Rewards given to a person by someone else are called _______________ rewards.
There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Both are very different and lead to disparate outcomes. Here’s how to make the most of motivation, both for yourself and others. Show
*** Motivation is a tricky multifaceted thing. How do we motivate people to become the best they can be? How do we motivate ourselves? Sometimes when we are running towards a goal, we suddenly lose steam and peter out before we cross the finish line. Why do we lose our motivation part way to achieving our goal? Dan Pink wrote an excellent book on motivation called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. We’ve talked about the book before, but it’s worth going into a bit more detail. When Pink discusses motivation, he breaks it into two specific types: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external forces such as money or praise. Intrinsic motivation is something that comes from within and can be as simple as the joy one feels after accomplishing a challenging task. Pink also describes two distinctly different types of tasks: algorithmic and heuristic. An algorithmic task is when you follow a set of instructions down a defined path that leads to a single conclusion. A heuristic task has no instructions or defined path, one must be creative and experiment with possibilities to complete the task. As you can see, the two types of motivations and tasks are quite different. Let’s look at how they play against each other, depending on what type of reward is offered. Baseline RewardsMoney was once thought to be the best way to motivate an employee. If you wanted someone to stay with your company or to perform better, you simply had to offer financial incentives. However, the issue of money as a motivator has become moot in many sectors. If you are a skilled worker, you will quite easily be able to find a job in your desired salary range. Pink puts it succinctly:
Once the baseline rewards have been sorted, we are often offered other ‘carrots and sticks’ to nudge our behavior. Many of these rewards will actually achieve the opposite effect of what was intended. ‘If, then’ Rewards‘If, then’ rewards are when we promise to deliver something to an individual once they complete a specific task. If you hit your sales goals this month, then I will give you a bonus. There are inherent dangers with ‘if, then’ rewards. They tend to prompt a short term surge in motivation but actually dampen it over the long term. Just the fact of offering a reward for some form of effort sends the message that the work is, well, work. This can have a large negative impact on intrinsic motivation. Additionally, rewards by their very nature narrow our focus, we tend to ignore everything but the finish line. This is fine for algorithmic tasks but hurts us with heuristic-based tasks.
GoalsWhen we use goals to motivate us, how does that affect how we think and behave?
These same pressures that may nudge you towards unethical actions can also push you to make more risky decisions. The drive towards the goal can convince you to make decisions that in any other situation you would likely never consider. (See more about the dangers of goals.) It’s not only the person who is being motivated with the reward that is hurt here. The person who is trying to encourage a certain type of behavior also falls into a trap and is forced to try and course correct which, often, leaves them worse off than if they had never offered the reward in the first place.
Even if you can trigger the better behavior it will often disappear once incentives are removed.
When Do Rewards Work?Rewards can work for routine (algorithmic) tasks that require little creativity.
You will increase your chances for success when rewarding routine tasks using these three practices:
Any extrinsic reward should be unexpected and offered only once the task is complete. In many ways, this is common sense as it is the opposite of the ‘if, then’ rewards allowing you to avoid its many failings (focus isn’t solely on the prize, motivation won’t wane if the reward isn’t present during the task, etc…). However, one word of caution – be careful if these rewards become expected, because at that point, they are no different than the ‘if, then’ rewards. What refers to a reward given by another person?extrinsic. refers to the reward given by another person.
Which of the following is an intrinsic reward?Compensation, recognition, and bonuses are examples of intrinsic rewards.
Which of the following refers to the arousal direction and persistence of behavior?In 2006, Franken defined motivation as the “arousal, direction and persistence of a person's behaviour”.
What type of research is designed to test or develop theories to add to the body of knowledge?Basic research aims at formulating theories that explain research findings and in the process, improve a body of knowledge while applied research aims at arriving at research findings that can solve practical problems. Basic research focuses on principles and theories while applied research focuses on solutions.
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