Essay Topic:

The strengths and weaknesses of money as a motivator at work.

Essay Questions:
In what ways can a worker be motivated at work? Can money be an effective motivator
at work? How can be the personnel motivated?

Thesis Statement:
It goes without saying that money is an engine of everything but sometimes it may not
be enough to keep this blaze in the eyes of an employee.
Money as a motivator at work essay
Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. Money and motivation
1. Motivation of the personnel
2. Money, stimuli and employers
3. The true picture
3. Conclusion
Does If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys principle still work?
Introduction. The word motivation in this essay will be used in order to indicate the
interests, desires and internal readiness of a worker to apply certain efforts, take
necessary steps to satisfy the career needs that are significant for him. If there had been
an opportunity to ask the company leaders, owners of different companies, HR-managers
or specialists what kind of employees they want to have in their companies, the answer
would have been unambiguous. All of them would be unanimous about such qualities as
the ability to think and act independently, the ability to show personal initiative, take
reasonable risks and ability to take responsibility for actions, professionalism, be picky to
the quality of personal work and many other qualities. The question how motivated an
employee should be to correspond to this list of qualities-demands and is money an
effective motivator at work to make each of them to become an outstanding employee.
How does a company find itself in a situation when a worker that has been chosen
exactly by the company authorities starts being lazy and his work turns into a
satisfactory one? Any malfunctions during the process of employee-selection? Could
be. But what about the skill that the majority of the company leaders are proud of the
skill to chose only those with an eyes blazing? It goes without saying that money is an
engine of everything but sometimes it may not be enough to keep this blaze in the
eyes of an employee.
2. Money and motivation
Managers apply a lot of effort to make the working places of their companies look
attractive for professional and skillful employees. It is not enough just to pay the salary
now! Money nowadays is not a factor that can make the employee work at his full both at
work and even continue working at home. It is simple as that if a person works in a
company only because of money, or is other words is money-motivated, he can be easily
purchased by a rival. No existing company is interested in letting a valuable employee
to work for another company, because it can inflict a considerable damage to the
companies. So this is the primary reason why employers should understand that a only
money-motivated employee is a potential vermin of the company. Money by itself is
obviously not a sufficient motivator at work. An employee working for money only will
leave work at the very minute of its end and never do anything above his duty

regulations. He will never work with the company but always for it. And therefore will
not see the difference between working for this or that company because it will be only
the matter of the salary-issue. This is the point when the authorities of any company
think with tension about the motivation of their personnel. As the matter of fact the
majority of contemporary employees search other benefits from work, except their
wages.
2.a. Motivation of the personnel
It is possible to identify four main motivational-factors. In the first place it is the
compensational plan which is the collection of material goods, which are given by the
company to the employee. The word compensation is the most appropriate because in
exchange for these material goods, the employer expects honest labor, time and many
other things from the worker. The mentioned above material goods provided by the
employer includes salaries, bonuses, extra-pays and other financial encouragements. So
as it may be understood from the very beginning money is only one the four major
motivational factors and therefore has a impact on the motivation of the employee.
The next factor that keeps the personnel motivated is the condition of their labor. To
make a long story short, it goes about making the working place comfortable for the
worker and making the atmosphere well disposed. The third factor influencing motivation
is the possibility to achieve self-actualization, to go in for a favorite occupation, the
possibility to grow personally and professionally. These possibilities ordinarily result from
the investments that the company makes into its personnel, or in other words the
material and other embeddings into the development of the competency and loyalty of
the employees. And the fourth factor is the literal behavior of the companys
management of all levels, promoting professional inspiration, conscious and productive
work of the personnel. All these factors are guarantors of the protections of the
companys interests, represented through the employees of the company. So the main
question remains the same how much an employee should be paid in order to make
him reveal his whole professional potential? In order to analyze the capability of money
as a motivator at work it is very important to understand the existing general system of
payments or in other words the existing way of the compensation plan.
2.b. Money, stimuli and employers
The longing for finding a compromise between the interest of the company and the
interests of the employees should imply the principle of simplicity and transparency. This
means, that the personal of the company has to have a clear picture of the system of
payment of the company, in other words to know what actions and result should be
financially encouraged and what not. So, basically saying money can be a good
motivator if this system is clearly set and understandable to the employee. If the model
of payment is too complicated, in this case it confuses both the employer and the
employee, and becomes the reason of misunderstandings between them. Complicated
schemes do not stimulate, but truly confuse the personnel. Each employee should feel
that he is very important for the company, even if his work belong to the undermost
category. These are the conditions that do make money a good motivator, but it is
important to remember that it is not the only necessary motivator that will bring results
at work.
If the leaders of the company fail to combine all the listed above factors, they turn to the
easiest and quickest, but the most unproductive way of motivation money motivation. It
may be in some way compared to negative reinforcement brings results immediately,
but in the long run causes a lot of trouble. According to Jim Clemmer, only weak leaders
use money as a motivator [3]1. Basically saying is an employer does not want to invest
into the employees in the long run and is interested in the instant, short-live result than
he may be called a weak leader focused on money as a motivator. When it comes to the
motivation of the employees it is very important to understand the difference between a
stimulus and a motive. Everything is rather easy. A stimulus is an external impetus to
any activity and a motive- is an internal one. So for instance, the salary is a stimulus,
but the desire to achieve a certain level of professionalism is a motive. The level of
motivation strongly depends on the managers of the company. The level of motivation for
every company is the statistical feature, defining in what degree the given motive is

capable of influencing the respondents choice either to do or not to do the given work.
But the big problem is that managers have consistently listed money as the number
one factor that they think motivates people. So they keep fiddling with pay, bonus, and
financial incentives in a futile attempt to find the elusive combination that will motivate
people to higher performance the words of the Clemmers article completely reveal
the true situation concerning to question money as a motivator.
2.c. The true picture
Maslows hierarchy of needs has already become legendary. The Journal of Extension has
applied this hierarchy to the sphere of employment2. According to Maslows theory and
the possible critical analysis what can be made on its basis of the problem of money as a
motivator leads to the understanding that a worker will never reveal his full potential only
because of the monetary motivation. There is a time in the life of every employee when
motivation through money plays an extremely important part in his or her lives. The
maximum level of the money-motivation is the age of 24-27 years and at the very end of
the professional career or in other words the pre-retirement time. This happen due to the
fact that in the beginning of the career a person strives to become independent
financially. And during the pre-retirement age a person wants to provide a financially
independent retirement. The most vital part of the information given above is that these
two ages are the most sensitive periods, when money can be a sufficient motivator. So
money as a motivator is productive only for a short period of time and the money-motive
cannot move the person onward constantly. It should be never forgotten, that thought
money are vital in the contemporary world they are no the only thing that matters to
people, especially when it comes to their career and such things as recognition are much
valuable for each given employee in particular.
Conclusion. Money is definitely now a good and certainly not the only motivator that
should be used at work. A number of misunderstandings occur when it is considered as
the only motivator, because the individual peculiarities of each employee are not taken
into account. In order to take into account the individual peculiarities of the personnel,
add flexibility and controllability to the system of money-based motivation it is necessary
to constantly provide additions to the salaries, but these additions should be clear and
for certain reasons that the employee need to know. So the most important is that the
system of motivation needs to be absolutely transparent and understandable for the
employees and it has to react at the changes in the external and the internal situation of
the company.
Sometimes the authorities of the company need to think first before paying an employee
because may be it is the time for a thank your o for your outstanding work letter.
Money is not an effective motivator, because it cannot make the employee works at his
full. There different types of employees. Some of them need power, some need authority,
others prefer money, and another type will choose stability and many other preferences.
And what is really important to remember that no money will change this needs and
money by itself is not sufficient to make the person successful in his career.
1 Money always shows up as fourth or fifth on any list of motivational factors. Pay gets
people to show up for work. But pay doesn't get many to excel. More important is
interesting, challenging, or meaningful work, recognition and appreciation, a sense of
accomplishment, growth opportunities Jim Clemmer, leader of the Clemmer Group.
2 There five levels of needs: physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing