> If my name is on a package, I am much more likely to try more to make
> sure there is nothing wrong with it, if the department name is stamped on
> every thing leaving that department, one is less likely to try to do the best,
> since if something goes wrong, no one is responsible, it is the "department"
> or the "group" that is resposible.
>

I can tell you from experience that an engineer needs to have a circuit (HW
engineer) or a piece of code (SW engineer) that he/she feels that was created (and
maintained) by them in order to feel a sense of satisfaction in their contribution
to the project. I think that code reviews by piers (i.e. inspections) are a good
balance between communal development of code and private ownership.

Recall that we who live in a capitalistic system believe that private ownership
and competition result in a higher quality of products overall. This is proven by
a comparison with the products produced by socialistic/communistic systems of
government.

People need to feel a sense of pride in the goods and services they produce in
order for them to produce those goods and services to the best of their ability.
This directly translates into quality.

A good program development environment, including one based upon an
incremental/recursive build model, encourages individual participation in the
creation of the end program by allowing each individual to add his or her creative
"stamp" on the end program to the extent that each member of the team to feel a
sense of accomplishment in the code that they produced.

> It is absolutely NOT a necessary ingredient in motivation. It can be
> replaced by "look at this, it is ours!" and I find that a MUCH more
> constructive viewpoint.
>