In findings that would make Karl Marx proud, research by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory Univerity suggests that while monkeys may work for peanuts, they do demand an equal wage.
Researchers taught brown capuchin monkeys to swap tokens for food. Usually they were happy to exchange this “money” for cucumber. But if they saw another monkey getting a grape – a more-liked food and thus a higher level reward – they took offence.
Researchers found that when levels of rewards were not distributed evenly, some disenfranchised monkeys would refuse to work, while others took the food and refused to eat it. Productivity was highest when the fruits of their labour were shared out equally.
“One of the most interesting areas is the recent suggestion that human cooperation is made more effective by a sense of fairness.”, said Sarah Brosnan.
Again, applying these findings to the field of motivation is difficult. But we believe giving everyone a chance of receiving some reward, and not just rewarding the top performers is vital to ensure that everyone benefits from an incentive campaign. Otherwise, as the monkeys teach us, you may demotivate those that feel rejected.
Something for Jeffrey Archer to bear in mind next time he sets his typing pool to work on a new novel.