Jeff Pfeffer Comments on Time is Money

Jeff Pfeffer added an interesting comment the post I did on The Billable Hour Turns People Into Workaholics that I think is most interesting. I repeat:

DeVoe and I started this research to understand how organizational practices "spill over" into other domains.  We have found, using nationally representative survey data, that people paid by the hour (and these are not all, or even most, technical contractors, lawyers, etc., but instead are manufacturing and service workers), are, controlling for many other things, more willing to trade more time for more money and less likely to spend time volunteering.  The research we have done cites an article by Steve Barley (a colleague of Bob's) and two co-authors who found a paradox:  people who went into contracting to presumably increase their freedom actually acted like they didn't have any.  This sort of paradox--acting in ways that are inconsistent with our preferences--is something that we continue to pursue in this research project.

So, two points--this is not just about professional or technical contractors or lawyers or accountants--the evidence is that the phenomenon is widespread.  And second, there are other ways to get the same results--namely, priming people (using a sentence descramble task) to think about money or economics terms, or to have people calculate their own hourly wage (regardless of how they are paid).  There is evidence that having people think about money causes them to act in a more independent (not wanting to ask for or give help, not wanting to associate with others) way. 

In light of the pervasive use of economic language in our society, and in light of the prominence of "money," it does sort of make one wonder.  The article on money is in Science and Vohs is one of the co-authors--it is both short and interesting.

P.S.Here is the link to the abstract of the Science article on The Psychological Consequences of Money that Jeff mentions.

Comments

[Lilly Evans]

There is clearly a growing interest here. Following up on the Science Mag article, I have come across the paper by Stephen E. G. Lea and Paul Webley "Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive" which brings in the view that the type of behaviour Jeff refers to is most likely explained by Drug Theory of money.
http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Lea/Referees/Lea.3.pdf

Then again, we should not be surprised - the view that one can medicate for everything is these days widely spread!