On the Road 79As well as causing problems of escalation, rewards can un-
dermine teamwork if they are given to individuals. There is a
delicate balance between teamwork and individual work, and
giving individual rewards is not the best way of getting the
best work out of teams, as it goes against their whole ethos.
One study carried out at 20 American social security offices
found that the introduction of an individual merit pay had
no effect on office performance, even though it was carefully
linked to key performance indicators such as the accuracy of
processing claims and time taken to settle claims.^2
Merit rewards for team members can be even more prob-
lematic. These ‘co-opetition’ teams rely on competition
between members to give the best overall result. Sales teams
are an example. Only one of the team will get the coveted
‘salesperson of the month’, with its large bonus, and this can
breed bad feeling. Bad feeling can also arise where depart-
ments are given bonuses based on performance and one
person’s mistake loses the reward for the whole department.
With many organizations moving to a way of working
based on cross-functional teams, team performance is a
major business issue. Leadership fits perfectly into creating
high-performing cross-functional teams. It is not the oppo-
site of teamworking, but complementary. Leaders bring
teams together, and in a good team, everyone can be a
leader, as they work together. Any one of the team can take
over a leadership function, depending on the situation. The
best teams are all made up from people who have developed
themselves as leaders.
Many companies embrace teams in practice, but have a
pay structure that reinforces individual striving at the ex-
pense of the team. Quantum, the computer hardware
manufacturer in California, shows its commitment to team-
work by putting all its employees, CEO, managers and hourly
workers on the same bonus plan that is linked to overall
return on capital.
Back to rewards – and a reward is only a reward if it is
valued by the recipient. Obvious perhaps, but I have seen
many examples where management has offered incentives