At the beginning of the 20th century,
American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor asserted that businesses were being
run in inefficient, haphazard ways. He invented the concept of “scientific
management,” which assumed workers were little more than machines.
To make the machine run smoothly, you
rewarded the behaviors you wanted and punished those you discouraged. Thus
began the firmly entrenched practice of motivating people with the proverbial carrots
and sticks.
Maslow & McGregor
In the 1950s, psychologist Abraham
Maslow questioned the idea that human behavior was purely rat- or pigeon-like.
He launched the field of humanistic psychology, proposing that once survival
needs were met, people sought to achieve self-mastery and actualization.
In the 1960s, MIT management professor
Douglas McGregor imported Maslow’s ideas to the business world. He proposed
that humans had higher drives that weren’t contingent on rewards and
punishments. If managers could tap into these inner motivations and grant
employees greater autonomy and respect, workers would unleash greater
performance.
While McGregor’s writing influenced
some organizations, there were only modest improvements—mostly more flexible
dress codes, working conditions and empowerment programs.
Daniel H. Pink: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us