INCENTIVIZE EVERYTHING
Attach a reward to every good deed until none feels voluntary.
Give points for helping colleagues, attending training, sharing ideas, and staying late. Publish a leaderboard and award small prizes to the most engaged employees. When people stop helping unless points are available, add a new incentive for initiative.
External rewards crowding out discretionary motivation and cooperation.
Evidence, with limitations.
Qualified claim
Research on external rewards is contested and conditional. One meta-analysis found reduced free-choice intrinsic motivation under several expected tangible-reward contingencies; another found harms more limited. A later performance synthesis found incentives and intrinsic motivation can jointly predict performance, depending on the task.
Evidence basis
Deci et al. found negative free-choice intrinsic-motivation effects for specified expected tangible contingencies; Cameron & Pierce concluded detrimental effects were limited. Cerasoli et al. found intrinsic motivation and incentives can jointly predict performance, with incentives more predictive of quantity.
Competing evidence
Cameron and Pierce (1994) reported that negative effects of rewards were more restricted than Deci and colleagues concluded. Cerasoli and colleagues (2014) found that incentives and intrinsic motivation can jointly predict task performance. These findings use different measures and answer partly different questions.
Study design and scope
Contrasting meta-analyses of experimental reward studies plus subsequent performance-focused synthesis. Deci:128 experimental studies; Cameron/Pierce:96 between-group studies; Cerasoli:183 studies/212,468 participants across school, work and physical domains.
Limitations
Meta-analytic disagreements, reward contingencies, age groups, and outcome definitions preclude a universal claim that incentives destroy intrinsic motivation or performance.
Sources
- Edward L. Deci (1999) — A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation (Primary or corroborating source)
- Judy Cameron (1994) — Reinforcement, Reward, and Intrinsic Motivation: A Meta-Analysis (Competing or qualifying source)
- Christopher P. Cerasoli (2014) — Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: a 40-year meta-analysis (Competing or qualifying source)
Review decision: contested evidence qualified.
The broader evidence review is still incomplete.
The cited studies do not test this management instruction. Research notes →