Daft Punk- Harder Better Faster Stronger

"An Economic Appraisal of Motivation in the Workforce and the Perceived Attainability of Goals"

By Harvard Economist, D. Punk, PhD/MBA

Abstract

It is no secret that the worker of today faces a dire issue: thanks in no small part to the workplace technological revolution, which enabled individuals to work more than ever (hours after work was over!), and additional pressures from the rise of outsourcing and the global economy, the modern employee is caught in a conflict of greater output for diminishing reward. When overseas competition is so cheap, the domestic worker must respond with increased efficiency! Organizations today are demanding that their workforce work harder, do it better, and produce better quality products that are stronger in the global market. And yet, even with these increases in efficiency, the expected workload has increased exponentially to match these new capabilities- leaving the average worker to feel, perhaps, as though his work is never over.

(Editorial followup: A response to the full article, published some five years later by Pulitzer-Prize winning economist K. West, has a slightly different take on the phenomenon, while relying on the same sources.)