Organizations need to hire personnel which will enable them to achieve the best output. These employees determine the possibility of achieving organizational goals. The organizations in return try to twist the employees’ attitude towards indefinite compulsion to accomplish the goals. Managerial tactics used include the financial incentives. Employees are promised financial tokens in case they achieve the desired goals. However, this means that failure to achieve can lead to job-stagnancy, demotion or even firing (Gomez 8). The issue of concern in this case is motivation. It is deemed that the employees have one objective when seeking for employment; payment. However, different scholarly ideas have proven this notions wrong. Financial incentives have adverse effects. For instance, these rewards punish, they rupture relationships, and they discourage risk-taking and ignore reasons. Employees do not only need financial concern; they need to be appreciated as humans. Most of the organizations have always failed to achieve in the long-run.
First, rewards punish. The use of incentives to force employees to give desired results is punishing, because they do not work out of the will but out of pressure. Kohn insists that it is very hard to motivate people if the people feel oppressed in different ways. This is because there is an extra being that is involved in the performance of the task and the efficiency in which they perform. Due to this complex nature of employees, able and willing employers and managers are required to take a different precaution measure. Precisely, all that is require of employees for them to perform effectively is setting up an environment and conditions that optimize the likelihood that the employees concede to build up genuine interest in the tasks they perform (Gomez 5). It is wrong to think that rewarding can change the attitude or encourage someone to work better. Instead, the employees feel economically used in such an incidence. In this case, the rewards, in financial terms, are termed as punishing since they are used as a way of forcing the employees to work on some issues yet they are not interested.
Some measures that should be taken to secure such a situation include the abolishment of the incentives. It is important to understand that besides finances, people have a desire to acquire fair treatment. This applies in a double counter situation. That is, the pay should not be related at the volume of output. The pay can be discussed, and the employees can be treated in an impressive manner. Valuation of employees should not be incorporated in financial details (Kohn 102). There are elements of management that encourage better performance. For example, the presence of the two-way communication strategy should be embrace. Besides, the communication as well as coordination should not emphasize on rank differences. This can reduce the competition for recognition that leads to poor output. Ideally, in all the efforts that are incorporated to help improve the performance of employees are deficient of financial incentives.
A critique of the poor ways through which financial incentives are used, Alfie Kohn (1993), stated that incentives also bring about the rupture of relationships. Initially, salaries and commissions are deemed to be standardized. However, in case the salaries are alternated by the presence of incentives, they are no longer reasonably stated. When selective financial incentives are put into the system, they encourage the employees take personal effort into consideration, rather than collective effort. The employees no longer handle thing collectively. The first outcome is that the employees break the relationship they had established since everyone wants to be the best. Part of the series of outcomes is that the goals of the organizations in question are achieved in an imbalanced manner. That is; some departments record satisfactory improvement while others imply a negative record. The overall output becomes frustrating.
Initially, workers are aware of the objectives of the organization. They work collectively for the survival of the organization. However, when financial incentives are given the lead, the employees shift their efforts toward the success of the company towards individual success. According to Kohn, the rewards lead to ignorance of a reason. A collective disadvantage affects both the organization. It loses reason for the operation. Simultaneously, the employees that never gain the status of outstanding employees tend to move to other firms (Kohn 98). This is because they find no reason to continue working under un-conducive environment. Most of the employees prefer to avoid situations where some activities involve risk-taking. This is; incentives causes the employees to avoid taking risk, even when it is the last thing that one has hope with to achieve optimum solutions. The most discouraging aspect that the management departments of such an organization portray is ignorance to important and delicate issues concerning the performance of the organization. The managers are amused by rewarding employees who have performed best. They ignore the numerous windfalls that the organization needs to address.
Organizations find it very complicated too, successfully conduct a backward shift in terms of employee treatment and management. The use intrinsic motivator is the best measure of encouraging better performance. They do not cause negative results, including rupture of relationships and fear of risk taking. However, it is very hard for any organization to adopt intrinsic motivators in replacement of rewards. Most employees cannot adjust to doing what they think is best to do. This is because rewards manipulate the psychology of the employees to a situation where, their withdrawal can lead to poor performance or resignation from their jobs.
Works Cited
Gomez, Justin. "The Book Outlines Wiki / Punished by Rewards." The Book Outlines Wiki / FrontPage. pbworks, 12 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
Kohn, Alfie. The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "tougher Standards". Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2000. Print.
