What Plays Crucial Role in Motivating People at Work - Essay Example

202065 INTRODUCTION There is nothing more important for any individual than the livelihood he earns through his work. The days of indirect earning, like being a landowner and taking the earning from someone else etc., have gone now and almost all people are working now in their individual capacity. The hunger for knowledge, desire for further and further education, knowing more things are all focused on only one end: earning a lot of money and living comfortably. Usually people focus more on the future when they could earn more than enough to meet their desires and comforts and need not worry due to lack of money. It is all very well to say that money does not matter. Actually it matters unless an individual is living in an island like Robinson Crusoe. If the person has to live in a society, with the ordinary requirements that other people have, he need to have money to have a roof over his head, to feed his family and to fulfil his and their desires and necessities. Hence, it is not possible for any person to live without money and not to appreciate its power over humans. PAY AT WORK There is nothing wrong in assuming that the most significant place at work is taken by the pay. Without pay no worker would work, unless it is a part time kind of work for charity in which he believes. Even then, he has to earn his living and no charity worker can do voluntary work full time, unless he has some other adequate income coming in. There is an important place for the pay at work and there exists a belief that pay could motivate people at work. I agree with the statement to some extent, but not fully. There are areas like Sales, where keeping people motivated without pay and incentives could be difficult. But it need not apply everywhere. Pay definitely is the source of motivation to do better work and this perhaps depends on the kind of motivation the worker is looking for. No doubt, there is an enormous impact when the minimum wage is increased; but motivation could be connected to many needs and desires. MOTIVATION "Motivation is the force that energises, directs and sustains behaviour" http://community.ocr.org.uk/core/community/public/download_filerid=202 Motivation is connected to Reinforcement Theory, Need Theory and Cognitive theories. Reinforcement could be different things to different people and cannot be applied to all. Need theory has fallen short of expectations and cannot be applied everywhere. "Research has not found much support for the theory and application of the theory to motivate workers in the workplace has fallen short of expectations. The main asset of Maslow's theory is its humanistic appeal: it projects the idea that many human needs are bound up with work, not just the need for a pay cheque as earlier theorists proposed," (ibid). But according to cognitive theories like Equity Theory, etc., workers are motivated by a desire to be treated equitably and fairly, but research shows that this too cannot be a measuring stick. Hence, motivation cannot be generalised easily, because one person's motivation need not be another person's. At the same time, it has to be connected with the organisational behaviour. Organisational behaviour is usually a collective behaviour and not an individual one. Just like motivation, organisational behaviour cannot be generalised, because every organisation is unique and the behaviour changes according to the organisation in which the worker is working. As the worker is always a small part of the team, his behaviour will be more of one in the crowd, and not highly individualistic. IMPORTANCE OF SALARY Pay influences people individually and collectively both. Pay perhaps is the most motivating of all the perks, with position following it closely. Money definitely motivates people to a very large extent at work. After all, people work for money and to collect wealth which provides security in life. In addition, it is the visible form of appreciation and the means of saying that his work is worth a lot for the organisation. It gives the worker status in the society and fulfils his and his family's requirements. "It acts as a symbol for different people in different ways and for the same person at different times. Pay is often a dominant factor in the choice of employer, and pay is an important consideration when people are deciding whether or not to stay with an organisation," Armstrong (1996, p.24). Pay is not just the money that a worker takes home. It is what he and his work are worth for the organisation. It is the measure of appreciation. It buys him independence and comfort to the family. It buys her the security and a future she had longed for. Every person has a different definition and attached value to the pay. "Pay is related to many things and is interpreted in a number of ways which are not mutually exclusive. One thing is certain: pay has an absolute value and a relative value," Riley (1996, p.67). There is no doubt that motivation for better work could be placed on higher salary to a very large extent. There are many arguments that pay could be the single motivator in most of the cases. "Regardless of which theory is followed, interesting work and employee pay appear to be important links to higher motivation of centres' employees. Options such as job enlargement, job enrichment, promotions, internal and external stipends, monetary, and non-monetary compensation should be considered" Linder (1998). Salary is perhaps the best motivator for changing the jobs. The person who is looking for another job will definitely look at the offered salary first before making a decision and salary is the most significant attraction in the prospective career. But this can change from person to person and generalising could be wrong. According to one of the surveys, motivation for changing a job remains in the following order. 1. Fair treatment. 2. Reward and incentive schemes. 3. Flexible working hours. http://www.businessballs.com/herzbergdiagram.pdf There are arguments that pay diversity could create high and low motivation amongst workers. Workers could feel that they are discriminated if their pay is lower than others for the same work. This factor could be very demoralising and uninspiring. "Pay diversity may be a fillip to the intrinsic motivation of the most highly paid groups and high-performing teams, but may still leave other reasonably high-performing groups feeling relatively deprived. The research has also raised new questions around pay diversity in groups, such as the longitudinal aspects of its effects on work motivation, and its motivational costs and benefits as compared to pay homogeneity," Carr (2005, p.421). People have a habit of looking for further higher rise once the lower rise requirement is satisfied and according to Bygren, it could be another major motivator. "The higher the expected pay level (based on raises or cuts in pay in previous years), the higher the satisfaction experienced by employees. Workers do not seem to adapt to an earlier pay trajectory, at least not one to which they compare their current pay," Bygren (2004, p.222). Having said that, it is also important to note, that the motivation created by higher pay, need not remain the same always; but can change according to the nature of the individual and sometimes, even the circumstances. Motivation is highly individualised and derived from different things according to the personal likes and dislikes. "Motivation is the force that makes us do things: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied (or met) so that we have inspiration to complete the task. These needs vary from person to person as everybody has their individual needs to motivate themselves. Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the output" http://www.bizhelp24.com/employment-and-personal-development/motivation-in-the-workplace-2.html Pay and Performance management as a means of human resource management, humis becoming more relevant in certain organisations. Work fulfils many desires in an individual. He could be working for the love of work, for fulfilment, for intellectual satisfaction, for keeping himself occupied, or simply for the pleasure of being useful. Hence, people who look for diverse kinds of fulfilment other than monetary might not be motivated by the pay. So, can the higher pay change a shirker into a good worker It can, to a very large extent, but not always. It is supposed to depend on the individual's personality because all people do not want or need the same thing. Hence, motivation depends on the individual personality, organisational climate and other incentives etc. "Management theory and practice has traditionally focused on extrinsic motivators: pay, benefits, status, bonuses, commissions, pension plans, expense budgets, and the like. While these are powerful motivators, by themselves they are no longer enough. In today's organizations, where managers expect workers and teams to self-manage their work, intrinsic rewards are essential" http://www.compman.co.uk/scripts/browse.aspref=1576752380&source=M94 It is necessary to quote some conclusions of a few recent researches in the field. According to one such exhaustive research: "As discussed above, our study provides support for the notion that salary is not a long-term source of work motivation. While an adequate salary is necessary in order to prevent dissatisfaction and employment turnover, particularly initially, it does not necessarily lead to long-term job satisfaction and organizational commitment" McLean et al (1996, p.298). According to another research, job motivation from the pay is not definite. It was not ranked very high in the preference list of their research outcome. Candidates chose many other factors above the desire to have a great pay. "It appears that the intrinsic motivators are the most important items influencing a person's job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. It is interesting to note that, on the 12 items measuring job satisfaction, money was ranked lower in importance concerning its effect on an individual's job satisfaction than on a person's job dissatisfaction. This finding is somewhat supportive of Herzberg's results" Saveri (1996, p.23). CONCLUSION It is difficult not to agree that pay is one of the most important factors in work motivation. Actually, it is necessary to say that it is the most important factor. But there are other factors too, according to the personal desires and level of fulfilment. It must be remembered that personal happiness could be grounded on many aspects of life, according to the intellectual and creative dimensions of a person's life. For such people, pay need not be the motivator. Distance to the work place, mobility, availability of transport, health, enjoyment, team spirit, friendship, company, sense of achievement, sense of belonging, we-feeling, appreciation, incentives, fellow-feeling, well-being, importance in society, position etc., there could be many motivators. So, pay cannot be the only motivator in all the cases. But pay is the biggest motivator of them all, because there are more people who will look at pay as the motivator and lesser people who would prefer other, above-stated requirements. Hence, there is a conflict in the statement that pay is the motivator. Pay is the motivator for most people; but not universally so. There are people who would never accept pay as the biggest motivator, even though their number is small. So, pay despite being the biggest motivator, is not the universal motivator, because work satisfaction, creativity team spirit, pride in the work, fellow-feeling and the sense of belonging all could be accepted as fellow-motivators, mostly sending pay to the second or third positions. This is how some organisations fail to motivate their workers, in spite of the immense pay rise beyond the expectations of the workers. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Armstrong, Michael (1996), Employee Reward, London, Institute of Personnel and development. 2. Bygren, Magnus (2004), 'Pay reference standards and pay satisfaction: what do workers evaluate their pay against' Social Science Research, Vo. 33, Issue 2, June 2004, Pages 206-224 3. Carr, Stuart et al, 'Pay diversity across work teams: doubly de-motivating influences' Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 20, No.5, 2005, 417-439). 4. Linder, James R., 'Understanding Employee Motivation,' Journal of Extension, June 1998, Volume 36 Number 3. 5. McLean, Ephraim R. et al, 'The importance of salary on job and career attitudes of information systems professionals,' Information & Management 30 (1996) 291-299. 6. Riley, Michael (1996), Human Resource Management in the hospitality and Tourism Industry, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. 7. Saveri, Lawson K. (1996), 'The congruence between the importance of job satisfaction and the perceived level of achievement,' Journal of Management Development, Vol. 15, Number 6, 1996, pp. 18-27. ONLINE SOURCES 1. http://www.compman.co.uk/scripts/browse.aspref=1576752380&source=M94 2. http://www.bizhelp24.com/employment-and-personal-development/motivation-in-the-workplace-2.html 3. http://community.ocr.org.uk/core/community/public/download_filerid=202 4. http://www.businessballs.com/herzbergdiagram.pdf 5. Read More