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Small signals of appreciation have a decisive influence on the output and quality of the work of employees. A field experiment of KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) economist Petra Nieken and two colleagues revealed that a combination of performance-oriented piece wage and motivating words increases the performance by 20% and reduces the error rate by 40%.
"Our results are relevant to entrepreneurial practice," Nieken emphasizes. She holds the Chair for Human Resources Management of KIT's Institute of Management. How can staff members be motivated? Theory lists two instruments: Financial incentives, such as bonuses or piece wages, and the capability of executives to motivate their staff members. The question whether and how these two instruments complement, strengthen or weaken each other, however, is not clearly answered by theory. That is why this question was in the focus of the study performed at Bonn University.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2015, @10:35AM
Lots of people will starve for their children/loved ones or even sacrifice their own lives.
Maslow had some ideas that might be interesting to clueless people but the fact is the hierarchy is inaccurate or even counterproductive to understanding people and their motivations and why they do the things they do.
People have their goals/objectives - short term and long term. These goals can and do change. Most of people are not fully aware of all of their goals. Most people will try to set up routines and habits - since it reduces the amount of thinking about goals etc. So you go to work, you go for lunch, you do what Da Boss says, you mimic what others are doing, etc. You don't spend time asking why - you might have asked why and set those goals earlier, or you just follow what others are doing or telling you to do.
The world is too complicated for most people to understand fully about why they do certain things - so one of the goals is mimicking and following of traditions and unwritten rules (e.g. what motivates most people to stand facing the elevator door rather than have your back to the wall so you can see what others are doing - and so protect yourself if needed?).
Maslow's hierarchy is inadequate to explain why so many people work late and skip meals even though they are hungry. Do you really think that people are calculating and believing that they would starve in the long term otherwise? Maybe it's true for some cases but in most cases they are doing it because they want to avoid unpleasant stuff that's more immediate. Or because they "believe in the cause". Or they just want to get the job done and get some sense of completion. You know how many OCD people just need to complete stuff, many of us have similar urges but not to a pathological degree). Why do you think so many games have the psychological tricks they have now?