According to vice-presidential (under Gore) speechwriter turned career analyst and author, Daniel Pink, the emerging champion of right brain vocation, there is a dramatic mismatch between the science of motivation and what business actually does. Whereas typical financial incentives work in contexts where the work is strictly mechanical, contexts that require even a modicum of creativity require incentives built around autonomy, personal growth, and purpose. Pink points to numerous cross-cultural studies that consistently support these conclusions. Check out Pink’s Oxford TED talk on the science of motivation here.
Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Riverhead, 2009).