Various criticisms have been leveled at the positive reinforcement approach to employee motivation. These include conflicts between individual and group behavior, difficulties in finding the right rewards, the problem of over-reliance on feedback, and concern that the approach is too manipulative.
Individual versus group
It has been pointed out that positive reinforcement is a tool of management for individualized feedback, but many work situations involve group cooperation. Different things motivate each person within a group, yet the output of the group depends on the contributions of every individual. The behavior of each must be considered individually as well as in terms of the group. Each person's behavior as it contributes toward the group effort can be defined, observed, and rewarded accordingly.
Individualized rewards
Associated with this is the problem of developing rewards appropriate to each employee. What one worker finds rewarding, another may not. While management may reward an employee's effort, that same effort may draw negative reaction from other employees who feel threatened by the individual's greater performance.
The key is in the design of the reward system. It is necessary to find out what works for each employee. This is very time-consuming. But then good management is very time-consuming. Management, it is said, is just one thing after another.
The limits of feedback
It has been pointed out repeatedly that feedback alone is insufficient to produce productive employees. A feedback system should have the dual objectives of getting the work done and making the job more enjoyable. This requires improved physical working conditions, equitable pay, and promotion opportunities, in addition to verbal praise.
Is it manipulative?
The major philosophical argument against positive reinforcement is that it is manipulative. It does involve the manipulation and control of human behavior through a system of rewards and punishment. While we may feel comfortable about attempts to control the movement of rats through a maze, we like to think that humans operate at a somewhat higher level.
It may be argued, however, that an over-reliance on punishment also controls behavior, and positive reinforcement is just an attempt to balance positively those management methods that are detrimental to the employee.
We might also ask rhetorically: if managers spend their nights thinking of the needs of the employees and how best to provide for these needs, whose behavior is being manipulated by whom?
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