Why Pride Matters More Than Money: The Power of the World's Greatest Motivational Force

When people learn they're capable of much more than they thought possible, anticipatory pride becomes their driving motivational force, according to Katzenbach, the director of an eponymous consulting firm. The author of Peak Performance and The Wisdom of Teams gears his latest book towards companies and institutions wanting to inspire their employees, members or participants with primarily non-financial incentives (team spirit, camaraderie and excitement, for example).""Money by itself is likely to produce self-serving behavior and skin-deep organizational commitment rather than...institution-building behavior,"" Katzenbach asserts. Citing specific case studies, Katzenbach considers companies and institutions such as General Motors and its diverse management programs and the U.S. Marine Corps' emphasis on honor and courage. Employee recognition, he says, is a crucial element of any campaign to bolster group morale. A Microsoft employee, for example, likes to tell people that""we work on products that everyone is likely to use, and I mean everyone. More than one hundred million people use Office, my product. People will stop me in the middle of a conversation and say, 'You worked on that feature?' It's instant respect."" The lure of monetary reward may always be a primary motivation for employees, but in clear and persuasive prose, Katzenbach cautions that because most of the rank and file cannot hope to compete with those at the top, other, less tangible motivations must propel group successes.