Nonmonetary Incentives and the Implications of Work as a Source of Meaning (aeaweb.org)

From a research paper [PDF]: Many workers care about more than financial compensation in their job. Nonmonetary incentives often matter, too. A firm's mission and the design of one's job can create meaning and purpose for employees. As a result, firms will have reason to care about meaning of work. We believe economists can usefully contribute to the debate about the implications of meaningful work. We are not arguing that financial compensation is unimportant. Lazear (in this volume) provides an excel- lent review of monetary incentives in certain organizations. But we believe that in order to manage modern organizations and understand the future of work, studying workers' nonmonetary motives will be crucial.

Comments

This is bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

I just want money. If you don't pay me enough money, I'm not coming into work.

Re:This is bullshit

[ShanghaiBill]

I just want money.

You are likely motivated by non-monetary factors more than you realize. My company used to give semi-annual bonuses, and then decided to redirect that money toward "adventures". We had a company river rafting trip, went skydiving, hot air ballooning, and skiing. We sent many of the programmers on a "coding cruise" to Alaska. The result was better retention, better morale and camaraderie, and easier recruitment.

We're going hang gliding next month.

Re:This is bullshit

[R3d M3rcury]

I've often said that there are three criteria that I weigh when looking at a job:

• What I'm Doing
• Where I'm Doing It
• How Much I'm Getting Paid To Do It

What will I be doing? Is the work interesting, challenging, exciting, boring?
Where will I be doing it? Is it someplace where I want to live? Are there interesting things about that area? If it's already in the area, how much of a nuisance is it to get to work? A 10 minute commute? An hour? Two hours? Is there mass transit?
How much will I be getting paid to do it? Will I be able to support myself?

For example, if you want me to work on accounting software in North Dakota, you're going to have to pay me a lot more than if I was working on robotics in North Dakota or working on accounting software in southern California (though obviously cost of living comes into play).

So, at least for me, it isn't purely money. Yes, I want to be paid adequately. I don't want to have to eat ramen noodles 5 days a week so that I can pay rent. If my car breaks down, I want to be able to get it fixed and not have to pinch pennies for the rest of the month until I get a paycheck. But I'm willing to sacrifice some extra money to work on interesting things.

Re: This is bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

Same here. Part of my work-life balance is to spend my free time with people I don't work with.

Any good manager already knows this

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Good managers are rewarded for retaining and motivating people without paying them anything else. (Early in my career I was told by managers that I was "hard to read" or that "they weren't sure what fired me up"; that made the "f u pay me" conversation easier.)

Re: Any good manager already knows this

[datavirtue]

Not that so much as cracking the "we have competitive pay and good benefits and some standard perks" nut. The top gets this in their head and pretty much turns off their brain after that point. Even with good pay and benefits and perks a lot of people leave the corporate shitholes and the top is insulated from the reality that they do not provide meaningful work to most of their employees. One guy went into a conference room and played xbox for three fucking weeks trying to get fired. He gave up and quit. This is a place steeped in the cultish belief that it is a wonderful place to work. The employees know otherwise. Still, people get paid well and the other choice is another corporate shithole that pays well.

It's a balance

[Anonymous Coward]

Compensation is important.

But as they say, find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

Getting paid a few percent more to go to a job I hate? No thanks.

Re:First world problems

[Anonymous Coward]

So long as I get nonmonetary incentives in addition to sufficient monetary incentives, I'll keep working.

When the conversation changes to instead of, my choice of employer will also change to instead of.

Re:Nothing new to a psychology researcher

[ShanghaiBill]

Why is it so difficult for economists to acknowledge that people may and do derive value from things other than money?

The do acknowledge non-monetary incentives, and this is a fashionable focus of economic research. They just have difficulty building models that accurately predict behavior.

I feel sorry for you

[raymorris]

If the only thing in life you can see any value in is money, I feel sorry for you, because you'll never be satisfied. Money is only a means to an end. If you chase money as though it were the end until itself, you'll be forever chasing, trying to get more money in order to finally be satisfied. But no amount of money is ever enough, because it doesn't provide satisfaction, contentment.

Just look at all the multi-millionaire stars of stage and screen who have committed suicide, or otherwise ruined their lives. They've had tons of money, yet life was so empty death seemed the only way out.

Or perhaps you didn't notice the summary says people value non-monetary things TOO. Nobody said money isn't useful, and even important. They said it's not the only thing that is important.

I could switch jobs and earn probably 50% more, at least 35% more easily. I don't do that because money isn't the only thing important to me. Time with my family is important. My job provides me important time with my family in multiple ways. They let me work from home, so I can have breakfast with my daughter instead of sitting in traffic. They give me time off no questions ask whenever I need it. Actually last week I tried to ask my boss if it was cool for me to take the next day off and he couldn't even understand how that was a question. If I wanted to take a day to go to the water park with my family, that was 100% up to me - I just needed to tell him, not ask him. They respect my work hours vs home hours and don't expect me to be working at 8PM.

My boss and my company treat me with respect. They ask me "are you okay with doing it this way?", or even "how do you think we should it?", rather than dictating from on high.

Our company had a conversation about what we want to do to improve the world. We don't want to sell just another product like the others, that doesn't really benefit anyone. We want to do something different, something we can believe in as our work doing a little something to make the world a slightly better place.

A year ago I thought I might have to switch jobs because I wasn't sure I could trust my new boss. I don't want to work for someone I don't trust. That matters to me. It turns out he has earned some trust, so I'm still there. Trust and honestly matters.

For many years I ran my own businesses, with a few employees. I work for a much larger, much more stable, company now, because stability matters. It gives me peace of mind. (For further peace of mind, I also have a backup, another large, stable company I could switch to if needed).

My job let's me learn and grow, working on different things, and gives me some flexibility in what I want to work on. Learning and growing are important to me.

I could go on and on, but you get the gist.

Re:I feel sorry for you

[Decameron81]

If the only thing in life you can see any value in is money, I feel sorry for you, because you'll never be satisfied.

That's a bit extreme though. This discussion is about what you value in work, not life. You could love travelling on your own, but still only care about money from work.

As an example: I'd really rather travel with my family than do it with my colleagues.

In my life work serves a very specific purpose: sustain myself and my family. For fun, learning, and other things... I prefer to do them on my own, with the people that I chose.

Re:Nothing new to a psychology researcher

[youngone]

People sometimes confuse economists for scientists, but they're not.
Economists are either priests, or acolytes, depending on how senior they are.
Economists brook no dissent, and punish heretics severely.
Do not make the mistake of listening to the advise of an economist. Listen to your accountant instead, they're just like economists, but useful.

Re:Jobs are the only remaining social structures.

[youngone]

look at all the options someplace like the Soviet Union offered its citizens.

Ah yes, because there are only two possibilities, either good ol' freedom loving USA, or nasty Soviet Union. There's no way there could be any other kind of society.

People hate mandatory extraciricular crap

[knorthern knight]

> Me, I show up, work hard for 8 hours, and expect a check
> every two weeks. That is the extent of my requirements.

If that's that the extent of your boss's requirements, great. You've got a nice work environment.

* It took many years, but the principle has been established that female employees are not required to be their male boss' s sex partners. Now all we have to do is establish that male employees should not be required to be their male boss's beer buddies. It's glossed over with euphemisms like "after hours teambuilding excercises", but it basically comes down to cruising the strip joints, crawling the pubs, and getting home totally plastered at 2:30 AM in the morning.

* "work hard for 8 hours" is fine. Not 12 hours day-in day-out without overtime, and being on call 24x7 even when on vacation.

* Mandatory Fecesbook accounts. Someone please tell the HR-cunts that being an overgrown 13-year old girl who needs to constatnly post selfies does not constitute the one true way to live.