| 1/15/2015 | Page 1

Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL(R) TestFourth Edition, CD-ROM

Test 1 Writing, Question 1

The reading advocates that to recieve remarkable results from employess, business enterprises should reward the employees for their performance. The lecturer completely refutes the idea, stating that such rewards rather prove to be setbacks for the employees and hence the enterprise.First, the reading says that the promise of such incentives improve employee attitude and provide motivation. In contrast, the lecturer says that people who experienced reward system didn't like it. The employees ask for respect, not incentives in return to their hard work. Furthermore, not getting rewards may lead to broken expectations which demotivate the employee.In addition, the reading claims that giving rewards leads to greater productivity. It says that when behaviour is rewarded, it tends to be repeated. On the other hand, the lecturer disagrees that giving rewards increases productivity. He rather states that many studies found out that such rewards lead to less productivity.Finally, the reading says that such rewards persuade people to perfrom extraordinarily. It presents the idea that people are like physical bodies and need external motivating force to be set in motion. Contrastly, the lecturer contends that the rewards rather act as punishment. Such rewards lead people to think that they are being controlled and manipulated. Furthermore, the reward scheme may rather affect the realtionsip of a worker with his supervisor.The reading claims that a correctly structured reward system motivates the employees to achieve more productivity and improves employee attitudes. However, the lecturer claims that such reward schemes may rather degrade the productivity and employee attitudes and rather prove to be demotivating.