People tend to do what gets rewarded. For instance, give someone the opportunity to earn frequent flier miles and he will find ways to fly and spend in absurd ways to optimize those miles.
This phenomenon happens at an organizational level, too. Recently in Atlanta, school administrators and teachers were convicted for fudging the results of standardized tests. One could argue that the regime established by the No Child Left Behind Act sets up rigid standards derived from high-stakes testing. Those performance targets can result in even competent teachers branded as failures and getting fired.
