Among that 95%, some are actually malevolent and do understand that punishment doesn't motivate in the long term. There are neutral-intended but incompetent ma

Among that 95%, some are actually malevolent and do understand that punishment doesn't motivate in the long term. There are neutral-intended but incompetent managers who think "pressure makes diamonds", but there are also the political adepts who take out talented subordinates to pre-empt future competition, and the sadists who know that they're crippling the people under them, but because they "manage up" well, they can get away with anything. The sadists (rare) and malignant politically-minded players (less rare) use "pressure makes diamonds" as a rationalization, and a much larger set of clueless people (without bad intentions) copy it. And that's how you end up with Theory X management. Also, I don't think this contradicts the Maslovian theory. If you start fires on someone's lower need levels (security, physical health) then those trump their higher need levels (creativity, esteem). The thing is that, even though the baser needs are more "foundational", that doesn't mean they drive people to do better work. Creativity drops, and fatigue sets in, and you get really awful work because pain and fear rarely motivate; they paralyze.