Why Incentive Plans Can't WorkAlfie Kohn (author and professor of education and management) clearly questions the value of incentive plans as a mechanism for improving organizational productivity . In this article (written as a think piece for the Harvard Business Review) he draws on a wide range of studies that are inconclusive or open to interpretation to challenge managers to rethink the pervasive use of financial incentives within organizations . criticizes the use of simplistic behaviourist models of staff motivation and believes the psychological assumptions on which they are based are incorrect. Furthermore, Kohn takes issue with the widespread use of such plans and management's tendency to look to the methodology of implementing an incentive plan when it fails, as opposed to the underlying validity of incentive plans in general...