The perception is that they can and do, for a little while anyway. The down side is that even with this perceived increase in motivation and productivity, the desire of the individual to engage in the activity for its own sake is depleted. Praise and rewards are excellent ways to say, Job well done. They are necessary in a consistent way for employees to gauge their performance, but should not be used as motivator. Such contingent use of rewards and praise makes employees wonder what your motives may be.
Negative feedback can be disastrous if employees are made to feel incompetent and controlled.
While we cannot ignore poor performance, we can be autonomy-supportive in our manner of approach. This simply means that we try to see things from the employee s perception and we offer an opportunity for self-direction. Here s how. Make sure employees have the expertise and tools they need to be, and feel, competent to do the job that s been entrusted to them. This may be in the form of physical tools, office equipment, skills training, or certain communication strategies.