External motivation as an illusion

External motivation as an illusion: external stimulation systems are like

„ pain killers “ with side effects

During the last couple of months, there has been an on going discussion about how to motivate employees to achieve higher and better results and to increase sales.

The crisis forced companies to reduce costs and to work more efficiently with very often less employees.

The standard management literature offers a wide range of books with titles like e.g. „ How do I motivate my employees in the right way “ or „ The top motivational techniques “.

Nearly every company has its own ( quite often very complicated ) motivational system in the form of a bonus system. All those systems have the same goal: to motivate the employees to achieve better and higher results and/or to increase sales.

But do those systems really work on a long term basis, do they have long lasting positive effects or is it not like this, that many of them just have a short term impact?

Is it may be not even so, that those systems have some problematic side effects and can even lead to the demotivation of many employees?

Based on my own management and consulting experience and based on the intensive study of  the books of the german management bestseller author Reinhard K. Sprenger I would like to discuss those questions in my blog and ask you, the readers, to tell me your opinion.

Lets start with an important question: What is motivation? How can it be defined?

Motivation according to a definition by wikipedia is the driving force which causes us to achieve goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure.

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the

intrinsic rewards of the activity. ( see definition by wikipedia ).

In other words intrinsic motivation is the individual will of a person to do or to achieve something ( „ I want this “ ), whereas with the extrinsic motivation, a person will only do something, if he is promised a reward ( e.g. a bonus ) or if he has to fear negative consequences (  e.g. punishment ), if he does not do something ( „ I do it, because otherwise I will be punished “ )

True motivation comes from inside – from the internal source of energy, which every human being has inside himself. True motivation comes from the heart and does not need any external stimulation.

The great brains in history like Albert Einstein, Albrecht Schweitzer, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford did not need any external stimulation to create great things.

People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson or Tomas Bata created great companies out of nothing. Their motivation came from inside – they all have something in common: the internal will to create something extraordinary. The financial benefits are only the result of their will to create something.

The bonus systems and other external stimulation systems in many companies have only the target to increase the performance of the employees and to fulfill short term company plans.

Alfie Kohn from Harvard university already pointed out, that there does not exit a single study worldwide, which can proove a long term and enduring increase of performance by an external stimulation system.

Of course all those systems have a certain short term effect.

But I believe, that they are like a medicine, which kills the pain for a while, but does not cure the disease. The disease is quite often the fact, that employees, who were originally motivated, when they started working in a company, are now totally demotivated, because they did not get the real chance to use their potential.

Their boss is quite often the source of their demotivation. The boss does not trust his employees, he has a tendency to control them all the time and does not allow them to make their own decisions.

The main argument for bonus systems is the money. It is true, that money is an attractive factor, because it is important for the employees. Nevertheless it only has a very short term effect. An increase in salary or a high bonus usually looses its positive effect the latest after one month.

Many field studies have shown, that other factors are more important for many people.

Factors like fun at work, an interesting and challenging work, a nice and friendly working atmosphere in the company and team work. Employees want to be respected by their boss as individual human beings with their own individual personalities.

I firmly believe, that people are motivated, but it is the job of the manager to make sure that they do not get demotivated by his management style, by too many rules, regulations and restrictions. Management guidelines should be guidelines not a prison for employees.

Long term performance cannot be bought with money alone – money attracts people, but it does not motivate them permanently to increase their performance. You can see this very clearly in sports: Very often it is not the team with the most expensive individual stars, which wins a game, but on the contrary the team, which has the highest team spirit.

If the management of a company does not provide the employees with enough space for free decisions, if it does not offer the employees jobs, where they can enjoy their work and have fun, then the best employees will leave the company very soon.

And even the most sophisticated bonus system will not prevent those demotivated employees from leaving the company.

On the contrary, it can even happen that the top performers will leave, because they are demotivated and the average or underperformers will stay, because at least the salary and the bonus/benefit system is attractive.

Bonus systems, which do not take into consideration the individual needs of the employees will have an opposite, negative effect on the motivation of the employees. They can even lead to internal problems and conflicts e.g. in a sales team, because there are only a few winners, but many loosers. And those employees, who loose in sales contests and do not receive a bonus or a smaller one, than they expected, will be demotivated.

Last but not least, I would like to say, that the management should do everything to support the employees internal motivation and that it should avoid all actions, which could lead to the demotivation of their employees.

Jörg Petzold, PhD.