reflect their individual needs as well as their performance.^120 Moreover, consistent with
a legacy of Communism and centrally planned economies, employees show an entitle-
ment attitude—they expect outcomes to be greaterthan their inputs.^121 These findings sug-
gest that Canadian- and US-style pay practices may need modification, especially in
Russia and former Communist countries, in order to be perceived as fair by employees.
These international findings indicate that it is important to consider the internal
norms of a country when developing an incentive plan rather than simply import a
plan that works well in Canada and the United States.
Can We Just Eliminate Rewards?
Alfie Kohn, in his book Punished by Rewards,argues that “the desire to do something,
much less to do it well, simply cannot be imposed; in this sense, it is a mistake to talk
about motivating other people. All we can do is set up certain conditions that will max-
imize the probability of their developing an interest in what they are doing and remove
the conditions that function as constraints.”^122
Creating a Motivating Work Environment
Based on his research and consulting experience, Kohn proposes actions that organi-
zations can take to create a motivating work environment.^123
Abolish Incentive Pay Paying people generously and fairly makes sure they don’t
feel exploited, and takes pay off their minds. As a result, employees will be more able to
focus on the goals of the organization rather than have their paycheques as their main goal.
Re-evaluate Evaluation Instead of making performance appraisals look and feel
like a punitive effort—who gets raises, who gets promoted, who is told he or she is per-
forming poorly—the performance evaluation system might be structured more like a two-
way conversation to trade ideas and questions, done continuously, not as a competition.
The discussion of performance should not be tied to compensation. “Providing feedback
that employees can use to do a better job ought never to be confused or combined with
controlling them by offering (or withholding) rewards.”^124
Chapter 4Motivating Self and Others 137Alfie Kohn
http://www.alfiekohn.orgJapan:Sales representatives prefer being members of a successful team
with shared goals and values, rather than receiving financial rewards.
Russia:Cotton mill employees given either valued extrinsic rewards
(North American T-shirts with logos, children’s sweatpants, tapes of
North American music, etc.) or praise and recognition are more
productive. However, rewards do not help for those who work on
Saturdays.
China:Bonuses are often given to everyone, regardless of individual
productivity. Many employees expect jobs for life, rather than jobs based
on performance.
Mexico:Employees prefer immediate feedback on their work. Therefore
daily rewards for exceeding quotas are preferred.
Canada and the United States:Managers rely more heavily on extrinsic
motivators.
Japan and Germany:Firms rarely give rewards based on individual
performance.EXHIBIT 4-15 Snapshots of Cultural Differences in Motivation