Copyright: 1993
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0-395-65028-3
Alfie Kohn doesn't like B.F. Skinner. At least he spends the first 180 or so pages of his book, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise and Other Bribes, ranting against the basic elements of Skinner's writings on behaviorism. He derisively calls refers to "pop-behaviorism" throughout his book as the "Do this and you'll get that" mentality of getting what you want out of people. If you are want to read a somewhat narcisstic and lopsided discussion of Kohn's views, read the whole book. If you (like me) are just interested in a practical alternative look at incentives, skip to page 180 and read part III of the book and save yourself some time...I wish I would have.
The Problem with Rewards
In a nutshell the problem with rewards seems to be that Kohn doesn't like them. At times he sounds like a kid that didn't get enough cookies after class in school and is still upset. At other times he sounds like a condescending college professor speaking to a group of sycophantic students about how wrong the world is and if only they would listen to his ideas they would finally get it right. Still other parts of the book sound like an author desperately trying to make his point so that people will hire him for more lectures.
The problem with Kohn's book in my mind is simple. He hauls out an endless list of "interesting studies" that either prove his point or disprove Skinner's points. He glosses over the fact that many of these studies contradict each other. I would liken it to two scientists preparing elaborate studies, each of which predicts a different boiling point for water. Each scientist could scamper around looking for evidence from other studies to support his point of view... or he could wisely look at two opposing studies and look for what is different. Then the scientist might be able to write a paper explaining that you can't predict the boiling point of water by temperature alone... you should also consider pressure as well!
Kohn consistently uses hypothetical situations to prove his points. He also makes broad generalizations, usually with a caveat (like this one) that "such and such a state is most often the case." What I am interested in is why it isn't always the case? For instance he claims "most of us can think of something we enjoyed doing until we got paid for it" beside which in my notes I wrote "What is he talking about?!?!" He also claims "watching someone else get an award is a powerful demotivator" beside which I wrote "What kind of a person thinks that way? Must be an emo dude."
In spite of the meat-fisted approach of Kohn, I am interested in reading more about these ideas now that a decade and a half has passed since Kohn wrote this book because I think he missed some interesting things in his haste to prove himself right. For one, I would like to see a discussion about incentive in light of varying personalities. I would also like to see a discussion of incentives and motivation in light of different views on the distribution of power. Kohn approaches the subject as though everyone has the same personality (and thus reaction to externalities) and he views any disparity of power as a negative. What if these things aren't the case?
Teachers
Some interesting observations that Kohn makes that I think are still relevant relate to teachers. Teachers consistently object to merit pay and attempts to measure their performance in the classroom. Yet these same teachers insist that handing out grades (merit pay) is the only way to explain how well their students are doing (measure performance). What is good for the goose is apparenlty only good for the goose when it comes to teachers!
Some practical advice he gave for praise that can apply in a classroom is:
- Praise the action, not the person
- Make praise a special case
- Avoid phony praise
Thoughts on Rationality and Motivation
One observation of Kohn's was that the western economic model makes two assumptions about people. First that rational people seek pleasure and avoid pain. Second that rationality is central to humanity. These seem to be reasonable assumptions to me but Kohn starts his book by questioning them which I think is a perfectly rational thing to do!
Another concept that he touched on is what social scientists call the equity principle. This principle essentially states that people should get what they deserve. Again, Kohn questions the validity of this principle because while it sounds like a sound principle on the surface, it raises more questions than it answers. For instance, what does it mean to deserve something? How do you properly allocate rewards for collaborative endeavors?
One last thought was raised by a quote from Kohn: "Rewards to not require any attention to the reasons." I think this is a very important idea for anyone involvced in incentives to understand. Simply gaining the right actions or reactions doesn't mean you have accomplished your real goals. Robert Austin covers this topic in detail in his book Measuring and Managing Performance In Organizations.
Conclusion
Skip to part III of the book and you will save yourself both pain and time!