Consider the individual who shows up on the first day of work prepared to give it their best shot, hoping that that their new job is something they’ll really enjoy. When performance of their peers is honored that is completely out of line with the work requested it’s natural to try and then poach grades from the ’system’. By the time they arrive at performance review #3 it is then completely understandable to aim for a zero. When they realize it’s possible to get their work done in 20 minutes the natural progression is to see if a 10 minute effort will also score in the zero category.

When I had given up on ever scoring above a 0 in the assignments I enjoyed the lectures far more and paid alot more attention to where I saw the topic of discussion for the course arising in different situations. When I got the message that “understanding management issues is important in life” my commitment to learning the material was improved, it was never reflected in my effort towards the assignments and if I had to do it again I likely would start out on the very first day aiming for a zero grade, it is truely not worth the effort.

I understand that Flynn was rushed in class today but isn’t the message that we’re supposed to take from this situation that as managament we need to try and decouple this avenue (payment) from feedback? Wouldn’t an atmosphere of “we don’t do the work to get paid?” be the most likely to produce quality work. Some work situations are certainly conducive to this message but aren’t they also the least likely situations to promote the feeling of poaching a paycheck from the ’system’?

I am hesitant to agree with Flynn’s comment that “Managerial recognition is a more powerful motivator than compensation.” Recognition seems awfully fake unless there is something hands on to support it. Wouldn’t a work atmosphere of ‘usefulness’ do a much better job of motivation than recognition. I can draw on 2 examples of why I think this is true.

1. Flynn’s comments regarding frustration working at the chemical plant because he didn’t know what was going on, the comment was that lack of understanding was a powerful demotivator. There are many other examples of jobs that suck because you don’t know why you’re doing them.
2. Why do so many people turn to religion to seek purpose in life? It’s not out of recognition but rather them believing that what they do with their time matters.