Is Money Really an Effective Motivator?

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Is there anyone in this world who does not want to be rich? The first thing that crosses the people’s mind while choosing job is money. Money plays a vital role in one's life and most of the people are motivated to perform well in their jobs for money. Money is the reason what drives people to work better. In most cases, money greatly works. People are motivated to perform better by receiving monetary incentives like wages, salaries, allowances, bonuses, retirement benefits, etc. But, money doesnot always contribute in influencing people towards the work. This essay will discuss the arguments that are both for and against money being the key motivator and suggest that money is not always the best motivator.

Management spends a huge amount of time to design incentive systems and schemes to motivate their workers and to ensure they work in their best possible manner. Motivating workers by giving them decent pay helps in winning employees heart to make the work done efficiently, significantly and effectively. The most effective way to motivate people to work productively is through individual incentive compensation (Pfeffer, 1998). An attraction of getting more is a powerful incentive to people for high performance. While most people agree that money plays a major role in motivating people, in organizations there is a widespread belief that money may also have some undesirable effects on morale.
In any organization, sometimes, monetary schemes doesnot get people involve to pursue work in a certain way, rather it demoralize and threatens the self-esteem of employees. According to Meyer (1975), “the basis for most of the problems with merit pay plans is that most people think their own performance is above average”. The amount may ...

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Meyer, H. H. (1975). The Pay-for-Performance Dilemma. Organizational Dynamics, 3, 39-50. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.
Pfeffer, J. (1998). Six dangerous myths about pay. Harvard Business Review, 76, 109-119. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York, NY, US and London, UK: Harper & Brothers. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.

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