potential in their job, and find this rewarding. Yet businesses either fail to react, or
react too slowly to the changing expectations of goal-oriented employees, as a
result of which the latter’s free energy, interests and creativity are channeled into
leisure time rather than being used on the job.
2.3.2.9 Motivating Demotivates
Sprenger has claimed that: “motivation is the abundant seduction to inner resigna-
tion” (Sprenger 1999, p. 32). Motivation (the inner drive and not the outer effect)
does not consist merely of ethical, psychosocial or economic factors, but depends
on a multitude of circumstances and influences. It is therefore simply utopian to
believe that universal stimulus systems will work for everyone.
External efforts to motivate them can hinder employees’ inner drive, as they
signal mistrust and a lack of respect. Bonus systems or provision systems may
imply that employees are not capable of delivering full performance without
pressure. The suspicion from the top remains, as managers highly appreciate
their own readiness to perform while de-valuing that of their employees. In many
organizations, a culture of suspicion reigns. In such a climate, responsibility and
information represent status, and the development of ideas and initiatives is
hampered.
Employees lose motivation when the motivating system is based solely on
provoking a response to an attraction. It presumes that the incentive just has to be
big enough. All the management has to do is to determine which section of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the individual occupies in order to select a suitable
“carrot” (i.e. money, advanced training, leisure time, etc.). Unfortunately this
negative view of human beings has the character of a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“When managers consider their employees to be stupid, lacking in drive, and
dependent, that is exactly how the employees conduct themselves – or at least
that is all the eyes of the managers see” (Sprenger 1999, p. 44).
The motivator’s repertoire includes compulsion, baiting, seduction and vision.
With compulsion, threats and punishment become acceptable motivation methods.
According to Sprenger, the consequences of compulsion are a lack of effort and a
desire to escape if given the chance. Baiting includes indirect rewards and punish-
ments in the form of variable salary shares and bonuses. The consequence of
utilizing baiting in motivation processes is that employees focus on the rewards
and perform only to the level necessary to gain them, and bonuses must eventually
be increased in order to keep the employees’ interest. Employees receiving fewer
rewards than others tend to disengage themselves due to feelings of resentment and
being treated unfairly.
The strategy of seduction combines bribes, rewards and praise. Here – unlike the
first two strategies – the attitude of the employee is crucial, and identification with
the company is crucial. “Often the cover-all term of ‘corporate identity’ is under-
stood as if the employees, like teenagers, should tattoo the company’s logo on their
86 2 Occupation or Calling: What Makes for Good Leadership?