This week I’ve been re-reading Jeffrey Pfeffer and Bob Sutton’s under-appreciated classic Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense. The book is a call to action for evidence based management filled with intriguing anecdotes about companies who might just be doing a better job understanding human nature than common sense dictates.

Tucked into the book is the story of Tandem Computers, an early computer company that is now a division of Hewlett-Packard. The company had an interesting policy about salary negotiations – it didn’t. Companywide, salary was not discussed with potential new hires until after they’d accepted the offer. Even at the most senior levels, potential hires were told that the company paid a competitive salary and offered a competitive benefits package.

Those that insisted on knowing the salary before accepting the offer quickly found their offer withdrawn. The philosophy behind this innovative talent management policy is simple: if people come for the money, they will leave for the money. However, if they joined because they like the company, found the work meaningful and enjoyed the culture, then they would be more likely to stay and make a long-term contribution.

There’s a growing body of research suggesting that incentives like bonuses and commissions may not be as useful in knowledge work – the notion being that employees would focus too much on the bonus and not enough on the job. The Tandem example seems to take this further; suggesting that when salary is open for discussion it becomes a far bigger issue than it ought to be for someone intrinsically motivated to do the work.

Tandem Computers is a near-apocryphal case of how this philosophy plays out, however, I’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for similar examples.

David Burkus is the editor of LDRLB. He speaks, consults and serves on the faculty of management at Oral Roberts University’s College of Business.