Amabile says.
Second, people come to see themselves as being controlled by
the reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with
performance.
Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic interest.
People who see themselves as working for money, approval or
competitive success find their tasks less pleasurable, and
therefore do not do them as well.
There is general agreement, however, that not all rewards have
the same effect. Offering a flat fee for participating in an
experiment - similar to an hourly wage in the workplace - usually
does not reduce intrinsic motivation. It is only when the rewards
are based on performing a given task or doing a good job at it -
analogous to piece-rate payment and bonuses, respectively - that
the problem develops.
The key, then, lies in how a reward is experienced. If we come
to view ourselves as working to get something, we will no longer
find that activity worth doing in its own right.
In a 1982 study, Stanford psychologist Mark L Lepper showed
that any task, no matter how enjoyable it once seemed, would be
devalued if it were presented as a means rather than an end. He
told a group of preschoolers they could not engage in one activity
they liked until they first took part in another. Although they had
enjoyed both activities equally, the children came to dislike the
task that was a prerequisite for the other.
It should not be surprising that when verbal feedback is
experienced as controlling, the effect on motivation can be similar
to that of payment. In a study of corporate employees, it was found
that those who were told, 'Good, you're doing as you should' were
'significantly less intrinsically motivated than those who received
feedback informationally'.
A different but related set of problems exists in the case of
creativity. Artists must make a living, of course, but Amabile
emphasises that 'the negative impact on creativity of working for
rewards can be minimised' by playing down the significance of these
rewards and trying not to use them in a controlling way. Creative
work, the research suggests, cannot be forced, but only allowed to
happen. - Third World Network Features
-ends-
About the writer: Alfie Kohn is the author of No Contest: The Case
Against Competition (Houghton Mifflin Co., ISBN 0-395-39387-6).
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