Dive Brief:
- Leaders want employees to be self-motivated and engaged, but too often manage with monitoring and incentives, according to research published Tuesday in the MIT Sloan Management Review.
- Instead, managers are likely to see better results with clear strategic direction and meaningful feedback. Managers also should aim to provide workers a sense of connection to their work and colleagues and space to work in a way that suits them, researchers said.
- Such performance management isn’t easy, they said, but when managers provide clarity and autonomy, they’ll see gains in ethical behavior, innovation and long-term commitment.
Dive Insight:
Tuesday’s research backs up what others have found: Clear goals, performance reviews and feedback are tied to high motivation to perform, McKinsey and Company research concluded late last year.
And while measured and incentivized targets can cause employees to focus only on what is rewarded, according to the most recent research, McKinsey found that rewards such as expanded upskilling or professional development can improve broader motivation and performance.
“Give employees a clear understanding of their goals (why), with guidance and direction (what) of these goals, but give them the autonomy (how) to reach these goals,” said Rebecca Hewett, associate professor in the Department of Organisation and Personnel Management at Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University and co-author of Tuesday’s research, in a statement announcing the findings.
“Most employees have the skills to do this,” she continued, “but they need to be allowed the flexibility to prove they can and to perhaps even do it better.”