Dr Preeya Daya | Academic Director | Achievement Awards Group | mail me |
In business, figurative sticks and stones may break no bones. Yet, a few kind words can make a big difference. Profit is the lifeblood of business, and influencing employee behaviour is central to profitability. However, not all profitable behaviour change is positive.
Some practices may yield short-term results but harm people or the organisation in the long run. Choosing positive behaviour change is not only an ethical stance. It is also usually the stronger performance choice that distinguishes negative and positive behaviour in the workplace.
Positive about positive behaviour change
At its core, positive behaviour change improves both people’s lives and business results. It boosts wellbeing at individual, organisational and even societal levels.
A workplace that is pleasant and meaningful leads to healthier relationships, greater collaboration, and more satisfied employees. This positivity spills over into family and community life. Professionally, it reduces absenteeism and staff turnover. It raises quality and grows profitability[1]. That growth enables more hiring, better benefits and a virtuous cycle of attracting strong talent.
Is negative behaviour change always a no-no?
Negative behaviour change refers to actions that harm business results, people’s lives, or both.
Negative behaviour can manifest as:
- Misaligned actions, such as competition or tension between colleagues, where collaboration is needed.
- Short-term wins at long-term expense, such as a superstar hire who disrupts culture.
- Reduced motivation through lost autonomy or lack of rewards.
- Unethical conduct that arises from excessive competition or pressure.
- Erosion of positive behaviours when micro-management replaces trust.
- Undermining company purpose and values.
On the human side, it may involve punishing workers, forcing long hours or fostering fear. These examples illustrate the delicate balance between negative and positive behaviour in any business environment.
Importantly, some of these practices may still boost output. Fear can drive speed, and longer hours can increase production. Whether such practices are genuinely “negative” remains subjective. In highly competitive environments, some employees may even view extreme demands as motivating rather than punishing.
Why a preference for positive?
So, if “negative” practices sometimes work, why not use them? Two main reasons help organisations distinguish negative and positive behaviour more clearly.
Humanistic values
An environment that encourages positive behaviour change is simply more humanistic and aligns with what most people want to see in the world. At the beginning of this millennium, famed psychologists Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote about positive psychology in America. What they said applies equally at an organisational level (with “business” substituted for “America”): “Entering a new millennium, [business] can continue to increase its material wealth while ignoring the human needs of its people…. Psychology should be able to help document… what work settings support the greatest satisfaction among workers… and how people’s lives can be most worth living… The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present)[2].
Sustainability and quality
Getting the most out of people is not the same as getting the best out of them. Overworked or disrespected staff may produce more for a while, but quality drops and turnover rises. Disengaged employees will not contribute discretionary effort, and they will not go above and beyond what is expected.
In contrast, simple acts of recognition go a long way. In a study called “Getting more work for nothing,” students were offered a congratulatory card honouring the best performance. The award was purely symbolic to ensure that any behavioural effect came from non-material benefits. The results showed that the award increased performance by about 12 percent on average[3].
There are other risks, as mentioned earlier. These include the undermining of company values, the reduction of team cohesion, and the decline of motivation. When the desired behaviours are negative, these risks multiply. The choice between negative and positive behaviour becomes a defining factor in organisational health.
In short, positive behaviour change is not just “nice”. It is more effective and sustainable.
How to promote positive behaviour change
In the context of this argument for positive behaviour change, it is surprising that “employee engagement in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, with only 31% of employees engaged[4].
This raises an important question. How do companies engage their employees to encourage negative and positive behaviour that benefits both individuals and the organisation?
There are many possible answers, but one stands out: recognition. The simple act of recognising people for the behaviours you want to see in your company is not only easy but also highly effective. It can go even further than financial rewards. One study gave employees either monetary rewards (privately or publicly) or social rewards. It found that “in both the short and long term, public rewards outperformed private rewards, and social rewards outperformed monetary rewards[5].
The 4-drive theory of motivation
This does not dismiss financial rewards. They can still be very effective and add substantial motivation and engagement. It simply highlights how powerful it can be to say “well done” in front of everyone, whether in a team meeting or on a recognition platform.
This finding aligns with the 4-Drive Theory of Motivation, which identifies four main drives that motivate employees:
- The drive to acquire – from money to skills to status.
- The drive to bond – to form relationships with colleagues and feel a sense of belonging.
- The drive to comprehend – to satisfy curiosity and understand more deeply.
- The drive to defend – to feel safe and secure while protecting what is valued.
As the Incentive Research Foundation observed: “In a single instance of giving an employee a reward or recognition, the organization allows an employee to acquire status, to bond with their team or the person giving the recognition, to more deeply comprehend what is important to the organization, and to defend the deeply held belief that he or she is good at what they do and has chosen the right organization for employment[6].
In other words, satisfying any one of the four drives is positive. Yet satisfying all four through recognition or rewards creates a powerful compounding effect.
The better bottom line
The human moral of the story is that positive behaviour change benefits individuals and reflects a kinder, more humane worldview. The business conclusion is equally clear.
Positive behaviour usually delivers better results, making it difficult to argue against. The deliberate cultivation of negative and positive behaviour awareness ensures long-term organisational success grounded in ethical performance.
[1] Gallup, The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organisational Outcomes’ Report 2020 Q12® Meta-Analysis: 10th Edition.
[2] Seligman, M. and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: an introduction, American Psychologist.
[3] Kosfeld, M. and Neckermann, S. (2011) Getting More Work for Nothing? Symbolic Awards and Worker Performance, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 3 (3): 86-99. Available at:https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mic.3.3.86.
[4] Harter, J. (2025). U.S. Employee Engagement Sinks to 10-Year Low, Gallup. Available at:https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654911/employee-engagement-sinks-year-low.aspx.
[5] Handgraaf, M., Van Lidth de Jeude, M and Appelt, K. (2013). Public praise vs private pay: Effects of rewards and energy conservation in the workplace, Ecological Economics Volume 86. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800912004491.
[6] Translating the Neuroscience of Behavioural Economics into Employee Engagement: A White Paper on the IRF Research Study “Using Behavioural Economics Insights in Incentives, Rewards, and Recognition: The Neuroscience”, Incentive Research Foundation. Available at:https://theirf.org/research_post/translating-the-neuroscience-of-behavioral-economics-into-employee-engagement/.
