Bernie DeKoven (Dr. Fun) queries:
"What are your findings about reward systems that actually promote (or at
least don't inhibit) this experience (flow, play, personal, spiritual and
material profit)?"
Bernie, thank you for your challenging question. I would like to set
aside the material profit focus for the sake of this discussion. Perhaps
we could look at reward systems that promote (or at least don't inhibit)
flow, play, personal and spiritual health, and still result in material
gain.
I believe that the first step is to get rid of the obstacles. There has
been a great deal of discussion in the literature over the past few years
about the harmful effects of traditional performance review and merit pay.
The process of managers judging and assigning ratings (like the process of
teachers judging and assigning grades) creates many of the obstacles. In
many or most cases, it diverts or perverts behavior from doing what is
important to doing whatever it takes to please the boss or make the grade.
The process itself robs the employee of the natural joy of working; the
student of the natural joy of learning. This is not to say that employees
don't need feedback about how they're doing or information on what might
might be important to the organization and its customers.
I believe that play and joy in life are correlated with a sense of
freedom. Performance management and merit pay systems are control tools.
Management doesn't trust employees to do what needs to be done or to do
their best, and so they try to control employee behaviors with ratings and
pay. There is an alternative that many organizations are turning to. If
we explain to our people, discuss with our people, what needs to be done
and then provide them with the equipment and the training to do the work,
we find that they _choose_ of their own free will to do what needs to be
done. But the prison bars of performance ratings, merit increases, bonses
and commissions must be torn down, in order to unleash the spirits and the
productivity of our people.
Another control tool that I believe must be abolished is the concept of
job. When we force our people into the rigid boxes of a job description,
we rob them of the freedom to employ their natural gifts and acquired
skills and learning. Even in organizations that don't restrict assignments
strictly to job descriptions, the pay systems relates pay ranges and pay
increases to the_ job_ that the individual holds. Again there is a better
way that a few organizations are experimenting with. After the
organization has identified the competenies needed for their particular
line of business, they provide an environment that encourages life long
learning and pays more to those persons who demonstrate more of the
competencies and a higher level of the competencies that they need. Is
this just another form of control tool? Perhaps, but I believe it is one
step further in the evolution toward a healthy organization and a joyful
workforce.
-- Joy to the World! Roxanne Abbas Abbas Compensation Strategies Compuserve:75263,3305 Internet:"Roxanne S. Abbas"<75263.3305@compuserve.com>