人力资源作业

CASE study案例研究

Bonuses Can Backfire 奖金可能适得其反

It might seem obvious that people will be motivated by bonuses, but many scholars question this

人们会被奖金所激励看起来是很显然的事情,但许多学者对此提出疑问.

premise. Alfie Kohn has long suggested that workers are “punished by rewards” and urges that

长久以来,Alfie Kohn便提出员工”被奖励惩罚”并力劝

organizations avoid tying rewards to performance because of the negative consequences that can

组织在考虑到奖励可能会引起的负面作用后,应避免把奖励与绩效捆绑.

result. As an alternative to rewards, some experts recommend that managers foster a positive, upbeat

有些专家建议经理们培养一个积极向上的工作环境作为奖励的替代品,

work environment in hopes that enthusiasm will translate into motivation.

希望热情可以转化为动机.

Although rewards can be motivating, they can reduce employees’ intrinsic interest in the tasks they

尽管奖励具有激励作用,但奖励也可能会削弱员工工作的内在动力

are doing. Along these lines, Mark Lepper of Stanford University found that children rewarded for

在这方面,斯坦福大学的Mark Lepper发现因使用毡头笔画画受到奖励的儿童,在

drawing with felt-tip pens no longer wished to use the pens at all when rewards were removed,

奖励取消后,再也不愿使用这些笔了.

whereas children who were not rewarded for using the pens were eager to use them. Similar

相反,未因此受到奖励的儿童,仍然迫切地想要使用毡头笔.

experiments in which children completed puzzles have also shown that increasing rewards can

类似的儿童解决谜题实验结果显示,在有奖励的任务中,增长的奖励降低了兴趣.

decrease interest in the rewarded task. Some have questioned the extent to which these

results

有人对将这些研究成果推广至成年工作者的程度提出质疑.

generalize to working adults, but concern about rewards diminishing intrinsic motivation persists.

但关于奖励减少内在动机的担心始终存在.

Rewards can also lead to misbehavior by workers.

奖励也可能导致员工的错误行为.

Psychologist Edward Deci notes, “Once you start making people’s rewards dependent on outcomes

心理学家Edward Deci 提出:一旦你开始使人们得到的奖励取决于结果而非行为,

rather than behaviors, the evidence is people will take the shortest route to those outcomes.”

证据显示人们会选取到达所需结果的最短路径.

Consider factory workers paid purely based on the number of units they produce. Because only

考虑工资单纯建立在计件基础上的工厂工人.

quantity is rewarded, workers may neglect quality. Executives rewarded strictly on the basis of

因为只有数量被奖励,工人可能忽视质量.

quarterly stock price will tend to ignore the long-term profitability and survival of the firm; they

在季度股票价格基础上被奖励的执行官可能趋向于忽视长期利润及公司的生存.

might even engage in illegal or unethical behavior to increase their compensation. A review of

他们甚至可能卷入非法或不道德行为以获取补偿.

research on pay-for-performance in medicine found that doctors who were rewarded for treatment

一项对医药行业的按绩效付薪的研究表明,医生在此条件下由于成功率低,

outcomes were reluctant to take on the most serious cases, where success was less likely.

不愿接收最严重的病人,

Although there might be some problems with providing incentives, the great majority of research

虽然对于提供刺激还可能存在一些问题,

cited in this and the previous chapter shows that individuals given rewards for behavior will be more

前章及本章所摘录的大部分研究表明基于行为受到奖励的个体更多地倾向于投

likely to engage in the rewarded behaviors. It is also unlikely that individuals engaged in very boring,

入于被奖励的行为.同时如果个体所从事的工作是非常枯燥的重复性工作,则当

repetitive tasks will lose their intrinsic motivation if the task is rewarded, because they never had any

工作受到奖励他们不会失去工作的内在动机.因为从开始他们就没有任何内在动

intrinsic motivation to begin with. The real issue for managers is finding an appropriate way to

机.对经理们而言,真正的问题是找到奖励的正确方式以使工作中需要的行为增

reward behaviors so desired behavior is increased while less-desired behavior is reduced.

加同时又减少不那么被需要的行为.

QUESTIONS问题

1. Do you think that, as a manager, you would use bonuses regularly? Why or why not?

你认为作为经理,你会经常使用奖励么?为什么会/为什么不会?

2. Can you think of a time in your own life when being evaluated and rewarded on a specific goal

你能回忆起你自己生命中因为一个具体目标被评价或奖励导致你作出负面或低生产力行为lead you to engage in negative or unproductive behavior? 的经历么?

3. Do you think providing group bonuses instead of individual bonuses would be more effective or less effective? Why or why not?

你认为相对于提供个体奖励,集体奖励会更有效还是无效?为什么会/不会?

4. How would you design a bonus/reward program to avoid the problems mentioned in this case? 你会如何设计一个奖金/奖励计划来避免案例中所提到的问题?