MZMORALE ZEROthe antithesis of employee engagement
DIRECTIVE 062 / MEANING

INCENTIVIZE EVERYTHING

If a behavior matters, attach a reward until the behavior knows exactly why it exists.

Convert helpfulness, learning, attendance, referrals, ideas and discretionary effort into points, bonuses and prizes. Continue adding incentives wherever intrinsic interest produces inconveniently inconsistent output. Eventually every worthwhile behavior will have a price.

Primary: MEANINGWORTHCONTROL
RATIONALE
External rewards translate ambiguous motivation into a system management can administer and count.
SUCCESS INDICATOR
Employees ask what a behavior is worth before deciding whether it is worth doing.
COMMON FAILURE
Using incentives selectively and recognizing that reward design can alter attention, autonomy and the reasons people experience for doing an activity.
STATUS
Canonical / approved

Reconstructed Handbook series.

THE UNFORTUNATE PART

Unfortunately, the research…

Claim

Extrinsic rewards can affect intrinsic motivation differently depending on reward type and contingency. Classic meta-analytic evidence found expected tangible and performance-contingent rewards could undermine free-choice intrinsic motivation, while positive feedback could enhance it.

Evidence

A meta-analysis of 128 experiments reported negative average effects of several expected tangible reward contingencies on intrinsic motivation, with important differences across reward forms and populations.

Strength: Strong

Sources

The Directive is satire. The research summary is not. Evidence is stated separately and qualified to the underlying literature rather than treated as proof of the joke.

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