What You Incentivize Is What You Get

This 1975 paper shows why it is so important to have the right incentives in organizations. It's foolish to incentivize one behaviour while expecting another.

Here's a notable quote on official vs operational goals in politics:

Official goals are "purposely vague and general and do not indicate ... the host of decisions that must be made among alternative ways of achieving official goals and the priority of multiple goals . ." (8, p. 66). They usually may be relied on to offend absolutely no one, and in this sense can be considered high acceptance, low quality goals. An example might be "build better schools."

Operative goals are higher in quality but lower in acceptance, since they specify where the money will come from, what alternative goals will be ignored, etc.

The American citizenry supposedly wants its candidates for public office to set forth operative goals, making their proposed programs "perfectly clear," specifying sources and uses of funds, etc. However, since operative goals are lower in acceptance, and since aspirants to public office need ac- ceptance (from at least 50.1 percent of the people), most politicians prefer to speak only of official goals, at least until after the election.