Incest 0000i-xiv FM 1 - William L. White

Promoting Health in the Microsystem 277
that have workers in key roles who have not had performance
evaluations in years.
C. The Reliance on Money as a Reinforcer. Most personnel
evaluation systems rely heavily on the annual merit salary increase
as the primary reward to workers and the concrete evidence
of feedback on their performance. The following
observations apply to such reliance:
• In practice, annual salary increases have little to do with the
performance of an employee. Such increases are so automatic
in most agencies that they simply confirm that an employee
has remained in the organization another 365 days. Since the
increase is not tied to identifiable behavior, it has little use as
a feedback mechanism for exemplary performance.
• In feedback-deprived systems, the distribution of financial
rewards can become extremely competitive and conflictual.
Lacking other sources of affirmation, a staff will use money in
its struggle for status, personal affirmation, and recognition
in such systems. If there are multiple sources of feedback,
money loses this symbolic function and its power as a primary
reinforcer.
• Until such time as health and human services workers have
performance objectives and monetary incentives linked to
the achievement of objectives that are as clear and visible as
those in such companies as Amway and Mary Kay Cosmetics,
more effective and sustainable mechanisms of feedback and
reward must be built into these service systems.
Building in Mechanisms for Acknowledgment and Feedback. Feedback
consists of a regular flow of data to each worker that identifies acceptable
performance, defines unacceptable performance for purposes of
self-correction, and acknowledges exemplary performance.
A. Factors that Inhibit Stroking Behavior. Few supervisors or
managers appreciate the awesome power they command. Such
power is usually thought of in terms of control, decision making,
and the more punitive authority to take disciplinary action
over others. The power referred to here is a very different kind
of power; it involves the ability of a supervisor to recognize and
acknowledge human competence, to affirm value and worth, to