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The article, “Employing Incentive Programs to Close Performance Gaps”, by Ronald Graves, CSP, and CPT seeks to address the effects of having incentive programs for employees in the bid to close performance gaps. The article has clearly identified the effects of using incentives in different working environments. Moreover, it has shown how incentives can improve or diminish performance gaps in the same. Environmental aspects, which are extrinsic in nature, affect the performance gap and have been shown that they could not be incentivized so as to improve the performance gap.
The author’s findings in the article show that incentives do improve the performance gaps.
However, he strongly highlights that they should not be used as an organizational tool to achieve long-term goals since they may be thought to be a routine and hence the feeling of entitlement by employees. He advocates for its use as a tool for closing a gap between the actual performance and the expected performance. Additionally, he continues to discuss the key success points to use in order to improve the performance gap such as adopting incentives.
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After a careful and critical reading of the article, turning a blind eye at evaluating, analysis and discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the paper were unavoidable hence forming the basis of this paper. Significance and Contribution to the field. Ronald Graves in this article aims at determining whether the adoption of incentives does improve performance gaps in an employer-employee working environment. Moreover, he informs us of how the use of incentives has also moved to the Occupational Safety jobs, its effects and how it has been affected by other bodies.
Through the use of several research materials, the author has been able to show that indeed the use of incentives to improve performance gaps does work. He continues to explain based on other research documentation that the use of incentives has its limits and may sometimes bring about negative effects on the performance of the employees (Pink, 2011). He also sheds light on the use of incentives in occupational safety in which it is highly criticized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Their criticism is backed up by the argument that through incentives, employees may be reluctant at reporting work-related injuries so as to uphold the safety record (Atkinson, 2004). These arguments on the use of incentives greatly contribute to its application in real life. Where, the assumption that incentives do solve performance gaps at all times is the norm. More analysis on the cause of the performance gap will now be done and based on the finding which could either be intrinsic or extrinsic, the choice of the right measure to take will be done hence better understanding of the employees. The author fails to mention the sample size used in the experiment conducted based on Pink’s cited study of the experiment. This lowers the credibility of the argument that in some situations; where the employee has a natural positive motivation regarding the job and the responsibilities to be met in that job, use of incentives would lower the morale of that employee since the job and responsibilities he initially naturally enjoyed now seem like a chore to him. Moreover, the author fails to compare multiple research made by Pink.
We find that authors like Eisenberger, Rhoades, and Cameron (1999) argue that through the use of tangible incentives, personal interest and value for work by the employee is increased. However, this is only viable if the system of incentives is properly designed. Such a lack of comparison with authors that are of different opinion brings great bias to the article and hence the article’s credibility is lowered. Methodology. The author uses the approach of analyzing theory as his research method in the paper. He cites the works of several authors casing points where they agree and where they fail to agree on the points under discussion. This method is very objective since many kinds of literature are discussed shading light from different authors on the same point. However, bias can be inevitable through this method where we see the author in this case only citing and discussing one perspective on the use of incentives on the same point. He fails to argue against the same point using literature that is against or of different opinion on the same point. This has been clearly seen when the author uses Pink’s citation of a case study conducted in India whose conclusions were that incentives do increase the performance gap by lowering the employee's intrinsic motivation to the job. He fails to cite other authors such as Eisenberger, Rhoades, and Cameron (1999) who argue that tangible incentives do significantly increase the employee’s levels of interest in the work. Moreover, through the use of this research method, it is very tedious to sufficiently discuss different kinds of literature in the research paper due to the levels of information required to legitimize that source of literature. Due to such, insufficient information regarding works done by other authors and have been used in the paper is provided.
This lowers the paper's credibility to its readers. This has been clearly seen in the paper that the author, Ronald Graves, fails to provide more information regarding the study conducted in India in Pink’s work and hence lowering the credibility. He also fails to mention compelling evidence that justifies the claim that incentives fail at achieving long-term organizational goals but rather mentions that it should not be used. This research methodology makes the paper valid but only to certain levels since there are some works that have been used in the paper that are biased and some not compelling enough. However, due to the shortcomings brought by the research method, the reliability of the paper for other scholarly works or practical implementation is lowered. Arguments and Use of EvidenceThis paper clearly states the problem under investigation which is performance gaps in employment whose remedy is offering incentives. This problem is clearly stated in the topic of the article paper. Claims for using incentives to improve performance gaps have been made with having different arguments on its effectiveness. Other works used in the paper claim that in other cases, where intrinsic motivation drives the employee, offering incentives may lead to an increase in performance gap rather than the expected decrease. Moreover, claims that offering incentives to occupational safety jobs may lead to a reduction in work injury reporting due to the feeling of not wanting to lower the safety record. These claims are based on works done by different authors which are cited in the article paper. These works are legitimate published works and are quite compelling in defending the arguments. However, they are limiting in the sense that most of the claims have evidence that supports them and lack contrary opinion regarding the matter. Regardless of the ups and downs in the arguments and use of evidence, several conclusions can be made regarding the use of incentives to lower the performance gaps: the incentives should be championed by executives in senior levels, should be achievable, worth it, have a return on investment, be periodic and offer specific incentives.
These conclusions are justified by several citations of works done by other authors while others are inferred based on the justified conclusions. One of the justifiable conclusions made is that for the incentives to lower the performance gap, they should be appropriate. Its appropriateness is based on the involvement of some employees when designing the incentives so as to understand that which interests them and they find to be very rewarding (Globoforce, 2013). Writing Style and text structure. The writing style used in the paper suits the intended purpose since it is expository writing style. It exposes the idea of using incentives to lower the performance gap in employment and justifies the claims through exposing already published works on the same topic. However, ease of finding information has been voided to the reader and hence recommend the use of a table of content for easier location of information and arguments. ConclusionIn conclusion, the use of incentives to close performance gaps in employment is effective.
However, the environment; extrinsic or intrinsic, that causes the performance gap should be identified and evaluated before the choice of incentive to be employed is concluded. Some of the causes may be inadequate resources and insufficient training which are not solved through incentives but by addressing the specific deficiencies in each. Incentives are used when motivation, a factor affected by the intrinsic environment, causes the performance gap. Hence having the incentive that is championed by high-level executives, appropriate to the employees and aligns with the company values and goals is attainable in the quest of reducing employment performance gap. Finally, in the future, such an article should embrace more descriptive works of other authors in making its arguments so as to reinforce its credibility.
Employing Incentive Programs to Close Performance Gaps. (2024, Feb 26). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/employing-incentive-programs-to-close-performance-gaps-essay
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