Re: Malcolm Baldridge/motivation

["Robert Bacal" <rbacal@escape.ca>]

On 31 Mar 98 at 9:28, den.list@deming.eng.clemson.e wrote:

> The ASQ letter - re Steven Prevette's post
> 
> When listening to Alfie Khon(Punished by Rewards) he argued that when we
> ask "how do we motivate staff?"-  we are asking the wrong question - we are
> assuming that we are motivated extrinsically and therefore have to be
> rewarded, when in fact we are motivated intrinsically and our need is to be
> enabled to take pride in our work.
> 
Not on the Baldridge...and please don't take offense at the comments.

I understand that Khon's work is popular in some circles, but it is 
simply ONE work in a vast compendium of research on human motivation. 
People are CERTAINLY motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic 
factors...and perhaps people differ on their emphasis and need for 
one or the other.

The issue is whether extrinsic rewards have unwanted and undesirable 
effects that outweigh the wanted and positive effects.

Khon seems to have entered the realm of the pop psychologists, rather 
than coming across as a research psychologist, and that's a concern. 
The best way to understand the issues is to read and learn about 
human motivation from a number of sources.

Robert Bacal, Inst.For Cooperative Communication, rbacal@escape.ca
Visit our Resource Centre for articles on mgmt.,training,communication, and defusing hostility
at http://www.escape.ca/~rbacal (204) 888-9290
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