Human Motivation what drives you?

[sureshs]

Ok , i can see that thats the way it currently works to keep people from moving to a competitor for some
.But the question i am asking isnt really that. The question is whether or not a bonus as an incentive at the end of the year is a way to maximize the staffs performance. :

Do they perform better due to having a personal bonus as a goal at the end of the year?

Yes. It is how sales people have functioned since ever. They make 2 to 5 times their salary through commissions, which are basically bonuses.

The fixed year end bonus for other workers is also a great motivator because people use it for vacations and so on. They plan their lives around the bonus.

 

[dennis10is]

I'm motivated to have more money, specifically to be a multi-billionaire. I'm driven to help the government re-allocated money from the poor to the rich. I'm entitled to be even richer than I am now. I drive around and see families still living in their homes, not taking the bus but diriving their own car, it makes me livid.

My goal is to the reverse the illegal immigration trend, and give those Miexicans a taste of their own medicine. One day, I hope before I die, I want to see Americans by the millions, tens of millions, hundred of millions swarming across the border in Mexico, hoping for a better life.

 

[OTMPut]

My goal is to the reverse the illegal immigration trend, and give those Miexicans a taste of their own medicine. One day, I hope before I die, I want to see Americans by the millions, tens of millions, hundred of millions swarming across the border in Mexico, hoping for a better life.

not so long ago, americans did it. they swarmed in to america.

 

[Sentinel]

And what about a guy who has him in the signature?

Ultimately it is all about fear. Fear of poverty, fear of falling sick, fear of loneliness, fear of losing one's freedoms, and finally, fear of death.

That's tosh. You've picked that up from somewhere. Be original. Don't just swallow people's philosophies without first inspecting.

I'm motivated to have more money, specifically to be a multi-billionaire. I'm driven to help the government re-allocated money from the poor to the rich. I'm entitled to be even richer than I am now. I drive around and see families still living in their homes, not taking the bus but diriving their own car, it makes me livid.

My goal is to the reverse the illegal immigration trend, and give those Miexicans a taste of their own medicine. One day, I hope before I die, I want to see Americans by the millions, tens of millions, hundred of millions swarming across the border in Mexico, hoping for a better life.

Your Billie Gates recently said being a billionaire is "weird". I did not read the interview.

 

[chrischris]

Thanks for all of your views and opinions and thoughts. I have done some thinking and since i could not come to any real insights despite trying kinda hard i gave up.
So i spent the last few hours doing some research on this topic.Looking at what evidence that can be carried out anywhere and shows itself to bring a statistic outcome worth
And specifically on whether a bonus at the end of the year makes for a better performance from the professionals aspiring to gain the bonus.
I am soon finished and will let you guys know what i have to offer.

 

[sureshs]

That's tosh. You've picked that up from somewhere. Be original. Don't just swallow people's philosophies without first inspecting.



Your Billie Gates recently said being a billionaire is "weird". I did not read the interview.

What/who is tosh?

 

[sureshs]

I'm motivated to have more money, specifically to be a multi-billionaire. I'm driven to help the government re-allocated money from the poor to the rich. I'm entitled to be even richer than I am now. I drive around and see families still living in their homes, not taking the bus but diriving their own car, it makes me livid.

My goal is to the reverse the illegal immigration trend, and give those Miexicans a taste of their own medicine. One day, I hope before I die, I want to see Americans by the millions, tens of millions, hundred of millions swarming across the border in Mexico, hoping for a better life.

Lots doing it already. Settling down after retirement in Mehico, for the cheaper cost. Or getting their medicines from there.

 

[chrischris]

Guys, i cant not believe this , sounds so 'wrong'. To be quite honest its a kinda 'WTF-ish ' thing.

There are these studies carried out that seem to proven that
a motivator in the from of a year end bonus do NOT improve performance for a vast amount of very good and well paid jobs.
They say it actually acts in a way that lessens performance.
Unreal?

 

[maleyoyo]

For me, the best self-motivation comes from trying to motivate others. Be a leader, not a follower.

 

[chrischris]

Surprise!!

Bonuses as incentives are bogus apparently if intended to act as performance optimizers in jobs such as on Wall St, advertsing agencies , car design etc.

 

[chrischris]

Surprise!!

Bonuses as incentives are bogus apparently if intended to act as performance optimizers in jobs with similarities to such as those on Wall St, advertising agencies , design , music and arts etc.

They appear to prevent the kind of creative inspired thinking that isnt automatic that these tasks benefit from.

I am baffled.

 

[chrischris]

Double post ,sorry.

 

[sureshs]

Surprise!!

Bonuses as incentives are bogus apparently if intended to act as performance optimizers in jobs such as on Wall St, advertsing agencies , car design etc.

I don't know where you got it from. In the heyday of Wall Street, people used to switch jobs in the New Year after receiving their Christmas bonus.

 

[chrischris]

I don't know where you got it from. In the heyday of Wall Street, people used to switch jobs in the New Year after receiving their Christmas bonus.

I think you may be missing the point of what the studies show.
They show that having a bonus as an incentive doesnt make you a better performer unless your job is of a physical mechanical kind.It( the bonus) actually makes you worse at it.

Hard to believe , right ?

 

[sureshs]

I think you may be missing the point of what the studies show.
They show that having a bonus as an incentive doesnt make you a better performer unless your job is of a physical mechanical kind.It( the bonus) actually makes you worse at it.

Hard to believe , right ?

Well, what is a "music" or a "design" job? A school teacher who teaches music would love a bonus, I am sure. For Michael Jackson, it may not have been important. A civil engineer who designs a building would love a bonus, but Frank Lloyd Wright would not have been motivated by it. There are degrees to everything. If the "creative" types are on their own, bonus is not relevant. If they are salaried, and the salary is enormous or they are also co-owners/equity stakeholders in a company, bonus is not important. But if they just get a regular salary, it is a performance enhancer compared to the work they would do otherwise (which might be 0 if they quit).

 

[Rock Strongo]

That I can always get better, that's what drives me. There's always something I can improve, and though I'm probably the laziest person on the northern hemisphere I want to get things done, because though it's not noticeable at times, you improve at things every time you do them. Some times only slightly, and other times it's more significant. The thing that drives me right now is a girl at school. Even if I don't get her, I know that I've improved my communication/social skills and started working away my shyness toward girls.

 

[chrischris]

Well, what is a "music" or a "design" job? A school teacher who teaches music would love a bonus, I am sure. For Michael Jackson, it may not have been important. A civil engineer who designs a building would love a bonus, but Frank Lloyd Wright would not have been motivated by it. There are degrees to everything. If the "creative" types are on their own, bonus is not relevant. If they are salaried, and the salary is enormous or they are also co-owners/equity stakeholders in a company, bonus is not important. But if they just get a regular salary, it is a performance enhancer compared to the work they would do otherwise (which might be 0 if they quit).

The key point here is that the studies carried out both at London Business Schools and here in the US at Princeton Sam Glucksberg show that
bonuses for Wall Street workers LESSENS their performances in the workplace.!


Think about that for a minute. It would actually mean that the money they were given as bail out emergency turned bonus had no influence at all on them doing their job better. Its kinda mindboggling right ?

This video shows how it works

http://vimeo.com/15488784 and this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

 

[Sentinel]

What/who is tosh?

Your dictionary is your friend. Press F12 on your Mac and use the Dict widget.
Otherwise install surfraw or something. "brew install surfraw".

 

[chrischris]

Anyone has some good opposing ideas and studies to the surprising study in post # 67?

 

[Tennishacker]

Why do you suggest to have many kids? I heard from my co-worker who has only one child and he was very regreting. So I'd like to have 2 kids if I can. I will be fine even one if that happens.

My wife and I really enjoyed rasing them, but they grow too fast.

 

[ollinger]

Extrapolating Glucksberg's work to Wall Street is naive and knuckleheaded. Glucksberg looked at the effect of monetary reward on people's motivation to do mostly simple mechanical tasks. It was similar to the famous studies of people on the street being asked to help load a couch into a truck, in which it was found that offering 20 bucks reduced the number of people willing to do it compared with those willing to do it for free, ostensibly because, the researchers speculate, people felt better about themselves doing it for free. In both Glucksberg's work and the couch study, the subjects were volunteers, people who by the very fact of being volunteers find motivation in non-financial psychological factors. Wall Street, you will note, is not made up of research study volunteers but rather of people who are there precisely because money is an important (THE most important?) motivator for them. So to suggest that financial professionals are not motivated by extra money because the volunteers in research studies did not seem overly motivated by money is foolish and surely incorrect. Where are the studies of Wall Street pros showing that they work less effectively when there are bonuses to be had?

 

[Tennishacker]

What does your eldest think about #2?

My eldest is really great with kids, he would of enjoyed more siblings.

 

[sureshs]

Your dictionary is your friend. Press F12 on your Mac and use the Dict widget.
Otherwise install surfraw or something. "brew install surfraw".

I rely on this forum for my education. Teach me these things.

 

[sureshs]

Extrapolating Glucksberg's work to Wall Street is naive and knuckleheaded. Glucksberg looked at the effect of monetary reward on people's motivation to do mostly simple mechanical tasks. It was similar to the famous studies of people on the street being asked to help load a couch into a truck, in which it was found that offering 20 bucks reduced the number of people willing to do it compared with those willing to do it for free, ostensibly because, the researchers speculate, people felt better about themselves doing it for free. In both Glucksberg's work and the couch study, the subjects were volunteers, people who by the very fact of being volunteers find motivation in non-financial psychological factors. Wall Street, you will note, is not made up of research study volunteers but rather of people who are there precisely because money is an important (THE most important?) motivator for them. So to suggest that financial professionals are not motivated by extra money because the volunteers in research studies did not seem overly motivated by money is foolish and surely incorrect. Where are the studies of Wall Street pros showing that they work less effectively when there are bonuses to be had?

Yeah the survey subjects are important, as well as their motivations. Even if the subjects were relevant, the results may be skewed.

Good example is internal corporate surveys designed to get employee feedback. Some 91% will always say that they are overworked and don't have enough resources. Many of them will be lazy bums. Do you think anyone will admit he is a lazy bum at work?

If you ask people if bonus motivates them, they will say no, they do it for the love of the work. A year later you will find them doing some thing else for more money.

In the 80s when TV viewers were asked if they watched Married With Children, many said no, we don't allow such trash to be watched in our home. But when they were tricked by asking who was Bud's sister or something like that, they all knew the answer.

People decieve themselves and others all the time. That is why personality tests ask the same question is many different ways at many different points in the test to make it statistically impossible to cheat.

 

[ollinger]

^^ Well said. The other problem with studies like Glucksberg's and the couch study is the amount of money. People may have felt put off by being offered 20 dollars to help with the couch, but if you offered them a million dollars I suspect they'd be motivated to help. The point is significant because Wall Street bonuses are frequently enormous, and enormous is a much bigger motivator than small amounts. As we saw in the NY area this week, people are not motivated to form long lines to buy lottery tickets when a few million is up for grabs, but when it's about 250 million, the line goes around the block.

 

[sureshs]

^^ Well said. The other problem with studies like Glucksberg's and the couch study is the amount of money. People may have felt put off by being offered 20 dollars to help with the couch, but if you offered them a million dollars I suspect they'd be motivated to help. The point is significant because Wall Street bonuses are frequently enormous, and enormous is a much bigger motivator than small amounts. As we saw in the NY area this week, people are not motivated to form long lines to buy lottery tickets when a few million is up for grabs, but when it's about 250 million, the line goes around the block.

In the heyday, there were quants whose starting pay was $300K, and the Christmas bonus could almost equal that.

If it was 5%, the employee may start thinking of it as an entitlement and you could say it did not achieve its purpose. On the other hand, absence of that 5% will upset him. From my experience, it will not show up as a 5% decrease in productivity, but as water-cooler talk blaming the management, making fun of people, delaying giving information to other teams, and a kind of the-company-asked-for-it mentality. This will have a toll much larger than 5%.

 

[r2473]

Gluckberg's study conincides with what I have heard from upper management more than once.

They tell me that I'm not motivated by money. That what really motivates me are pats on the back and "atta boy's". I've assured them that money would be a much better motivator and these "atta boys" are pretty patronizing, but they don't agree (though they do tell me that they respect my opinon, etc.).

Its actually sort of strange because money does seem to motivate them.

I have suggested an experiment whereby we reduce their salary and transfer it to me. At the same time, we reduce the number of "atta boy's" I receive while increasing their total "atta boy's", to see if their theory is correct. So far, they havn't agreed to try my experiment (though they did compliment me for "thinking outside the box").

 

[pushing_wins]

getting reps on interent forums

like that arithemic thread. whats motivated breakpoint to go on and on for weeks?

and legs of female tennis players seems to be motivating on this forum

 

[Hot Sauce]

Competition is my #1 motivator. Next would be internal attribution and then external attribution.

 

[chrischris]

Extrapolating Glucksberg's work to Wall Street is naive and knuckleheaded. Glucksberg looked at the effect of monetary reward on people's motivation to do mostly simple mechanical tasks. It was similar to the famous studies of people on the street being asked to help load a couch into a truck, in which it was found that offering 20 bucks reduced the number of people willing to do it compared with those willing to do it for free, ostensibly because, the researchers speculate, people felt better about themselves doing it for free. In both Glucksberg's work and the couch study, the subjects were volunteers, people who by the very fact of being volunteers find motivation in non-financial psychological factors. Wall Street, you will note, is not made up of research study volunteers but rather of people who are there precisely because money is an important (THE most important?) motivator for them. So to suggest that financial professionals are not motivated by extra money because the volunteers in research studies did not seem overly motivated by money is foolish and surely incorrect. Where are the studies of Wall Street pros showing that they work less effectively when there are bonuses to be had?

Being called a knucklehead is kind of cute..
The study seems to show that : For simple mechanical task , money make you perform better
BUT if you pay people enough to begin with they perform better than if they have
to fight for bonuses while doing more complicted kinds of work incl . what Wall streeters do,

have a look at the video and see if you can understrand it better that way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

 

[ollinger]

They don't exist because large bonuses are doubtless very motivating.

 

[chrischris]

Motivating perhaps and probably . But nevertheless it seems to be money quite wasted as actual performances , despite the motivation being high and likely overheating ,deteriorate.
Rewarding subpar performance sounds very absurd , dont you agree?

After all, its not who can win in terms of showing how motivated and amped up he or she is that should be rewarded. Its the best PERFORMER.

 

[ollinger]

No, I don't agree with what part of your post I can understand. Some of it is incomprehensible. Try to be less concrete and not think of it as rewarding subpar performance but rather "there's a boatload of money here so we're going to pass it around to alot of people to buy their allegiance and their silence." You're trying, not that well, to think like an academician and apply it to business. Business is dirtier than that, far dirtier (usually) than academics.

 

[chrischris]

Could one say that if bonuses act like you say "allegiance + silence" would you think that would be a good thing or something to consider to get rid of?

 

[chrischris]

I think my motivators are my needs.