Hidden Benefits of Reward: A Field Experiment on Motivation and Monetary Incentives

Arbeitspapier

We conducted a field experiment in a controlled work environment to investigate the effect of motivational talk and its interaction with monetary incentives. We find that motivational talk significantly improves performance only when accompanied by performance pay. Moreover, performance pay slightly reduces performance unless it is accompanied by motivational talk. These effects also carry over to the quality of work. Performance pay alone leads to more mistakes. Adding motivational talk makes the difference. In treatments with performance pay, motivational talk increases output by about 20 percent and reduces the ratio of mistakes by more than 40 percent.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: SFB/TR 15 Discussion Paper ; No. 451

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Field Experiments ; Personnel Economics: Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects ; Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
• Subject: Verbal Motivation ; Performance Pay ; Field Experiment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kvaløy, Ola ; Nieken, Petra ; Schöttner, Anja
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Sonderforschungsbereich/Transregio 15 - Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems (GESY)
• (where): München
• (when): 2013

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5282/ubm/epub.17651
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/93755
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-17651-5
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET