INCENTIVES.. do they really work?

INCENTIVES.. do they really work?

While they seem to be good “motivation” tools, incentives (or extrinsic rewards) are really just superficial, temporary motivators, and do not really make a huge difference in performance or productivity.

Emotionally meaningful experiences (intrinsic rewards), things that make us feel good just by doing them, the reality/actual experience of improvement are so much more meaningful and can have a positive long term effect on us. An effort coming from the heart, from inside people is much more powerful than couple dollars or concert tickets added to a salary. However, many companies fail to see the substantial difference and affect of these rewards on employees & their performance/productivity.