Roxanne says,
> My 17 years of experience in designing new rewards systems
> confirms what Ken is saying. Our formal reward systems have
> transformed otherwise normal human beings into Frankenstein
> monsters who crave perks and titles and other visible symbols of
> success. None of these will satisfy the natural human longing to
> simply do a good day's work.
and Ben responds
"One of the great tragedies of modern business is that the reward systems
do not build a sense of togetherness and unity that is a necessary
condition if the organization is to remain competitive."
This is asking too much of a reward system. The reward system can
probably destroy togetherness if it is perverted enough, but 90% of them
are benign in the sense of creating or destroying togetherness. These
feelings come from other factors, including management's efforts through a
variety of mechanisms to create that sense.
Many departments in my company have wildly divergent senses of
togetherness and shared goals, and yet we all work within the same reward
system.
Reward systems are too often combined with assessment systems. However,
even in the confines of these combined systems, one can build effective
assessment as a learning tool.
--Rol Fessenden LL Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>