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Motivation Paradox in the Team

Extrinsic motivation demotivates. Always. Why?

Firstly, because every form of reward and punishment wears off. Both are quickly taken for granted. What is first noticed is the absence or the reinforcement. Social recognition and appreciation as well as the exclusion and devaluation inside the team are also subject to habitual effects. Therefore, this is the one aspect of the paradox – motivation undermines the effect which it wishes to achieve.

The other aspect is that something which motivates one person in the team, creates fear in the other: one person wishes to be distinguished or receive an opportunity to shine, for the other this is unbearable. For one person, a distribution of workload in the team, according to ability to perform, is motivating; others find this totally unfair. Here, too, this applies; what is right for one is problematic for the other. This is what makes communication and reflection about this topic so necessary and problematic in teams, if one wishes to proceed according to rules and prescriptions.