Recent research published in the Academy of Management Annals found that workplace incentives “can be a cure as well as a poison.” The paper analyzes how incentive programs can unintentionally encourage bad behavior at work, pointing to several prominent examples.
According to Cornell University's Tae-Youn Park, lead author of the paper, leaders usually deploy incentives to boost their organization’s performance, but focusing on rewards can “open you up to overlooking other important values.” Many incentives are founded upon the assumption that external rewards and punishments are the primary motivators for people’s actions, but behavioral science tells us this is not the case.
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