Thursday, January 30, 2020

When Rewards Go Wrong Essay Example for Free

When Rewards Go Wrong Essay At the heart of most performance management systems is a reward program. However, even when we are doing everything else right, rewards can go wrong. Here, we explore five ways that external incentives can damage performance, from destroying altruistic behavior to distracting people from the task. Fortunately, most of these downfalls are avoidable. While not every behavior is suitable for pay-for-performance, we can provide rewards that are rewarding, helping to encourage the behavior we value. THE CARROT AND THE STICK are the starting point for creating the behavior that we want. We reward desirable actions and punish, often by removing rewards, actions that annoy. Rewarded behavior becomes more frequent, and punished behaviors eventually disappear. That, at least, is the idea. From economics, which is largely the study of incentives, to behavioral psychology, which specializes in reinforcers, we have academic reassurance that we are pursuing the recommended path. But as anyone who actually tried to put this simple logic into practice will find, it does not always work out as well as desired. We praise a teenager for doing well in her studies, rewarding her with a shopping trip to the mall, only to find that her grades steadily deteriorate thereafter. We encourage a spouse to try to follow our much more reasonable agenda, only to get him or her to dig his or her heels in opposition. We even encounter this mysterious disconnect when we give gifts. Gift givers typically expect a positive association between how much they spend on a gift and how much their gift’s recipient appreciates it. We reason that more money (i.e., a more expensive gift) conveys a greater amount of thoughtfulness. In fact, gift recipients report no such association between the price of their gift and their actual feelings of appreciation (Flynn Adams, 2009). Much like gift givers who expect a greater, more positive outcome proportional to the size of the gift, organizations often find that external rewards such as pay do not garner the outcomes they expect. In fact, sometimes to our bafflement, an incentive program turns out to be a disincentive program, where we are inadvertently reducing the very behavior we try to encourage. Why does this happen? Sometimes it is due to poor measurement: we do not recognize the proper behavior when it occurs or when we get it confused with something else. Most famously, rewarding CEOs with stock options is seen as a way to get the C-suite (the offices of the most senior-level executives with titles beginning with the word chief) to work harder, but this can have perverse consequences. Stock performance is not the same as CEO performance, and to raise stock prices, we actually incented some CEOs to manufacture or make up favorable financial reports. This is why Peter Drucker (Drucker Zahra, 2003) described the practice as â€Å"the well-meant but idiotic belief that executives should have major stakes in the company, the stock options (which I have always considered an open invitation to mis-management)† (p. 11). At other times, rewards do not work because they are not contingent on performance. To the degree rewards are not reliably delivered, so people feel their hard work will not be dependably recognized, we can stop expecting the target behavior altogether regardless of how large the promised reward becomes. For a performance management system to work, people have to trust it. However, neither of these issues of implementation will be our focus. Performance Improvement, vol. 51, no. 8, September 2012  ©2012 International Society for Performance Improvement Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) Altruism paints a sunny swath through our society. People act on behalf of others simply for the pleasure of helping. Here we are at our best, whether assisting the disabled or homeless find housing or our coworkers master the company’s new software program. The joy of altruism is inherent in our neurobiological makeup, with separate regions of the brain activated when we are acting altruistically (Fehr Rockenbach, 2004). Unfortunately, this is also part of the problem. There are countless examples of attempts to incent altruistic behavior that in theory should have been effective. Even if someone is intrinsically motivated to perform, adding an extrinsic reward should motivate him or her even more. As it turns out, it does not quite work this way. Frey and Oberholzer-Gee (1997) reviewed the Swiss government’s attempt to get a canton to accept a nuclear waste dump being built near it. Nobody wants nuclear waste, nearby or otherwise. But if you are going to have nuclear power, the waste has to go somewhere, and allowing it to be stored in the vicinity of your backyard is a selfless civic act. Initially, simply on the request of the government, about 51% of the area’s populace was willing to permit its location—altrui sm pure and simple. However, when the Swiss later decided to add a few thousand dollars of yearly stipend to promote more agreement, the percentage of agreement went down, not up, to about 25%. Neurobiologically, by adding an external incentive, the Swiss government framed the question from being an altruistic act, which had sufficient motivation, to one of pleasure and self-interest, which was evaluated in a separate part of our brain and came up short. Under these strictly monetary standards, the few grand that the government was offering was not enough. Later in 2001, Frey along with a new colleague, Jegen, called this motivational crowding theory. Finding scores of examples for everything from the adherence of time schedules in day care services to pay-for-performance schemes, they repeatedly found that extrinsic rewards can push or crowd out intrinsic rewards. Now this is not always a bad thing. If the Swiss government wanted to get agreement well over the 51% that altruism was providing, it could have, but at a high cost. If officials were willing to give every resident a small fortune each year, they might even have people actively moving to that canton. But if you cannot afford the cost of maintaining an extrinsic reward system, then you are likely better off not implementing it at all. The delicate balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motives can be a difficult one to keep. Gary Walters, an expert in psychology and child development, recounts his mistake when trying to encourage his 6-year-old son’s precious interest in chess by giving him a manual on the topic: â€Å"He was reading by then, so I gave it to him. That just killed it. It turned it into schoolwork. There’s a difference between intrinsic and extrinsic interest: the kinds of things you’d do on your own because they’re self-rewarding, as opposed to somebody on the outside telling you† (Bielski, 2012). If he can err, then so can the rest of us. Consequently, if you have people volunteering, developing, self-improving, or engaging in positive organizational citizenship behavior due to intrinsic reasons, you might want to recognize it or celebrate it with unexpected or unofficial rewards but not ones formally contingent on task performance. Leave such altruism as the wonderful gift that people give others. It is not work and should not be treated as such. HOW CAN BE AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT People have desires not only about the rewards they receive but also in the manner they are delivered. For example, company A and company B may pay their workers the same competitive wage, but due to differences in procedure, one is effectively incenting performance while the other is not. But why? There are two major desires regarding the administration of reward programs: a sense of fairness and a sense of autonomy. As the common law adage goes, â€Å"Not only must Justice be done, it must be seen to be done.† This principle extends to reward systems as well (Frey Stutzer, 2005). In the competition for performance between company A and B, you can increase the power of your incentives through three primary mechanisms (Masterson, Lewis, Goldman, Taylor, 2000; McFarlin Sweeney, 1992). First, keep your employees informed about exactly how rewards are administered. Effective reward systems are usually transparent, in that they are well documented, clearly communicated, and easy to follow. The less accessible or understandable a reward system becomes, the less it works. Second, be consistent in its application. Whether the outcome is the same or different, people like to know that there is a process being followed and that it is the same for everybody. The more arbitrary you are and the more exceptions you make for particular people, the less bang you get for your buck or value for your effort. Finally, and probably most important, allow voice. Any reward, large or small, is likely to be accepted as being fair if you give others the opportunity to state their perspective. By denying people even marginal input, they are less likely to buy what you are selling. Often you do not even have to agree with their opinions, but you do have to listen authentically; people desp erately want to be heard. The other mechanism for improving or reducing the power of rewards is whether you emphasize their controlling aspects. We do want to control or at least influence behavior with rewards. Otherwise, why else would you use them? However, many people have substantive needs for autonomy. While the need for autonomy can range from nonexistent all the way up to Patrick Henry’s â€Å"Give me liberty or give me death,† on average it is quite large. Typically we do not like other people telling us what to do, we do not like feeling controlled, and we resent any efforts to coerce. To reestablish a sense of autonomy, we might reject significant rewards, seemingly self-destructively— cutting off your nose to spite your face. Consequently, giving people a degree of choice in reward systems and framing the system as encouragement rather than control reduces the perceived threat to autonomy. For example, Washington, D.C., has a performance system for teachers called â€Å"Impact Plus.† Teachers can voluntarily enroll, potentially doubling their salary, if they are willing to give up some job security provision in their union contract. When his friends do show up, Tom applies himself to the paintbrush with gusto, presenting the tedious chore as a rare opportunity. Tom’s friends wind up not only paying for the privilege of taking their turn at the fence, but deriving real pleasure from the task—a win–win outcome if there ever was one. In Twain’s words, Tom â€Å"had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difï ¬ cult to attain.† (p. 1) REWARDS TELL US HOW REWARDING THE TASK REALLY IS Ariely, Loewenstein, and Prelec (2006) suggest what they call the â€Å"Tom Sawyer effect.† They write, In a famous passage of Mark Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer, Tom is faced with the unenviable job of whitewashing his aunt’s fence in full view of his friends who will pass by shortly and whose snickering Perhaps even more notable, this effect demonstrates that the value of a task, real and perceived, is malleable and that rewards can be used quite persuasively to alter this perception. Certainly price in many cases communicates meaning. For example, if a colleague offers you $1,500 to go on a date with her brother, you have just been given a lot of information about that brother, as well as about how the date might be expected to go. Similarly, Plassmann, O’Doherty, Shiv, and Rangel (2008) examined the effects of pricing on the experience of enjoyment of wine. As might be expected, as the price of the wine increased, participants reported a greater level of satisfaction with the wine overall. That is, their attitudes about the wine and self-reported experience were more positive. Impressively, they also showed a greater physiological satisfaction with the wine. On functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of participants’ brains, a higher level of activity was observed in one of the pleasure centers of the brain. Not only did price provide information that informed attitudes, but it also informed real, physical reactions. Of note, when the same participants assessed the wine in blind taste tests, they gave the cheapest wine (five dollars a bottle) the highest praise. Consequently, if we pay people to perform a task, we also can be communicating that the task is awful. They will hate it simply because that is what the â€Å"price† indicates, countering what natural positive feelings we might have had. For example, economists tried to incent students’ performance by paying them to learn—a cash-for-grades scheme. â€Å"Remarkably,† as Fryer (2010) found, â€Å"incentives for output did not increase achievement† (p. 5). Actually it’s not so remarkable. Good framing can minimize this, where we ensure we are also communicating that this is a desirable job. You could make it clear, as Tom Sawyer did, that the task is coveted and others would be eager to do the same. There are scores of public schools that are incredibly demanding in what they ask of their students, such as SEED schools and the Harlem Success Academy. Perhaps they can ask so much because the competition to get in is so high that it is done by lottery.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

McCarthyism :: Joseph McCarthy Communism

The era following WWII and the era we are currently in portray times in United State's history that united our country in some ways, but in other ways were times of constrained freedom and illustrated the limitations of our country. McCarthyism, the period in the early to mid 1950's, was a time that arose from once good relations with the Soviet Union to a time where there was fear of communism within our country. Terrorism, a term that has been around, but now brings new meaning. The U.S had attacks in the 90's in Oklahoma, the Olympics, and the previous attacks on the World Trade Center, but none amounted to September 11, 2001 with the amount of casualties, the desperate measures of the attackers and the cracks in our security system. Terrorism is not like the "ism" of communism; communism is a political ideology that infringed on our capitalistic ways, but terrorism is much more destructive. As defined by the FBI, "the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives". Terrorism is a technique, but as we have come to know it present day it is enacted by radical religious individuals who are opposed to globalization and the western way of life. The ideologies of these Islamic extremists do not transfer an ideology to terrorism, because it is spread among many groups and has become too broad a concept. Looking back on communism and its affect on American society, the present day terrorism can draw many parallels. The parallels are similar, yet they are not quite on the level of paranoia that communism instated within the U.S. and against our own society. To be accused of being a communist, one did not have to have a certain appearance; it was an ideology that that individual accepted, however to be accused of a terrorist is mostly along the lines of an appearance and the Muslim community. The invention of the television in 1946 brought the scare of nuclear weapons into the home. There was an abundance of bomb footage from the testing sites and infiltration of McCarthyism into the home with other broadcasts. On the first H-bomb footage, "Projected on the motion picture screen, in crisp 35mm,

Monday, January 13, 2020

Employment Responsibilities and Rights Essay

Learning Outcome 1. 1.1 List the aspects of employment covered by law. Aspects that are covered by law are as followed, anti-discrimination provisions to protect against gender, race, disability, age, working hours and holiday entitlements. Sickness absence and sick pay. Data protection for personal information. Health and safety. Criminal records Bureau (CRB) checks when starting work within a healthcare setting. 1.2 List the main features of current employment legislation. The main features are as followed, minimum wage, hours worked, Discrimination, health and safety, holiday entitlements, redundancy and dismissal, disciplinary procedures, training and union rights. Health and safety laws cover the work conditions, and minimum wage and other laws set basic compensation levels. There’s also the disability act, manual handling operations and regulations, data protection act, general social care council code 2001 and RIDDOR. 1.3 Outline why legislation relating to employment exists. Legislation relating to employment exists to stop exploitation of workers by their employers mainly to protect the rights of their employee’s and to make sure that they have everything they need such as safety standards, holiday entitlement, maternity leave, redundancy payments, discrimination laws, maximum working hours and age requirement. 1.4 Identify sources and types of information and advice available in relation to employment responsibilities and available in relation to employment responsibilities and rights. Sources of information and advice can be found in the HR department, from your line manager or your manager’s manager. The Citizens Advice Bureau, community legal advice, trade unions, additional learning support and from representative bodies. Read more:  Employer and Employee Statutory Rights and Responsibilities Learning Outcome 2. 2.1 Describe the terms and conditions of your own contract of employment. The terms and conditions of my contract of employment are the commencement date of which I started working for the organisation. Information about my probationary period where it explains that the first three months of my employment will be probationary so that I and the organisation can assess the suitability of this arrangement. My contract states my job title, which is care assistant. There’s information about the pay rate during the week  and a different rate of pay at weekends and bank holidays, along with how often we are paid. My normal hours of work each week and holiday entitlement are stated. Which explains that I’m entitled to 28 days holiday a year but only permitted to take a maximum of 10 days at any one time. Also listed is information about sick pay and how much notice to give when leaving the organisation. My contract explains about the uniform that is provided. There’s i nformation about the CRB checks that every member of staff has when starting. 2.2 Describe the information shown on your own pay statement. The information on my pay statement is my name, national insurance number, tax code and the dates of the four weeks that I have been paid for. It details the amount of hours worked for the four weeks with the rate of pay for weekdays, weekends and any bank holidays or holidays booked during that time and the value. There’s a list for tax deductions and national insurance deductions. The total amount of tax paid since working for the organisation. At the bottom of my pay statement there is the total gross pay which is the amount earned before tax deductions. Underneath there is the total amount of tax deductions for the four weeks. The net pay is the amount left over when tax deductions have been taken away from the total gross pay. 2.3 Describe the procedures to follow in an event of a grievance. The grievance should be raised verbally with your line manager or manager’s manager. It should be done in confidence giving full details and sufficient time to consider the facts of the case and where appropriate take remedial action. If your line manager not be able to satisfactorily resolve the grievance, the matter should be referred either verbally or in writing to the home manager whose decision will be final. An employee is entitled to have another person present at any stage of the procedure. 2.4 Identify the personal information that must be kept up to date with your own employer. Personal information that must be up dated is your change in marital status, address and telephone numbers. A change of next of kin details. National insurance number and tax code. Qualifications and work history. Any medical restrictions, absence details, training and data protection. 2.5 Explain agreed ways of working with employer. Agreed ways of working with your employer are following health and safety procedures, implement agreed ways to follow care plans. Following procedures  when someone needs to take time off either for personal reason or holiday. Giving your employer the correct time needed to organise shifts for sickness. Learning Outcome 3 3.1 Explain how our own role fits within the delivery of the service provider. My role fits within the delivery of the service provider because I am maintaining the organisations reputation and setting high standards. Following uniform policies by dressing smartly and wearing the correct uniform. Attending staff training and completing e-learning course so that I’m up to date with policies and procedures. Treating the service users with dignity and making sure they keep their independence. Also communication with other health care professionals, service users and their family on a regular basis. 3.2 Explain the effect of own role on service provision. Being a care assistant I support the unit managers and senior care assistants by communicating with them. I keep them up to date with any changes regarding the service users like their behaviour and any medical conditions which have either got worse or better. I follow all policies and procedures when undertaking tasks so that I’m complying with CQC standards. Working in a team we can support the service users to maintain their independence, individuality and basis rights. To ensure the safety of staff and service users all health and safety policies are followed. 3.3 Describe how own role links to the wider sector. Working as a care assistant we are linked to a variety of health care professionals such as doctors who come in once a week for check-ups on service users and possibly giving prescriptions so that we can monitor their condition. We also have district nurses and hospitals who require monthly check-ups and we have to update them on the service users condition from carers who work with them on a daily basis. 3.4 Describe the main roles and responsibilities of representative bodies that influence the wider sector. CQC go to a wide range of care settings to make sure essential standards of quality and safety are being met at all times. All staff that work within the health care industry follow all the appropriate policies and procedures to ensure the safety of the service user and staff. Learning Outcome 4 4.1 Explore different types of occupational opportunities. The different types of occupational opportunities are gaining a level 3 NVQ and working as a senior carer and eventually working towards becoming a unit manager. 4.2 Identify sources of information related to chosen career pathway. Information relating to a chosen career pathway could be to talk to your unit manager about progression to a senior care assistant and find out the relevant training and qualifications that are needed for the role. Another source is the NHS website for job similar to a care assistant such as a health care assistant which assistant the nurses. 4.3 Identify next steps in own career pathway. In order to become a senior care assistant I would need to complete my NVQ level 2 and medication course. Do the relevant training at work and then complete an NVQ level 3.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

The Purpose of Existence in Islam Free Essay Example, 2500 words

The occurrence of the numerous and diverse theories is in itself a contrasting feature between the existence in Islam and existentialism. On the one hand, Islam has a fixed Holy book, the Koran, a fixed code of conduct, a fixed value system irrespective of age, gender, nation, language or any other disparity, while on the other hand, existentialism is a movement defined differently by diverse scholars. There is no consensus even regarding the definition of the term, which is perceived differently by all the scholars. Islam firmly propagates that the world will be destroyed on the last, final day which will be the day of judgment, and Allah will raise all the people, living or dead, in order to judge their deeds, good or bad. Individuals who have committed good deeds and die, waiting in their graves for the final day will experience peace in the grave, whereas individuals who have committed bad deeds will begin their punishments in the grave. On the final day of judgment, the good de eds and the bad deeds will be measured and accordingly, individuals will be sent to heaven or hell. We will write a custom essay sample on The Purpose of Existence in Islam or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page The Islamic religion is actually a code of conduct for the followers of Islam, the Muslims, elucidating in great detail, the way a Muslim should lead his/her life. The five basic pillars of Islam are as follows; The acceptance of Islam by accepting that there is no God except Allah the Almighty and Muhammad is the prophet or messenger of Allah. This is done by testifying that that is no God except Allah the almighty, by reciting, La ilaha ill Allah, Muhammadur Rasool Allah. Performing the five daily prayers, Namaaz and offering Namaaz to the Almighty Allah.