officials in 69 countries to what extent they
intended to change their strategies in nine
human-management categories over the
coming 12 months. The biggest change
they planned was “use more non-financial
rewards to motivate staff.” Forty-seven per-
cent planned “some change,” and 18 per-
cent planned “significant change.”
The Harvard Business Review article the IRF
refers to, “Employee Motivation: A Pow-
erful New Model,” said research in fields
like neuroscience and evolutionary biology
“They’re seeing that cash is not the
panacea they thought.”
—Dave Peer, Incentive Marketing Association, on corporations’
experience with cash rewards
suggests that people are guided by four
basic emotional needs, or drives: 1) Acquire
(obtain scarce goods, including intangibles
such as social status), 2) Bond (form connections with individuals and groups), 3)
Comprehend (satisfy curiosity and master
the world around us), and 4) Defend (
protect against external threats and promote
justice).
To figure out how managers can use
this “A-B-C-D” model, the authors of the
Harvard Business Review article did several
studies, including surveying employees at
300 Fortune 500 companies and looking
at four common measures of workplace
motivation: engagement, satisfaction, com-
mitment, and intention to quit. What they
found was not only do the A-B-C-D drives
account for some 60 percent of the variation
in motivation, but also that falling short on
even one of those workplace measures, such
as engagement, led to substantially worse
scores in the other three drives.
Research is also increasing on employee engagement
and wellness. Find out at
http://bit.ly/incResearch
©2012 TUMI, INC.
