Forum Responses Human Resources Class

I need a 300 word reponse to the following forum post made by one of my classmates. Please be positive and not critical of her forum post:

The article, “A folly of rewarding an A while hoping for B,” can be summarized by the following sentence:  We, as human, strive to do what we will be rewarded to do.

            As a Registered Nurse, I have encountered a similar situation with a physician.   While working with a physician who does steroid injections for patients suffering from chronic conditions causing intense pain. 

There was one patient who had seen two neurosurgeons who both agreed that he needed surgery for his condition and he was told that there was a 90 percent chance that his existing pain would be alleviated after surgery.

Not wanting to go under the proverbial knife, the patient sought treatment from a “pain doctor” who specialized in treating patients with steroid injections on a regular basis.  After consulting with the “pain doctor” the patient decided against surgery and elected to have weekly steroid injections.  He was told by the physician that it was his opinion that surgery was not necessary. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the medical field, most pain doctors are anesthesiologists who have done an additional two year fellowship in pain to be able to treat patients with chronic pain, but they are not neurosurgeons.

The patient had his first two or three injections, but instead of getting better, the pain became increasing worse.   Because of the severe pain, the patients’ family persuaded him to have the surgery that was suggested by the two neurosurgeons in the beginning.  I have no idea how the surgery went or whether or not the patient is living pain-free today. 

The moral of that example is, the pain doctor in question, was investigated, arrested, charged and convicted of running what is called a “pill mill.”  The more patients he convinced to come on board as a patient, the more money that went in his pockets.   His patients were provided with an unlimited supply of narcotics, some without even having the proper assessments or history and physicals done to document the need for narcotics for pain or the need for weekly steroid injections.  

The facility he operated in was aware of this and turned a blind eye to what he was doing because it brought patients and revenue for the company.  As a reward, he was named, “Physician of the Year,” for two years by the facility.

As HR managers, we must remain diligent in doing business the right way.  To prevent something like this from occurring in the future, one author suggests they be mindful of their company’s reward systems.   For a reward system to be effective, organizations should encourage their employees to strive to model the organizational goals.  This can be achieved by letting the employee know that they will be rewarded by doing the right thing (Belludi 2016).

It is suggested that organizations clearly make known to their employees the expectations of the company and that they reward what they really want their employees to achieve.  Belludi states that employers should not encourage a particular behavior and on the other hand promote an undesirable one through rewards and praises.

As Cascio suggest, employers should encourage good performance by providing a sufficient number of rewards that are valued by the employee, in a timely and fair fashion.  

When considering what type of reward to offer, employers should begin by asking the employee what type of reward they value the most (pay, benefits, etc.), and the rewards can be tailored to a particular group of employees or teams (Cascio 2016).

References:

Cascio, Wayne F. Managing Human Resources Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, 2016.  Print

http://www.rightattitudes.com/2016/02/23/do-not-reward-a-while-hoping-for-b/