They're a way for people in power to manipulate those with less power. Rewards ruin relationships. They emphasize the difference in power between the person handing out the reward and the person receiving it. Rewards create competitiveness among employees, undermining collaboration and teamwork. Rewards reduce risk taking, creativity and innovation.
Rewards ignore reasons.
The bottom line on growing the top line. Cara Finn is vice president of employee services at Mountain View, California-based Remedy Corp., a software company that builds and distributes applications for business processes. To remain competitive in the hothouse of Silicon Valley, her company during the last four years has doled out to some 750 employees incentive rewards ranging from American Express gift certificates to spot bonuses and movie tickets. If an employee has been with our company for three years, he's performing. And because Remedy is a publicly-held company, with the attendant inevitable ups and downs, Finn believes rewards also help even things out.