Is money an effective motivator at work?

It is a fact that for a living, food, shelter and clothes are needed. To get all these necessities one has to possess money.  This is a great truth which one cannot deny.  Money is an indispensable thing required like oxygen for survival which can buy anything to every thing in this world. It is therefore a precious thing of our life and belongings.  For, with money, all the necessities including luxuries can be bought for living as well as enjoying life. This is the sole reason why money attracts people, exhibiting its novel character of being a great motivator at workplaces. We all work to earn and get money and better wages can induce or in other words motivate workers to do the best. But then there is a great question. Can more money buy human emotions enough to motivate workers at workplaces?   

     It is observed, that the performance and excellence grades of the workers in a workplace, are not similar and does differ one from another since the levels, factors and forces of motivation are different from employee to employee. Though every worker is in the workplace to earn, not all of them tend to do the job with equal motivation. In other words the driving force to do the job best differs from one worker to another. This means in plain words that there are certain forces which motivate workers in workplaces. Also there are factors which may motivate persons to go for certain job purely for the rewards in monetary terms, and that could be wages, bonus, allowances, perks and incentives.

     A number of theories have been propounded and research work done regarding what motivates workers at workplaces. The most remarkable theory in the context is that of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory and Alderfer’s ERG Theory. Maslow propounded that Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behaviors, and that only unsatisfied needs can influence behaviors, satisfied needs cannot. Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to the complex. The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at least minimally satisfied. The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and psychological health a person will show. The needs varying from basic (lowest, earliest) to most complex (highest, latest) being Physiological Safety and security Social Self esteem and Self actualization .

 Herzberg’s two factor theory, says that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, while others do not, but if absent lead to dissatisfaction. He distinguished

between: motivation and hygiene. Motivators being challenging work, recognition, responsibility which gives positive satisfaction, and factors status, job security, salary and fringe benefits which do not motivate if present, but if absent will result in demotivation. He has name job salary etc.as Hygiene factors because, like hygiene, the presence will not make you healthier, but absence could cause health deterioration.

     There is a theory wherein rewards are treated in motivational perspectives. For, one gets a reward to do certain activity. Say occurrence of a behavior is acknowledged by giving a reward. Or a worker may know that for doing certain job he would be rewarded. So here too money seems to act as a motivator.

     All the popular motivation theories have their flaws and detractors, but they do give us an insight into some of the mechanisms at work in day-to-day organizational life. A number of key messages ring true: firstly, people are not automatons and their reasons for behaving in a certain way are more complex than just money or laziness. Secondly, different people are motivated differently – there is no such thing as a simple, all-encompassing solution. Thirdly, it’s important to get the work environment right if you want to get the most from people; and finally, managing perceptions and expectations is very important if you want to help people get the most from their work

     Just take a situation where A and B are offered a job of a manager with a salary less than another job of say a cleaner with more salary. Which one would he choose? For the job of a cleaner with more income than the manager would be more profitable. It doesn’t matter what work is to be done. One’s personality does not change with the type of work one does. But here the choice of job may vary between the two as per their attitude towards the main factor, monetary benefit the job would offer. Other factor can be, say, prestige holding the position, job satisfaction, further career enhancement etc.

     All workers are motivated primarily by the need for money; so to get the most out of your workforce, you have to pay them more. This is prevalent in many businesses in the form of performance-related pay, incentives, bonuses and promotion schemes. Interestingly in a study conducted by a team of Stanford scientists have observed that Money talks, but it might also help people remember. They have shown for the first time that motivation in the form of a reward also gets the brain ready to learn. There is therefore no doubt that money is an effective motivator at workplaces.

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