Organizational Behavior (Stephen Robbins)

their second “sick time,” they are paid only if they are off more than three days for their
illness, so it makes sense for them to stay home sick longer. At Carignan, Quebec-based
hardware store Centre de rénovation Pointe et Meunier, owner Daniel Blais had to
revise his plan to give commissions to employees based on profit per sales. An “employee
[who] happened to be near someone who was looking at a big-ticket item tended to
shadow that person rather than going to help the next customer who was looking at
something less costly,” says Blais. He found that employees gave better overall service
when he switched the performance plan to a group commission divided evenly among
staff and based on overall profits for the department.^111
Perhaps more often than we would like, organizations engage in what has been
called “the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B.”11 2Organizations do this when
they hope that employees will engage in one type of behaviour, yet they reward another
type. Managers of Vancouver’s bus drivers had hoped that by increasing the number of
days a driver had to be out sick to get paid, bus drivers would take fewer days off.
Instead, managers might have considered giving bonuses for perfect attendance. Hoping
for a behaviour you are not rewarding is unlikely to make it happen to any great extent.
In fact, as expectancy theory suggests, individuals will generally perform in ways to raise
the probability of receiving the rewards offered.
Exhibit 4-14 provides further examples of common management reward follies.
Research suggests that there are three major obstacles to ending these follies:^113

• Individuals are unable to break out of old ways of thinking about reward and recog-
  nition practices.This approach is demonstrated when management emphasizes
  quantifiable behaviours, to the exclusion of nonquantifiable behaviours;
  when management is reluctant to change the existing performance system;
  and when employees have an entitlement mentality (i.e., they don’t support
  changing the reward system because they are comfortable with the current
  behaviours that are rewarded).

Chapter 4Motivating Self and Others 135

EXHIBIT 4-14 Management Reward Follies

We hope for... But we reward...

Teamwork and collaboration The best team members

Innovative thinking and risk-taking Proven methods and not making mistakes

Development of people skills Technical achievements and accomplishments

Employee involvement and Tight control over operations and resources

empowerment

High achievement Another year’s effort

Long-term growth; environmental Quarterly earnings

responsibility

Commitment to total quality Shipping on schedule, even with defects

Candour; surfacing bad news early Reporting good news, whether it’s true or

not; agreeing with the manager, whether or

not (s)he’s right

Sources:Constructed from S. Kerr, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B,” Academy of

Management Executive9, no. 1 (1995), pp. 7–14; and “More on the Folly,” Academy of Management

Executive9, no. 1 (1995), pp. 15–16. Reprinted by permission.