{"id":330937,"date":"2010-02-17T12:01:36","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T17:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pon.harvard.edu\/?p=9975"},"modified":"2010-02-17T12:01:36","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T17:01:36","slug":"give-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/330937","title":{"rendered":"Give at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adapted from \u201cPitch Your Offer\u2014and Close the Deal,\u201d by Deepak Malhotra<\/a> and Max H. Bazerman (professors, Harvard Business School), first published in the <\/em>Negotiation<\/a> newsletter. <\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re having trouble persuading someone, you might be tempted to sweeten the pot with hefty financial incentives. Before doing so, consider whether there are cheaper ways of gaining compliance.
\nA national trade association for construction subcontractors learned this lesson during a survey of its membership. The association was aware that target audiences of market research are notoriously reluctant to respond to surveys. Hoping to find the key to increasing response rates, they worked with researchers Jeannine James, president of the American Research Company, in Fairfax, Va., and Richard Bolstein, a professor at George Mason University, to test the power of providing financial incentives for filling out the survey.
\nThe association sent the questionnaire without a financial incentive to one randomly chosen subgroup of members. Of this group, 20.7% returned a completed questionnaire. The association promised to pay a second group of members $50 for completing and returning the questionnaire. This time, 23.3% of members responded\u2014an insignificant increase. A third group of members was sent a single dollar bill with the questionnaire (and no other incentive). A surprising 40.7% of members from this group returned completed questionnaires.
\nThe behavior of these respondents violates the predictions of standard economic theories. Not only was the $1 \u201cincentive\u201d considerably lower than the $50 incentive, it wasn\u2019t an incentive at all\u2014it was a guaranteed payment regardless of whether the member complied with the request. It appears that recipients felt obliged to comply precisely because the dollar was not an incentive but rather a unilateral concession<\/a>, or gift, to be reciprocated.
\nEven a token concession<\/a> may be sufficient to induce compliance with your request. Here are a few low-cost \u201cgifts\u201d you might give in your next negotiation:<\/p>\n