Bernie de Koven wrote:
" I am troubled by the concept of volunteerism, primarilly because it has
always been my personal goal to GET PAID TO PLAY. I think that money is in
fact the most genuine form of recognition our culture has to offer, that
volunteerism results most often in token recognition, leading ultimately
to token efforts. Systemically speaking."
It is not for me to question what it is that motivates YOU, Bernie, but if
you extrapolate that into a model of motivation in organisations, then you
are dead wrong.
The evidence is very powerfully that beyond what is necessary for
survival, money is NOT an effective form of recognition - even in your
North American culture (in fact ESPECIALLY there). It has been shown that
financial rewards will produce immediate changes in behaviour (see Lepper
and Greene (1978) "The Hidden costs of rewards: New Perspectives on the
Psychology of Human Motivation") but that this behavioural change does not
relate to feelings of affirmation, recognition, or internalised
motivation.
If you read such studies as Bretton's "The Power of Money", and Yamauchi
and Templer's "The Development of a Money Atttitude Scale" we find that
people will put power and status in a group, the respect of other's, the
development of personal cognitive complexity, and personal autonomy ahead
of money almost always. It is the people who feel (rightly or wrongly)
that they are not achieving in these fields that turn (usually
obsessively) to money as an inadequate substitute.
Here is a test to apply to yourself. If someone were to offer you more
money to do a job which you regarded as removing your satisfaction in
being able to 'play' at your work, under what conditions would you accept?
I see a lot of well paid people who remain deeply dissatisfied with their
work. I do not encounter many people who regard their work as 'play' who
are deeply dissatisfied with the money they get. Of course it is true that
this latter happy band are inclined to be more productive, and so they are
usually pretty well paid anyway.
Most laboratory experiments have demonstrated that financial rewards win
superficial compliance which lasts only as long as the rewards continue.
they do not bring affirmation in terms of the respect of others, or
feelings of being valued and affirmed in the recipients
-- Phillip Capper Centre for Research on Work, Education and Business PO Box 2855 Wellington New ZealandPh: 64+ 4 4998140 Fx: 64+ 4 4733087
EMail: pcapper@actrix.gen.nz