Thoughts on Motivation

American economist John Kenneth Galbraith found four reasons why people do tasks they don’t like: force (being made to do it), rewards (getting something in return), team spirit (caring about the team’s goals), and taking over (slowly changing team goals to match your own).

Force and rewards are easy to understand. Team spirit means putting the team’s goals ahead of your own. Taking over means trying to change the team to fit what you want.

Some of these reasons work well together, others don’t. Force doesn’t mix well with team spirit or taking over. Rewards usually work better than force. Taking over often happens in growing teams, where people can move up and get more power. When I need to motivate people for a specific job, I prefer using rewards and team spirit.

Why doesn’t letting workers run everything work well? American expert Abraham Maslow once visited a company where workers made all the decisions. The company was doing great at first. Workers chose when to work and who to hire or fire. Experts called it a perfect workplace. But Maslow showed this only worked because the company had more orders than it could handle. When business got tough, this way of running things failed. After Maslow died, the company had to change and put strict bosses in charge. He was right – when the market got worse, letting workers run everything didn’t work anymore.