Reflections on All Corporate Awards

In 2019, Harvard University published a study, "The Demotivating Effect (and Unintended Message) of Awards," on such motivation's detrimental effect. During the study, 15 thousand students from 14 schools were taken. All students in the past have received awards for perfect attendance. Students were divided into three groups. The first group was told that if they did not miss a single lesson this month, they would be rewarded. The second group was told that they are already being rewarded because of the perfect attendance in the past. The third group was controlled, and they have not said anything. A month later, the results were as follows: the first and third groups had the same attendance rates. The promise of a reward for activity, which was already provided by the school's usual rules, did not have a substantial effect. The second group's result was interesting: the attendance of these students fell by 8%, as they now believed that they had already exceeded expectations by showing such a class attendance in the past. Therefore, according to researchers, managers need to be very careful with honors and awards in companies because there is a risk of giving rewards for work that should have been done or provoke a decline in productivity in people who already think they have reworked.