Businesses - The Real World You Never Saw

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Businesses - The Real World You Never Saw Audience: Business people Recently, I obtained a job opportunity at the corporate retail store Best Buy. Having worked there for about a month already, I have earned two, two-week paychecks and I will be receiving my employee discount in two more weeks. My supervisor and coworkers have also acknowledged me for the repetitive sales that I have been making in our Home Theater department. In short, I am receiving a great deal of praise and positive feedback around the workplace. Therefore, in reading Tom Peters' article, "Incentives for Success," I just could not understand how there could be too little positive reinforcement in the business world these days.

Throughout the article, Tom Peters threateningly critiques Alfie Kohn's argument "Incentives Can Be Bad for Business." In terms of attack and counter attack on the writer's viewpoints, Peters' response to Alfie Kohn's argument is clearly ingenious.

Peters clearly argues and frames his point of view on the opinions that: praise is better than punishment, there is "far too little positive reinforcement" rather than too much, workers ought to be recognized more for their efforts, rewards can stifle innovation, and that "competition is [still] the chief motivator for individuals and groups" (4-6). Peters further mentions that: It's not easy to develop a good incentive system, and there are undoubtedly thousands of ways to construct useless, even damaging ones. To read Kohn's article, you might think that bad incentive systems are the rate at most companies. The truth, however, is that most companies don't offer any incentives at all to their employees, except to a thimbleful of folks at the top. (5) On the lineup, Peters' and Kohn's thoughts and ideals over incentives are well balanced. However, I find that Peters is pursuing...