GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment: Issue

72. “Companies should not try to improve employees’ performance by giving incentives—for example, awards or gifts. These incentives encourage negative kinds of behavior instead of encouraging a genuine interest in doing the work well.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
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Andrew's Writing:

The speaker claims that companies should not offer incentives to enhance employees' perfomrance because these incentives enourage negative kinds of behavior. I disagree with such an arbitrary assertion because it fails to examine the employees' motives in doing the work. People are encouraged by different incentives. To enhance the performance in doing the work, employers should find way to realize their employees' needs.

Admittedly, a genuine interest in doing the work well is very important, because such an interest can make one devote to one's work and make one endure while encountering difficulties. However, for many of the employees, work doesn't mean everything in their lives. For some, to work is just to earn the daily bread, while, for some, to work means to gain some sorts of sense of achievement. Incentives such as awards or gifts can greatly encourage those employees to persue their goals.

The high tech companies or financial firms attract a group of elites annually, despite the nature, long working hours or stressful working condition, of these industries. People are attracted to the good yearly bonus those company offered. Those bonuses mean better quality of life. Although many of the Hollywood movie stars or pop singers show great interests in performing arts, they are greatly stimulated by Oscar or Grammy Awards. Even the Nobel Prize is designed for those who contribute to the world. Those incentives, undoubtedly, do boost the growth of our society.

In sum, everyone has different motives in doing works. A company should do its best to find all those incentives that meet its employees' desires. Only by doing so, a employee's potential could be stimulated and perhaps his/her genuine interest in doing work can be inspired.
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Sample Essay:

Providing employee incentives can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the promise of bonuses or gifts can spur workers to higher achievement. On the other hand, incentives can create resentment and internal competitiveness that are damaging to morale and to the organization. Even so, I think a carefully designed incentive program can operate to the net benefit of a company.

Incentive programs are counterproductive when the distribution of rewards appears to be personally biased, when the program recognizes just one kind among many important jobs in the organization, or when there are too few rewards available. For example, if a manager regularly rewards an employee who is perceived to be a favorite, coworkers will be resentful. Or if the company decides to recognize high sales, while ignoring an especially precise cost-assessment from the accounting department, the accountants may feel their work is not valued. Finally, if rewards are too few, some employees will become overly competitive, while others may simply stop trying.

However, incentive programs can be designed to avoid such pitfalls. First, the company must determine that it can provide sufficient rewards to motivate all employees. Then it must set, and follow, clear and non-arbitrary guidelines for achievement. Finally, management should provide appropriate incentives throughout the organization, thereby sending the message that all work is valued. Admittedly, even a thoughtfully designed incentive program cannot entirely prevent back-stabbing and unfair competitive tactics. But watchful management can quell much of this behavior, and the perpetrators usually show their true colors in time.

In sum, I think that the productivity inspired by thoughtful incentive programs will very likely outweigh any negative consequences. In the final analysis, then, I disagree with the speaker’s recommendation against their use.