Task 1: Please give Summary(3-4 Paragraphs) what you have learnt this week. Please see attached files for readings/Videos/Links/Assessment’s(No need to do the Assessment’s-but write the outcomes of the Assessments-Big 5 Scale,CSE Scale,What Motivates you) -Use References what other teammates are writing from task 2(2 Posts) -Please don’t copy paste
Reading Link:
The Problem with Financial Incentives — and What to Do About It
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/podcast-details.aspx?episode=21335069
Video Link:
https://hbr.org/video/2226612733001/the-power-of-progress
Task 2:Please add comments 2-3 Paragraphs for below two posts
Post 1:
My first takeaway is from the TED talk by Dan Pink. He discussed the candle problem and how extrinsic and contingent motivators do more harm than good when it comes to being creative and needing creativity to solve problems. Extrinsic motivators worked well in the 20th century for narrow focused tasks. In todays work environment for workers to be at their best intrinsic motivators are far more beneficial compared to extrinsic motivators. Autonomy is a great way for employees to be motivated to self-direct and get their work done on time. It is important for businesses to adapt to what science says and not just use stick and carrot methods to motivate employees. An example is at my current employer they use extrinsic motivators such as bonuses, they do not use intrinsic motivators especially for the production jobs. That is probably one of the main reasons there is a high turnover for these jobs since they do not have autonomy or intrinsic value in their work.
The second takeaway is from Knowledge at Wharton, specifically that some of the negative aspects to extrinsic motivators are it can create pay inequality, this in turn can increase turnover and cause the companys bottom line to suffer. Another unintended consequence to financial incentives is it can increase the likelihood of unethical behavior. If employees can find a way to get their bonus by breaking the rules or bending the rules, they will probably do that. Similar to the TED talk, intrinsic motivators such as autonomy, mastery, and purpose are key to have happy and motivated employees.
The third takeaway is from the Employee motivation article. There was a plethora of motivations discussed. The Maslow hierarchy of needs I was familiar with, and it makes sense people will be more focused on being safe and fed before they worry about achieving self-actualization. The equity theory was interesting in that employees compare their compensation to other employees who may do a similar activity or have similar credentials. Employees want to be treated fairly under this theory. I see this all the time at work, where people try and compare how fairly they are paid compared to others. For example, different line managers may feel slighted since they may be in charge of a high gross margin product and feel they should be paid more due to being responsible for a better product.
For the self-assessments, the What motivates you my highest score was the achievement category. I was not surprised by this outcome since I enjoy setting realistic goals for myself and reaching them. An example of this is graduating from college with a certain GPA or making my high school varsity tennis team. On the big 5 personality dimension my highest score was the conscientiousness category.
Thanks ,
Jeffry
Post 2:
Hi All,
This weeks readings are very familiar to me because of my previous course, Business ethics and social responsibility. In which I learnt lot about autonomy (ability to act on his or her own values and interests, self-directed), mastery (improving comprehensive knowledge or skill in something and getting better with some feedback) and purpose ( is knowing why I am doing something). Without purpose there are no goals or no job satisfaction or no positive energy one feels accomplishing something. For me personally these are the factors that drive me towards achieving my ambition or goals. Next, I would like to talk about how financial incentives work only with certain straight forward goals and kills creativity and critical thinking while working for incentives according Dan Pinks video. Motivation towards profits should be an outcome but not a goal to work for. Work with purpose, compassion, interests and profits come as result. Work for corporate social responsibility, for example Nestle company when first planned to start a milk farms in India, to be cost effective but it was very hard. The village in India was very backward and did not have basic needs (schools, electricity, hospitals, veterinarian). Cows were getting sick and dying of diseases, no one to treat or guide the farmers to take care of their animals or their livelihood. Nestle decided to first help the community to make their lives better by providing all the needs and the outcome was people were so loyal and happy to do their best to help the company make their profits. Nestle did make lot of profits as outcome but they had purpose and goal to make that community better as corporate social responsibility. This example was very near to my heart as I am from India.
Thanks,
Dhatri Alla
