Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on January 13, 1998 at 08:42:00:

In Reply to: Re: HOW do you implement KM 'best practices' posted by Andrew L Good on January 12, 1998 at 20:36:16:

Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak, in their new book Working Knowledge, distinguish the knowledge processes into Knowledge Generation, Knowledge Codification and Coordination, and Knowledge Transfer. They also suggest that establishing a consistent culture of knowledge sharing needs use of 'valuable currency': substantial monetary rewards, salary increases, and so forth. Such compensation schemes are based on the premise of knowledge workers and knowledge managers being primarily driven by extrinsic motivators. However, a counter- argument suggests that this assumption may or may not be valid in all or most cases. For details, you may like to peruse the discussion in the book Punished by Rewards, by Alfie Kohn, and a parallel debate in HBR in 1993 on the same issues.

Some exploratory field study research that I have presented at INFORMS and the Academy of Management suggests similar human behavior in the organizational context of adoption of new information technologies. Here are a couple of titles from the researchers whose work underlies Alfie Kohn's book [and my Ph.D. dissertation on adoption and utilization of innovations].

Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic Motivation. New York: Plenum Press.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Here are some pointers to Kohn's arguments in favor of intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation.

Punished by Rewards: Why Incentive Programs Cannot Work

"Rewards aren't academic," Campus Review, 5-11 May 1994, p. 8.

Punished by Rewards? A Conversation with Alfie Kohn

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