Money can be used to motivate any worker.
Motivation has been defined as an internal drive which leads individuals to achieve their
goals or organizational objectives (Certo, 2000). The number of organizations in these
days attempts to find the best way to motivate and increase their workers’ efforts and
performances as when workers are motivated, it contributes to actual productivity of
organization. There are several factors which have an influence on employee motivation
and one of the most significant factors is money. Since money can be used to fulfill their
basic needs such as food, water, and clothes and many companies might still motivate
their employees by using money or financial incentive. However, many theoretical
literatures do not use this financial reward as being thing that leads to motivation.
Everyone seems to have different motivators in working. Money therefore can be viewed
differently depending on each individuals’ perspectives. Some workers might see it as an
important thing in their working lives, while others might value other things such as
power, achievement, or relationship at the workplace. Thus, motivation can be described
into two ways which are extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. An extrinsic
motivation relates to external things because workers will be motivated by money,
bonus, or other kind of rewards. On the other hand, an extrinsic motivation contrasts to
an intrinsic motivation which workers will focus on the actual motivation, passion, and
interest in the work itself. They will be happy and enjoy doing the actual tasks without
any concern about getting money or reward. As a result, it seems that workers are not
only motivated by money, but also motivated by other different factors. Money is only
one of the various motivators and some workers may see it less attractive for them as
there are theories that represent other factors regarding intrinsic motivation. Therefore,
this essay will illustrate the reasons why money could not be used to motivate any
workers in the workplace with relevant theories and examples.
According to, Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theory, Scientific Management (SM), this theory
placed money as a primary motivation for employees. They have to work hard in order
to earn as much money as they can. If they work less, they will be paid less. Relationship
in the workplace is also eroded due to high competition to produce and complete their
own tasks. A worker will focus only on their works without helping or caring each other.
They will be paid through their performances or piece rates to ensure that the economic
rewards of work were tied to actual productivity (Knights, 2017; Willmott, 2017). Thus,
money seems to be the main motivation for workers to work harder. They will not be
concerned that they are happy or enjoy the work. They will ignore their own interest and
passion since they focus merely on money. Workers’ motivation tends to change from
being autonomous or driven by internal factors to being controlled and driven by
external factors like financial incentives (Krug & Braver, 2014; Ryan & Deci, 2000). It
could be linked to what known as overjustification effect. When workers receive lots of
reward of doing something, they will finally lose their interests in what they are doing,
just interested in getting reward on it. The work will gradually become meaningless for
them. Consequently, this monetary rewards or money could eventually decrease
worker’s motivation. They might be finally tired and bored with the work since they have
lost their interest or their internal drive in work.
In addition, from Herzberg’s two factor theory, his idea is involved in motivation at work
which can be determined by two separated factors: job satisfaction which is considered
as motivation factors and job dissatisfaction which is hygiene factors. These are
associated with satisfaction with the job and dissatisfaction when something is annoying
the workers. Motivators or satisfaction primarily consist of achievement, advancement,
personal growth, recognition, responsibility and work itself. Whereas dissatisfaction or
hygiene include company policy, relationship with boss, relationship with colleagues,
salary, supervision, and working conditions. It is noticeable that salary or money is
considered as dissatifiers. “In the theory, salary was mentioned more often as a hygiene
factor than a motivator, that is, Herzberg claimed that money adds little to job
satisfaction” (Weisberg &Dent, 2016) It might be low pay or low salary that make
employees feel dissatisfy. Nonetheless, money alone could not motivate or satisfy
workers. It seems that money could not satisfy any worker in the workplace as someone
might prefer their work achievement, opportunity for advancement and growth,
recognition from others and the meaningful, interesting, and challenging work itself.
Workers may value these motivators instead of money. Therefore, both intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation are seen as an important key of job satisfaction (Auerbach et al,
2010), only money or extrinsic motivation could not motivate all employees.
In conclusion, although money is one of the main factors to motivate workers, it could
not motivate and encourage everybody in the workplace in the long run. Workers also
need to have an intrinsic motivation in order to know their actual interest and passion in
work. They will always be happy and enjoy working which will result in more productivity
or effective work performance. Accordingly, using money or any kind of financial
rewards could not be an efficient method to motivate any worker. If organizations need
to motivate their workers by using money, they should come along with some intrinsic
motivation to ensure that everybody is motivated and happy.