Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work

closely, you could rely on compliance mechanisms, admin-

istrative techniques designed to make workers want to com-

ply with work specifications.

Tell them what to do; fire them if they don’t do it. That’s

one brand of compliance mechanism. Although crude, this sort

of mechanism has a long history and isn’t hard to find in use

today.

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Compliance mechanisms can be more complex and

subtle, though. They can be based on reward rather than

threat, directly as in commission systems that pay more when

a performance metric increases, or indirectly, as in promises:

“You will be promoted to sales manager if you increase your

sales by 50%.” The idea, always, is to ...