Does Money Really Motivate Employees? Critical Thinking

Motivation varies when it comes to employment perspective. There are those who work merely for profit, others are concentrated on their careers, whereas some people just love what they are doing. However, despite the priorities of each individual, it is apparent that ultimately all want to be rewarded for their work. In terms of employment perspective, the notion ‘motivation’ is worth defining. Extrinsic motivation can be regarded as the process of encouraging employees for actions that leads to the implementation of the goals of organization. Alternatively, intrinsic motivation embraces inner factors that affect people, thereby supporting and encouraging particular undertakings to move in a certain direction.
The answer to the question ‘how much people should earn to be motivated’ is not as clear-cut as it might seem. Even with unlimited resources, it would be rather difficult to identify the ideal salary. Intuition tells that the higher the payment, the better the results of labor will be. However, the scientific evidence suggests that the relationship between the remuneration, motivation and performance is much more complex than that. Moreover, the researchers argue that even if employees were able to decide for themselves how much they should earn, in all likelihood, they would no longer like their work.
A growing body of evidence suggests that the financial aspect play a crucial role in boosting motivation. Financial reward is considered as a benchmark that is bound to ensure a competitive advantage (Markova & Ford, 2011). Aguinis et al. (2013) identify the factors that contribute to motivation in a workplace and suggest recommendations for enhancement. In particular, they explore the monetary rewards in terms of boosting employee performance and motivation.
Markova and Ford (2011) state that employers who provide various kinds of incentives are likely to encourage and reinforce employees’ motivation. In case employees are not completely satisfied with work schedule along with working conditions, their preferences tend to be focused primarily on the financial component. Exercise in the manual application of leadership as a key motivation improves the efficiency of the staff, for this leadership promotes ownership and identification, clarification of roles and objectives, the development of group spirit. Thus, it is worth noting that personality and management style leader are of profound importance.
Even those who insist on the motivational influence of money are willing to accept the fact that monetary rewards are not enough. Aguinis et al. (2013) mention that several studies indicate that the relationship between the size of the salary and job satisfaction is relatively weak. Similar study conducted by Gupta and Shaw (2014) concludes that money has a tendency to motivate only to an extent. In terms of the temporal influence, people are active when they are sure that the chosen tactics will lead to the desired goal. The strength of the expectations may be based on subjective assessment of the likelihood of achieving a goal with the help of specific tactics as well as on past experience. However, a person is faced with an entirely new situations, and in such circumstances, the motivation is the least.
Development of belonging and identification of employees with the organization, values and goals motivate employees to increase efficiency. Motivation through the work itself uses internal stimuli of interest in work, a sense of satisfaction from the work process, the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, their own strength in decision-making and execution of production tasks. Encouraging achievements motivates employees to improve further. The salary system itself is designed so that it binds with the achievements of the award, as well as requires the promotion of people through increasing their responsibility and autonomy (internal award) and create opportunities to improve the status, progress in career (external reward).
According to Aguinis et al. (2013), motivating force depends on the experience and expectations. Experience is attained with actions taken to meet the needs of people. It is argued that those who love what they are doing are more likely to attain goals, whereas employees who are motivated merely by the financial reward achieve less success. Failure or punishment suggests that it is necessary to look for other alternative means of achieving the goal. This is the law of effect, which exists in psychological research within the concept of behaviourism (Markova & Ford, 2011). The extent to which the experience determines the future behavior depends on how much a person is able to recognize between the previous and the present situation. Gupta and Shaw (2014) convincingly argue that a number of pitfalls can result in counterproductive outcomes.
Limiting the negative factors involves minimizing negative hygienic factors, namely an unfair system of payment; poor working conditions; inadequate supervision; unreasonably restricted or bureaucratic practices; et al. The manager should keep in mind two goals: 1) to reduce the level of dissatisfaction with his subordinates, to improve the situation with the regulators of motivation, and 2) to increase the level of satisfaction, reinforcing the main motivators which really increase the release of energy from subordinates.

References

Aguinis, H., Joo, H., & Gottfredson, R. K. (2013). What monetary rewards can and cannot do: How to show employees the money. Business Horizons, 56 (2), 241-249.
Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. (2014). Employee compensation: The neglected area of HRM research. Human Resource Management Review, 24 (1), 1-4.
Markova, G., & Ford, C. (2011). Is money the panacea? Rewards for knowledge workers. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 60 (8), 813-823.