Author: Michael Robinson
One of the subtopics of the power and influence section of the leadership course is reward power. Reward power refers to a leader’s ability to motivate his subordinates by providing incentives for performance in the form of resources (French & Raven, 1959). Given humans’ propensity to respond to incentives, rewards are a very important motivational tool. However, “[i]n some situations a leader’s use of reward power can be a problem. Another problem with reward power, is that it may produce compliance, but not commitment” (Lesson 7, 2014, p. 5). In this post, I am going to illustrate some of the ways that reward power can be problematic, using examples from a grocery store that I used to work at. Specifically, reward power can backfire and have an effect that is opposite of what was intended. When used improperly, reward power can inflate employees’ egos and give them an unwarranted sense of self importance, and it can breed resentment and harm morale.
I once worked for a grocery store in a middle sized town in the southern United States. One summer, a new store manager was brought in externally to replace the one who had just retired. The manager was from out of town, and was really not familiar with the culture and politics of the organization that he was taking the helm of. One of the new programs that he implemented an employee of the month program. The way the program worked was that management would periodically evaluate store employees against certain performance benchmarks, and whichever employee performed the best at the end of the month would be rewarded with “employee of the month” honors. The display was very public. The employee’s name was put on a sign and placed at the entrance to the store, and they would also be given a reserved parking space close to the entrance. The employee’s name and accolades from management were also published in the store newsletter, and sent out over the company intranet listserv.
This seemed like a good idea in theory. After all, the manager thought, employees would be incentivized to compete for the award, and would always be on top of their game. In reality, the program was a dismal failure, and was ultimately cancelled after six months. The first two employees who won the award were both terminated for insubordination and poor performance within four months of winning, and the third employee who won was disciplined and demoted soon thereafter. Ultimately, only two of the six employees who won the honor remained with the company for more than a year after winning. What happened was, the program backfired. Shortly after winning the award and being put on public display, there was a very noticeable shift in the employees’ attitudes. They went from being punctual, hardworking individuals to being very cocky and displaying a sense of superiority. Their attitudes toward their coworkers became much more condescending, and they became less willing to fall in line with management’s goals, and became more critical. In short, they felt that because of the special attention and treatment they were getting, that they were better than their colleagues, and the rules did not apply to them.
Morale was also hurt by the program, because many of the other employees felt that it was not implemented fairly. The differences in performance that separated the winners from the rest of the group were often subtle at best, and many times were more perceived than actual. Often, who received high evaluations was dependent upon the employee being in the right place at the right time, so that management could observe them. The store actually experienced a substantial increase in its turnover rate in the following months, as more employees quit in the wake of the program’s implementation. They felt that the preferential treatment that the winners received was disproportionate to what they actually contributed.
This example illustrates how reward power can be counterproductive. Implementing incentive programs can do more harm than good if not done properly. A manager must first have an understanding of the culture of the workplace before he implements reward programs that sound good on paper. In the case of my former grocery store, the manager entered an environment that was very collegial and egalitarian, and transformed it into one of spite and resentment. His program created division and dissent among his subordinates, rather than having the intended effect of increasing motivation and productivity. Had the rewards been more private and more evenly distributed, the program might very well have achieved its aims. Instead, the program ended up fostering a sense of entitlement in the winners and resentment among the losers, and ended in complete disaster.
References
French, J. & Raven, B. H. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies of Social Power. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Lesson 7: Power and influence. (2014). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych485/002/content/07_lesson/01_page.html
I worked at a gym where we would get “mystery shoppers” that would come in and make sure we were following the corporate rules and corporate script that was given to us. I had worked at there since before it had even opened so I trained all of the new employees. I was “mystery shopped” multiple times, and I was rewarded with a $100 gift card each time I scored a 100% on the report. The gains were great for me and it made me more competent when it came to following the script and the rules. However, the other employees were not very happy with how I was the only one who received the rewards, so like you said it did hurt employee morale. At one point, the manager told other employees that I was the only one allowed to answer the phone and take care of new members because she didn’t trust them to handle a mystery shop.
From my experience, I believe that reward power also tied into the in-group aspect of the Leader-Member Exchange Theory. According to Northouse (2013), members in the in-group receive more information, influence, confidence, and concern from their leaders. Because I had done so well on previous mystery shops, I was given added responsibility and job tasks that were to be completed by either the manager or assistant manager. I handled most of the new membership agreements and the accounts receivable because the other employees hadn’t shown interest and frankly, the manager hadn’t trusted them to do it. I did get special attention from the manager and the owner because I had proven myself as a good employee who took the job seriously.
My personal experience with reward power was positive. The gift cards were only given for a couple of months before the company decided to stop giving out the rewards which I think hurt more than it helped. People wanted to do better on the mystery shop report because it meant they would get an extra bonus and brownie points with the manager and owner.
The text states that reward power is “derived from having the capacity to provide rewards to others (Northouse, 2013) This leadership tool must be used wisely. You hit the nail on the head when you referred to the possible negative aspects of reward power in stating that it “may produce compliance, but not commitment” (Lesson 7, 2014, p. 5). I compare rewards to drugs. Although some are good such as legal medicine, they may easily be misused, and abused. Just like the overuse of drugs leads to a higher tolerance, the overuse of reward power leads to subordinates expecting, and wanting more. I witnessed this first hand last year when my new boss reported to work. His plan was to use his reward power to gain compliance from the crew on day one.
When my new boss reported last May, he radically changed the work schedule. He immediately enacted a four day work schedule. He also threw out the offer of impromptu personal days in which you just had to text your supervisor before taking a day off. As the second in Command, I was in charge of policing these personal days. As he told the crew about his proposed changes, you could see the excitement in their faces as the old regime was more like a dictatorship. I was initially excited, however I had my reservations as I knew that we still had a job to do.
My boss then left the unit for five weeks of training. I was left in command and basically had a zoo on my hands as people were taking personal days right and left. On one Monday, half the crew was gone. At this point, I made the decision to suspend all personal days. I had the backing of other senior members of the unit as they too felt that things had spiraled out of control.
One evening I had a conversation with my boss and we got into an argument over the phone. It got pretty heated, but he eventually came to terms with my point of view on the fact that the new schedule was too flexible and that we lost a grasp on the crew in the matter of just a few weeks.I also conveyed that I was very unhappy with his timing because he basically showed up, changed everything, and then left for the whole summer and I had to deal with everything.
Since last summer, we have returned to the original schedule. We also abolished the impromptu personal days as they proved to be an administrative nightmare. I’m glad to say that in addition, my boss has learned to think things through, and avoid making gung ho decisions without first thinking on the long term impacts of overusing reward power.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.
Lesson 7: Power and influence. (2014). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych485/002/content/07_lesson/01_page.html