Understanding the invisible hands of incentives
Jan 01, 2019
DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2019.096851
Published in: Global Business and Economics Review
Publisher: Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
This paper sheds light on the role of incentives in explaining why we do what we do. In this paper, we theorise that no action will take place in vacuum or without a certain incentive(s) and that for each and every action or behaviour, there is a known and/or a hidden incentive. We also theorise that the existence of incentives behind every action is not limited to rational incentives and the rationality of actors because irrational actions have their own irrational incentives. As well, we theorise that the existence of incentives in our daily life is the secret of a livable life and that the disappearance of incentives will lead to a total stop of every action and a total stop of life. In addition, we theorise that life at the micro, meso and macro levels can be created by creating the needed incentives for a given situation and life can also be taken away by removing incentives behind its existence. We also propose and introduce a new incentive-focussed management technique - management by incentives (MBI) - for an effective implementation of a goal achievement process.