Self interest

Paul in Cannon Beach

I am putting together a workshop on supervision that emphasizes the power of "self interest" when dealing with people.

In other words, I believe behavior is generally dictated by self interest or at least influenced. Self interest isnt a bad thing, necessarily. Self interest helps us make all kinds of good decisions like excercising, putting on our seatbelts, and seeking job training so we can qualify for promotions.

My theory is that if your supervision style does not take the self interest of your employees into account, then you are essentially swimming "upstream".

For example, perhaps you believe employees should follow orders because "you are the boss". Well, that may work for a few people but not everyone. Or perhaps you feel your employees are "loyal" to your company. Really? I wouldn't be so sure about that.

I am not cynical but I believe we are hard wired to act in ways that are self interested. As supervisors, if we connect our organizational goals with the self interest of our employees, we are now swimming with powerful currents assisting us.

Does that make sense? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

ACU Frank

Makes great sense... As a parent, one of the first things you learn is that kids 'behave' when they understand what's in it for them. Employees are no different. The challenge you will face, Paul, is getting your supervisors to be patient enough for this to work. I think most parents/supervisors who resort to authoritarian dictates aren't doing that because they don't know any better, or can't verbalize the reasons... but rather because doing it right takes more time than reminding the child/employee who the boss is.

Paul in Cannon Beach

That is true. It takes more time, energy, and creativity to connect the employees goals to your organizational goals. That would be the pinnacle of leadership where your staff feel their goals are intertwined with the success of your organization. That would be total buy-in. I think some of that was seen during the heyday of dot com startups where people were willing to work 80 hour weeks in the hope that their fledgling company would be the next Ebay or Amazon.com

One of the major positives about motivating through self interest is that it doesn't feel as heavy handed as motivation through discipline or authoritarianism.

There is one flaw in my theory though that I haven't quite figured out. People dont always do what is in their best self interest. If they did, no one would buy cigarettes or over eat. Our company has an excercise room where our employees can work out for free but only a few use it. I have a selection of resources that our employees can check out that offer help with parenting or debt reduction but so far just a couple people have borrowed them.

It seems that sometimes convenience or lack of discipline can overpower self-interest. If that is the case, my theory has problems.

ACU Frank

No problem. Just make it in their self interests, convenient, and easy.

Paul in Cannon Beach

The only problem is work is rarely convenient and easy. If it was, I dont think there would be a market for employee motivational theories.

ACU Frank

Convenience is important these days. For example, it used to be very inconvenient to watch TV here in the Lincoln Memorial. It's chilly, and my blanket covered my arms and hands, making it almost impossible to use the remote. The Snuggie? Now, that's convenient! No more fumbling for the remote, and I can lift a mug now and then without worrying about it slipping out of my blanket-covered hands. The Snuggie could have even made winter rail-splitting comfortable!

Paul in Cannon Beach

I am going to ignore your Lincoln delusions and carry on my serious discussion.

[FONT=Tw Cen MT][COLOR=#000000]It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. – Adam Smith “The Wealth of Nations”[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Tw Cen MT][COLOR=#000000][/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Tw Cen MT][COLOR=#000000]I have found a good number of articles on "vested self interest" as a motivational theory. So apparently I am not alone on this. Nor first.[/COLOR][/FONT]

ACU Frank

[B][I]"Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest."[/I][/B]

Abraham Lincoln, 1857, in his commentary on the Dred Scott decision.

In fact, Lincoln frequently had to illustrate the importance of self-interest in getting men - particularly white men - to have the will to 'do the right thing'. I'm sure someone (probably Ken Burns or Shelby Foote) has done the research on the percentage of the Union footsoldiers who were staunchly anti-slavery on moral grounds, and I would guess that percentage was fairly low - less than half, certainly. So Lincoln had to convince a lot of people that it was in their self-interests to see the Confederacy defeated, regardless of their feelings on the plight of the negro.

Don't dis' the man in the royal blue Snuggie!

Paul in Cannon Beach

I like that quote. Thanks Abe!

Sharon McKnight SPHR

[quote=ACU Frank;718403]Convenience is important these days. For example, it used to be very inconvenient to watch TV here in the Lincoln Memorial. It's chilly, and my blanket covered my arms and hands, making it almost impossible to use the remote. The Snuggie? Now, that's convenient! No more fumbling for the remote, and I can lift a mug now and then without worrying about it slipping out of my blanket-covered hands. The Snuggie could have even made winter rail-splitting comfortable![/quote]


Hmmm, winter rail splitting in a Snuggie. That back draft might be a little bit disconcerting!

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