In the article, Kerr explains that many organizations want and need specific behavior from employees in order for the organization to meet its goals, but actually reward behavior that is contrary to those goals.
For example, an organization may espouse a goal of better teamwork and cooperation among employees, but then set up a system of performance rewards that provide incentives for individual achievement at the expense of others. These rewards may discourage workers from sharing information with their coworkers - information that would improve overall organizational performance - because withholding the knowledge gives them a competitive advantage over their fellow workers in the competition for raises or bonuses. Kerr gives several examples.
The Veteran's Administration provides us with another, current example:
While veterans waited longer than ever in recent years for their wartime disability compensation, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave its workers millions of dollars in bonuses for “excellent” performances that effectively encouraged them to avoid claims that needed extra work to document veterans’ injuries, a News21 investigation has found.
In 2011, a year in which the claims backlog ballooned by 155 percent, more than two-thirds of claims processors shared $5.5 million in bonuses, according to salary data from the Office of Personnel Management.
The more complex claims were often set aside by workers so they could keep their jobs, meet performance standards or, in some cases, collect extra pay, said VA claims processors and union representatives. Those claims now make up much of the VA’s widely scrutinized disability claims backlog, defined by the agency as claims pending more than 125 days.
So, in this case rewards intended to encourage clearing the backlog of claims are actually contributing to the backlog of claims.