Literary Analysis Essay on "Punished by Rewards" by Alfie Kohn

Introduction

In his book "Punished by Rewards" author Alfie Kohn presents compelling arguments on the counterproductive nature of rewards in the management of workers, upbringing children, and teaching students. In this argument, Kohn (1993) notes that rewards are simply elements of controlling people just punishments are, and only lead to temporary compliance. The author traces the development and the acceptance of reward approaches to the management of human behavior and finds it enshrined in the doctrine of "do this and you will get that." His examination of the effectiveness of rewards concludes that they fail to influence a person's behavior in the long-term. He notes that instead of promoting the desired behavior, rewards punish, undermine interest in a task, discourage risk-taking, ignore the underlying factors of a behavior, and destroy relationships (Kohn, 1993). To put his points across, the author investigates three areas where rewards are widely used, which include school, workplace, and at home. He offers reasons why reward-based systems fail to improve employees' quality of work, undermine student's intrinsic motivation to learn and make it difficult for children to develop a sense of responsibility.

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With the arguments that rewards do not work, the author offers an alternative solution that can allow employees, children, and learners to have the kind of motivation that is sought. Kohn offers a solution based on what he refers to as the "three Cs" of motivation, which is "Collaboration," "Content," and "Choice." In collaboration, the author put forward the argument of the need for the involvement of students, workers, and children in coming up with important decisions that will influence how they undertook respective tasks (Kohn, 1993). The second aspect is the content, whereby the focus is on the quality of the tasks that the individuals are provided. For example, in the classroom, the content that students are offered should interesting and relevant, and this will ultimately play a major role in their motivation to learn. Lastly, the option of choice is essential as it allows individuals to own the process and have responsibility for a task (Kohn, 1993). For instance, giving students a choice of the activities to engage in or the assignments to undertakes to make them feel more motivated to undertaken the tasks since they chose them without coercion.

The ideas presented by Kohn in his book can apply in the current "Principle Management" class in various areas. The concept of "rewards" is present in the classroom and this is evident in the way the lecturer engages students by being excited when students respond to questions in the way that he expects and being not "so happy" when the answers provided are wrong. In this case, the students understand that when they respond and offer the right answers, the lecturer is more excited, and this validates them, while poor answers invalidate them. Such a student lecturer feedback loop creates a rewarding environment where students are likely to feel the need to learn only because they would want to please the lecturer.

However, this concept is not widely applied, and indeed, the three Cs of motivation feature prominently in the classroom environment for Project Management Course. Firstly, the concept of "Collaboration" is widely applied in the course where the lecturer is keen on ensuring that the learners own the process of reading and studying different content that is offered in the course. In this case, the class environment is characterized by collaboration where there are open discussions on a different subject that are introduced in the classroom. The strategy also involves collaborations through group discussion, allow learners to work together. The other important aspect of collaboration is through the strategy where the lecturer gives the students an opportunity to identify different real-life examples where project management has been applied, and therefore, coming up with different lessons that are relevant to the content being taught in the classroom. Such collaborative approach ensures that the learners feel like part of the process of creating classroom experiences, which lead to important lessons that allow the students to understand different concepts of project management. The other important way through which the concepts advanced by Alfie Kohn is evident in the project management classroom is through the content that is offered.

According to the author, the quality of the content is essential in influencing the perceptions of learners on a course, and thus a key determiner of the ability of the students to be motivated and willing to put the efforts to learn. According to Kohn (1993), the content of the subject should be engaging and meaningful to the students, and thus, making it easier for them to relate to it. In the current course, a major way through which the relevance of the content is depicted is through real-life examples of project management scenarios offered. In many cases, the lecturer offers the opportunity for students to provide real-life experiences of projects that relate to their fields of interest. Such a strategy ensures that the students can relate to the concepts in class, and thus owning up the learning process, which leads to better learning outcomes.

With each example that a student presents to the classroom, other students participate in the discussion, and thus leading to practical learning that the learners can relate with. Furthermore, the content includes modern and emerging aspects of project management. Therefore, the approach relevant and highly engaging to the students, which leads to motivation to learn even beyond the classroom environment. The last recommendation offered by Kohn (1993) is Choice, whereby the focus in facilitating a classroom environment where learners are not passive participants, but where they have the freedom to choose different aspects of learning such as deadlines of assignments, the kind of tasks to undertake, and so on. In the current project management, Kohn's third element of motivation, that is Choice, is depicted in through the options that the lecturer offers for the learners on different aspects. For instance, a major choice in through the assignments that students would like to undertaken as part of the requirements for course completion.

In this case, learners are given different assignment questions and requested to choose whoever they feel they are more willing to undertake. Kohn (1993) notes that when learners are given the opportunity to choose, it eliminates the possibility of boredom, and thus making the learning process more lively and interesting. The other choice that the students are given in deciding the group discussions that they will participate in for group projects. In this case, it ensures that learners do not feel to participate in groups that they do not feel they have a good rapport to facilitate the achievement of their goals. Lastly, the students are involved in making decisions regarding deadlines for some of the assignments that they undertake. In such assignments, the class engages in a discussion and negotiation with the lecturer and thus coming up with a deadline which they can own and ensure that they meet it. The approach is highly commendable, as it has led to the Project Management learning to be fun, exciting, and effective.

The book's concepts offer important lessons that can help schools, families, and businesses in managing relations between people, and leading to better outcomes for each entity. One major insight I have learned is on the central concept of how rewards are a punishment, and thus the need to avoid them. Previously, I considered rewards as leading to better productivity, and this saw me seek ways that I cold rewards individuals who I wanted to elicit a given behavior. The risk of breaking the relationship between those who receive the rewards and those who do not be an eye-opener that has made me reconsider how I view rewards as a motivating factor. The other insights that I have gained relate to the three Cs of motivation that Kohn (1993) recommends. In this case, I find that the choice, collaboration, and content approaches to motivation be easier to apply as they remove the need to keep thinking of the rewards to award those I want to behave in a certain way. The concepts are applicable in my personal life in different ways. For instance, while interacting with family members, I will give meaningful tasks instead of offering candy to kids.

I now realize that such an approach of using a candy is counterproductive and when the candy will not be there, the children will fail to do work or find it boring and pushed through. Secondly, in different projects that I have led, I now realize the need for collaboration is ensuring that the team members are motivated to work and deliver the goals that are set. Such an approach ought to include the ability of the team members to make choices on how they would like to undertake a project, and thus making it possible for them to actively participate, and be willing to achieve the set deliverables. Furthermore, in terms of content, I would apply the concept of content to ensure that team members are working on projects or roles that they feel are meaningful to their aspirations for the mandate that they have been given at the organization.

Several scenarios and examples where the book can apply that can benefit me are numerous. Firstly, I believe that in the classroom environment, the application of the book has played a major role in making the learning process interesting and worth looking forward to. On the other hand, I believe that the book can benefit me by changing how I interact with children where, instead of giving them rewards, I will seek to ensure that they work collaboratively in meaningful tasks that will ensure that they are willing to undertake the roles without coercion. Lastly, in my future working environments, I will apply the concepts of the book in managing teams, and thus ensuring there are better outcomes for the team, project, and the organization.

References

Kohn., A. (1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A's, praise, and other bribes. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company