Summary of the Puzzzle of Motivation

1 A summary of the principles, behaviours, or attributes reflected in the podcast

Career analyst Daniel Pink examines the puzzle of motivation with excellent presentation based on research and critical thinking. He talked about facts known to the social scientists that most managers don’t. For example, that traditional rewards such as (bonuses, commissions) aren’t always as effective as we think. He talked about employment, motivation, career, creative thinking, rewards, science, psychology, inspiration, drive, incentives and compensation. For productivity and profitability, there must be definite direction that in turn leads to a productive outcome. As for the experiment of the candle. Here it plainly shows that there was no clear direction as to how to carry out the required job function. There is an apparent difference between telling someone how to accomplish a task and giving them a clear direction of how to complete the task. For example, they would have just said keep the candle off the floor, by making use of the wall, so that the wax doesn't drip onto table and not attach candle to the wall so that the wax doesn't drip onto the table. That would have help them to know exactly how to carry out the required task. They were deliberately blurred, without being misleading. The primary aim of the experiment was not to attach the candle to the wall in the fastest possible time, but they actually wanted to know the standard time it will take for them to figure out how to accomplish the task and also if they will be a significant change in time if people are motivated for same task. Moreover, in the end they realized that offering a reward make people think narrowly. Change and adaptation will be better than same routine and pattern. Compensation works very well when the internal process model is applied which involves a clear definition of responsibilities, measurement and documentation, and record keeping. According to Daniel Pink “In eight of the nine tasks,...