The Effects of Financial and Recognition Incentives Across Work Contexts: The Role of Meaning

Michael Kosfeld, Susanne Neckermann and Xiaolan Yang

No 11221, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We manipulate workers’ perceived meaning of a job in a field experiment and interact meaning of work with both financial and recognition incentives. Results show that workers exert more effort when meaning is high. Money has a positive effect on performance that is independent of meaning. In contrast, meaning and recognition interact negatively. Our results provide new insights into the stability of incentive effects across important work contexts. They also suggest that meaning and worker recognition may operate via the same motivational channel.

Keywords: Meaning; Monetary incentives; Worker recognition; Context factors; Interactions; Field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J33 M12 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-pke
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: THE EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL AND RECOGNITION INCENTIVES ACROSS WORK CONTEXTS: THE ROLE OF MEANING (2017)
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