carrot or stick

carrot or stick

An incentivization method in which a reward and a punishment are simultaneously offered/threatened as a motivation to complete some task. It is a variant of "carrot and stick," which means the same. Hyphenated if used as a modifier before a noun. We use the carrot or stick as motivation at this company: you make more money if you sell more units, or your pay gets docked if you don't meet your quota. Some people like it, but I think their carrot-or-stick approach creates a dynamic of fear in employees.
See also: carrot, stick
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the carrot and/or (the) stick

rewards offered to somebody to persuade them to do something or try harder, and/or punishment threatened if they do not: She favoured a carrot-and-stick approach to teaching.
See also: and, carrot, stick
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • carrot on a stick
  • take the Michael (out of someone or something)
  • take the mike (out of someone or something)
  • nicca
  • nikka
  • a force to reckon with
  • a watched kettle never boils
  • be (right) down (one's) alley
  • if it ain't broken, don't fix it
  • if it isn't broke, don't fix it
References in periodicals archive
whether a rule is a carrot or stick from some baseline of what the
emphasize that defining any particular policy as either carrot or stick
from a carrot or stick. (59) While both price mechanisms change the
intended substitution effect of a carrot or stick. Suppose that the good
again, the perception of a policy as a carrot or stick can be
The tragedy of the carrots: economics and politics in the choice of price instruments