Managers relying too much on extrinsic motivators to control behavior. This reinforces dependence on the manager. About this event Is it true that being satisfied with your work means you perform better? There’s a widely held belief that satisfaction and performance go together. The pathway to better job performance—according to many managers—is through greater job satisfaction. This general belief has been around for at least 100 years, despite inconclusive evidence of a link between job satisfaction and job performance. This misguided conviction has led to a range of performance management measures designed to satisfy people at work. So, we use extrinsic rewards—such as money, recognition, and praise—to foster a sense of satisfaction on the job. What’s needed to increase and sustain job performance, however, is cultivating the right workplace environment for intrinsic motivation to flourish. Engaged hearts and minds is an entirely different source of motivation from the satisfaction derived from the extrinsic rewards associated with a job. It’s time we rethink rewards and its impact on performance. There’s too much emphasis placed on extrinsic and too little on intrinsic motivation. Join Dr. Tim Baker for this interesting discussion on ways to increase internal motivation to boost engagement and performance. This material comes from Dr. Baker’s latest book, “The Future of Human Resources: Unlocking Human Potential."

1. Carrot & Stick to
Human Spirit & Work
Dr. Tim Baker
tim@winnersatwork.com.au
www.winnersatwork.com.au

2. Dr. Tim Baker

3. Isn’t reward &
punishment the best way
to motivate people?

4. Research
Intrinsic
motivation
Special
offer

5. Do rewards
work?
Stanford University researcher Mark
Lepper and his team conducted a
significant research study in the early
1970s, concerned with the impact of
extrinsic rewards on performance.
Specifically, Lepper was interested in
whether prizes influence behavior in
young children.

6. Do rewards
work?
A brand-new activity was introduced to
the children at a nursery. The teachers
issued the children with creamy white
artist’s drawing paper and brand-new
marker pens; the children were given
time to draw with these novel materials.
They had never done drawings with
marker pens before.
Predictably, the children took to the
activity with relish. But after exactly one
hour, the materials were whisked away
to the disappointment of the children.

7. Do rewards
work?
Several days later, one of the
researchers returned to the class and
randomly divided the class into two
groups to continue the new drawing
activity. One group of children were
taken to another room. They were given
the opportunity to continue their
drawings just as they had done before.
After an hour, the researcher thanked
the children in this group and took away
the art material and their drawings. The
second group of children were offered a
prize for drawing their pictures.

8. Do rewards
work?
It was explained to this group that some
special prizes would be given to the
children who drew good pictures. The
children took to their task, anticipating
they might receive a prize for their
picture. This control group was given the
same amount of time (one hour) as the
other group to compete their artwork. At
the end of the session, the researcher
thanked the children as he’d done with
the other group. But this time, he handed
out a prize to each child in the control
group.

9. Do rewards
work?
One week later the researchers returned to the
classroom. The afternoon period consisted of
“free time;” the children could choose what they
wanted to do with their time. The special paper
and marker pens were placed on the tables and
easily accessible for the children. However, the
children had other options too. They could go
outside and run around in the playground. They
could play with the toys in the classroom. Or they
could return to the drawing activity. The
researchers observed the time the children spent
on their chosen activities. To what extent would
the prizes given to the children in the control
group affect their choices and behavior? The
researchers assumed that the children in the
control group, who had received prizes, would
spend more time on the drawing activity. But that
didn’t happen!

10. Do rewards
work?
The result was one the researchers didn’t
foresee. Their findings challenged conventional
wisdom about parenting and education. The
children who received the extrinsic rewards for
their artwork chose to spend less time drawing
than those who weren’t rewarded. Conversely,
the children who didn’t receive a prize chose to
spend more of their discretionary time on the
drawing activity. The children who were rewarded
seemed reluctant to continue with the activity
without the promise of a further reward. The initial
reward paradoxically reduced the children’s
motivation rather than increasing it.

11. Do rewards
work?
But what was even more surprising is this: The
artwork of all the children was evaluated by a
group of independent judges with no knowledge
of the experiment. The result was that the
pictures drawn by the children who were
rewarded were evaluated as less competent than
the pictures drawn by the unrewarded group.
So, in summary: The children who received an
extrinsic reward spent less time drawing when
given a choice—and when they were rewarded,
they put in less effort too. (Yeung 2011)

12. Job Satisfaction
and Extrinsic
Rewards
Is it true that being satisfied with
your work means you perform
better?

13. Intrinsic
Motivation
How can we engage the heart and mind
of the employee in
their work?
How can we connect human spirit and
work?

14. Three keys …
Give people more
freedom and the
autonomy to make their
own decisions about the
work they do.
1
Provide people with
opportunities to grow
and develop.
2
Explain the purpose of
the work people do.
3

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