I believe that Terry’s method of motivation can be effective. Obviously his method is extreme, but he gets his message across. Soon enough, employees will stop playing games on their work computers, and no one will want to forget to put coversheets on their TPS reports. Soon the office will efficiently run like clockwork.
Unfortunately, providing a need for success at the office gives employees a reason not to want to succeed at their job. Instead of employees who want to be creative and innovative in efforts to help their company, employees will only focus on going through the day thinking about how they will go through the day without retribution. Instead of a community of employees working towards a communal goal, Terry’s motivation will lead to a desolate office with each individual struggling to survive. While it may lead to decreased waste and greater efficiency in the short run, it will eventually lead to decreased productivity and innovation.
Yes, referencing your last post, if you only care about the result (the coversheets and lack of games), then Terry is great. If you care about the method by which the company achieves productivity (how the workers feel, etc), then you can imagine how Terry may cause problems.
ReplyDeleteYou describe a good reason why providing external motivators, particularly such strong motivators, can really interfere with intrinsic motivation. If you're terrified every day at work, you won't care how interesting the task is--you will be tackled if you don't get it done quickly. If Terry left the office, the employees wouldn't know how to work for their own interest, passion, and creativity for a while. It would take some time to suppress that association between non-productive work/pain.
I took the ad the way you did! (I apparently missed the advertisement part of the ad)...in a world lacking emotion and lawsuits, Terry's strategy would be perfect...within no more than a few days, I am sure that all workers would be on task at all times. But we don't live in that world, so we unfortunately have to find other means.
ReplyDelete