The notion of the Ghost in the Machine is the source of eternal molestation for present society. The ideal state is that everything works flawlessly, so that personnel managers can restrict themselves to watching the Human Factor entirely be absorbed in fulfilling his function inside the operation. So the human element only will become an issue when it indicates an organisational crisis.
For a few years economics has been facing the problem that success cannot be identically reproduced. Globalcompetition imperiously shows us that the environment surrounding an organisational system is highly capricious and is lessand less calculable. As a consequence, the organization on the inside depends on each member of the staff being totally devoted to the job, using his creativity, making his own suggestions. In short: the organization is compelled to reply to exterior uncertainty with the interior development of colleagues. However, this means dancing on the blade, for we never can tell if we will be able to lure the Ghost back into the bottle, as soon as we have encouraged him to be independent. So it is extraordinary difficult to call in the employees' intelligence on the one hand, to make sure they will not come to thinking they might be more competent than ourselves on the other.
Fortunately, we can take the wind out of that problem's sails by becoming pro-active and publically reflecting on the motivation of the staff. This leaves in our post-industrial information society lacking the traditional heroic founder types a remarkable impression. All the same, one is walking into the reliable communication trap of making a problem aware by announcing to solve it. Consulting firms specialized in motivation have been booming for over 15 years, since there has been no more denying that increasing motivation cannot be put on a financial scale, devotion cannot be bought. The present employment situation might have facilitated the employers' task of motivating, for nowadays the perspective of staying employed is motivation enough; still, reflection on that topic is free.
Motivation results from a complex, hardly perdictable and nearly impossibly feasible synergy of a component of knowledge as well as will. Contrary to common opinion will alone is not sufficient for motivating a person. That is, motivation might express itself in an act of Will, but cannot be reduced to it. It is just impossible to make the beneficial effects of jogging palatable to a wheelchair user (and should not, not only because of that, even be tried). A person needs to know, too, he or she can perform the action. Only then he or she might want to do it. Maybe.
Assuming somebody could perform an action; then how to induce his Free Will to put it actually into practice? Here lies the well-known paradox of motivation. It says: You will be free to make a choice if you make mine. It is obvious an action must be made attractive. Its positive value has to be pointed out. This value can be claimed to lie in the action itself - for example because it is great fun or qualifies the executor as a morally good human being. Or the action is conceived as a means to an attractive end which even might lie within the executor's reach.
It could be an interesting experiment to take a new strategical approach in the pedagogic realm. Usually teachers appeal to the pupils' good will to acquire certain kinds of knowledge. They hope they will draw the conclusion their self-obligation to be diligent printing potatoes presents the outlook to get a good job and become a respectable member of the society. Of course this way will offend the pupils' intelligence who most probably have noticed the academically-trained unemployed. Alternatively, they have resort to threatening and announce sanctions. In that case they speculate the pupils' aversion to school will induce them to avoid spending more time there than necessary. In contrast to these strategie the author advocates the Tom Sawyer inclusion-by-exclusion principle. It means the following: Tom Sawyer has to paint a fence. He enviously watches his comrades roam lazily about. Suddenly an idea strikes him. He evokes the impression his labour is a lot of fun. At once his comrades' interest has been aroused. They stop smirking and bribe Tom by giving him their treasures into allowing them to swing the brush.
Tom's strategy was not simply to bring home to his friends that painting fences was enjoyable. It seems that his initial (pretended) refusal to let the others participate created the lure. This is because subconsciously human beings follow the herd. At best they want to decide which group they do not want to belong to, but they do not like to be excluded from the first
All one has to do is to remember that in other parts of the world education is still a very rare good, not a throw-away article. Elsewhere children go miles to finally learn the things they have been denied before. Do these girls from Afghanistan or former African child soldiers lack motivation, because they are allowed to learn how to read and write?
So why hammer into Western pupils' heads chemistry or languages is fun? Why not concede those pupils their right to be ignorant? You do not want to learn? Fine. You need not. Or, more correctly, you must not. From now on you will be excluded from the shrinking club of adepts in chemistry or languages. Forever. You have forfeited your right to be educated, for you have confused it with coercion. Nobody is exerting pressure on you. After all, there so many highly-qualified unemployed. For a change it is time for low-price workers necessarily lacking relevant qualifications. Enjoy yourselves. By the way - please return those shockingly expensive school books right here.
Of course there is a hook - the idea is too good to be realized.
For a few years economics has been facing the problem that success cannot be identically reproduced. Globalcompetition imperiously shows us that the environment surrounding an organisational system is highly capricious and is lessand less calculable. As a consequence, the organization on the inside depends on each member of the staff being totally devoted to the job, using his creativity, making his own suggestions. In short: the organization is compelled to reply to exterior uncertainty with the interior development of colleagues. However, this means dancing on the blade, for we never can tell if we will be able to lure the Ghost back into the bottle, as soon as we have encouraged him to be independent. So it is extraordinary difficult to call in the employees' intelligence on the one hand, to make sure they will not come to thinking they might be more competent than ourselves on the other.
Fortunately, we can take the wind out of that problem's sails by becoming pro-active and publically reflecting on the motivation of the staff. This leaves in our post-industrial information society lacking the traditional heroic founder types a remarkable impression. All the same, one is walking into the reliable communication trap of making a problem aware by announcing to solve it. Consulting firms specialized in motivation have been booming for over 15 years, since there has been no more denying that increasing motivation cannot be put on a financial scale, devotion cannot be bought. The present employment situation might have facilitated the employers' task of motivating, for nowadays the perspective of staying employed is motivation enough; still, reflection on that topic is free.
Motivation results from a complex, hardly perdictable and nearly impossibly feasible synergy of a component of knowledge as well as will. Contrary to common opinion will alone is not sufficient for motivating a person. That is, motivation might express itself in an act of Will, but cannot be reduced to it. It is just impossible to make the beneficial effects of jogging palatable to a wheelchair user (and should not, not only because of that, even be tried). A person needs to know, too, he or she can perform the action. Only then he or she might want to do it. Maybe.
Assuming somebody could perform an action; then how to induce his Free Will to put it actually into practice? Here lies the well-known paradox of motivation. It says: You will be free to make a choice if you make mine. It is obvious an action must be made attractive. Its positive value has to be pointed out. This value can be claimed to lie in the action itself - for example because it is great fun or qualifies the executor as a morally good human being. Or the action is conceived as a means to an attractive end which even might lie within the executor's reach.
It could be an interesting experiment to take a new strategical approach in the pedagogic realm. Usually teachers appeal to the pupils' good will to acquire certain kinds of knowledge. They hope they will draw the conclusion their self-obligation to be diligent printing potatoes presents the outlook to get a good job and become a respectable member of the society. Of course this way will offend the pupils' intelligence who most probably have noticed the academically-trained unemployed. Alternatively, they have resort to threatening and announce sanctions. In that case they speculate the pupils' aversion to school will induce them to avoid spending more time there than necessary. In contrast to these strategie the author advocates the Tom Sawyer inclusion-by-exclusion principle. It means the following: Tom Sawyer has to paint a fence. He enviously watches his comrades roam lazily about. Suddenly an idea strikes him. He evokes the impression his labour is a lot of fun. At once his comrades' interest has been aroused. They stop smirking and bribe Tom by giving him their treasures into allowing them to swing the brush.
Tom's strategy was not simply to bring home to his friends that painting fences was enjoyable. It seems that his initial (pretended) refusal to let the others participate created the lure. This is because subconsciously human beings follow the herd. At best they want to decide which group they do not want to belong to, but they do not like to be excluded from the first
All one has to do is to remember that in other parts of the world education is still a very rare good, not a throw-away article. Elsewhere children go miles to finally learn the things they have been denied before. Do these girls from Afghanistan or former African child soldiers lack motivation, because they are allowed to learn how to read and write?
So why hammer into Western pupils' heads chemistry or languages is fun? Why not concede those pupils their right to be ignorant? You do not want to learn? Fine. You need not. Or, more correctly, you must not. From now on you will be excluded from the shrinking club of adepts in chemistry or languages. Forever. You have forfeited your right to be educated, for you have confused it with coercion. Nobody is exerting pressure on you. After all, there so many highly-qualified unemployed. For a change it is time for low-price workers necessarily lacking relevant qualifications. Enjoy yourselves. By the way - please return those shockingly expensive school books right here.
Of course there is a hook - the idea is too good to be realized.
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