Whether Financial Rewards Motivate Workers With Reference to the Theories of Maslow and Herzberg - Essay Example

Discuss, with reference to the theories of Maslow and Herzberg, whether financial rewards motivate workers Any organized human activity, which is done in-group, will be most times constituted into an organization. So, Organization is a structure with a ‘collage’ of humans doing their allocated work under the supervision of a leader. These humans or workers will be apportioned different roles according to their educational qualifications, experience, skill, knowledge etc. After the recruitment and apportionment is over, it is the duty of the organization to provide the employees an optimal working environment. In that environment only, employees will show optimum motivation. But, sometimes the organization will not be able to provide a best working environment due to various factors. This will surely bring down the level of motivation among the employees to bare minimum. With less motivation, the employees will be hard-pressed to use his/hers physical and mental part to work effectively for the organization. The important aspect is, the motivation levels of the employees have to be kept at optimal levels, so that the employees exhibit optimum productivity. So, this paper will look at how motivation can be optimized by financially rewarding the employees using Maslow and Herzberg. According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943): physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Herzbergs work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygiene’s (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction. A comparison of these results to Maslows need-hierarchy theory provides some interesting insight into employee motivation. The number one ranked motivator, interesting work, is a self-actualizing factor. The number two-ranked motivator, good wages, is a physiological factor. The number three-ranked motivator, full appreciation of work done, is an esteem factor. The number four-ranked motivator, job security, is a safety factor. Therefore, according to Maslow (1943), if managers wish to address the most important motivational factor of Centers employees, interesting work, physiological, safety, social, and esteem factors must first be satisfied. If managers wished to address the second most important motivational factor of centers employees, good pay, increased pay would suffice. Even though increased pay occupies the second position, it is crucial. According to Herzbergs two-factor theory good wages is a good motivational factor. Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman (1959) stated that to the degree that motivators are present in a job, motivation will occur. The absence of motivators does not lead to dissatisfaction. Further, they stated that to the degree that hygiene’s are absent from a job, dissatisfaction will occur. When present, hygiene’s prevent dissatisfaction, but do not lead to satisfaction. In our example, the lack of interesting work (motivator) for the centers employees would not lead to dissatisfaction. Paying centers employees lower wages (hygiene) than what they believe to be fair may lead to job dissatisfaction. Conversely, employees will be motivated when they are doing interesting work and but will not necessarily be motivated by higher pay. So, according to Herzberg also, higher pay is crucial factor Financial rewarding individuals purely on merit Another key challenge or contradiction that could bring down the motivation of employees is appointing or promoting employees who do not deserve it. If any organization including organizations in the human service sector, overriding tried and trusted individuals; give important posts and responsibilities along with other rewards and incentives to individuals who might be family members, friends, and persons with negative influence on the leader etc, it will create negative effects. For example, if least experienced or least qualified persons in different sections of the human service organization are promoted and rewarded, it will lead to a lot of problems within the workforce, leading to loss of motivation. That is, if this practice is followed, it will create de-motivation and disenchantment among workers and will show the organization in poor light. And in many organizations, because of the ritual of awarding plum posts to the family members and shielding them when they committed mistakes, many members of the organization banded together in a kind of mutual protection society that developed a culture of its own. They were more loyal to each other than to the organizations without any focus on the company’s goals. Teams perform better when they face weak external pressures (e.g., from the press, the school, team owners). Goals should only originate from and be relevant to the team members (Forward and Zander). So, to keep the core group of good workers in a motivated state and optimize their motivation, the leader or manager or head of particular department needs to award the right individuals. The motivation levels of the employees thereby motivation can be kept at optimal levels, only if the employees are rightly and ethically rewarded. That is, allocation of rewards, incentives and promotions to the deserving and apt employees is an important strategy to keep the motivation at higher plane. “Provide appropriate financial incentives and rewards, and non-financial praise for the employees’ achievement” (Armstrong, 2004). That is, awarding the deserving and ‘success achieved’ employees especially high-performing managers in the human service organization, will stick them to the organization, increase their motivation and importantly will motivate them to give better results. “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it” (Eisenhower). In an organization, the workers do their duties for personal motivations like money (salary), but their motivation will get a great boost if they receive additional rewards and promotions. Rewards and promotions to deserving and ‘success achieved’ workers will motivate them to give better results and motivate others also, to reach that status. So, the organization can quickly get across their main goals by appropriately linking rewards and punishments to the activities of the employees. Providing rewards for the successful attainment of specific performance goals, enhances intrinsic motivation (Marzano et. al.) Through the theories and example we can expect how financial rewards help to motivate workers. However author still concerned about the relationship between financial rewards and motivation. So, directly, this author interviewed four friends who are working in the company. They are working in bank, dot com company which services music, publishing company and free-lancer party planer. They are working in difference sectors and the scales of companies are the different and this author asked how much financial rewards they are receiving and how is their feeling about rewards and motivation. Company Salary Rewards Job Satisfaction Opinion of motivation Bank ￡20000+ Incentive, welfare, education etc... Very much Work=incentive Internet ￡15000+ Welfare So So Consider to resign Publishing ￡18000+ Incentive, welfare, education So So Sometimes compare with big company and have a sense of inferiority Party planer ￡1000+(per party) - Love Work=motivation The table above show the arrangement of interview results. Actually, they did not talk real salary and just told boundary of salary. Banker’s salary is the biggest and their rewards are very various and formulate like big company. In this reason, she responded that she likes her job and she was working hard because she can get group and individual incentives both. Another friend who is working in Dotcom Company earn little than banker and who work in publishing company and they do not give incentives and just provide some welfare programme such as clubs. Workers can make clubs for doing hobbies, sports and activities to have companies’ assistance but she does not like her job so she wants to change it. Publishing worker friends has quiet good rewards like incentives, welfare systems and education supporting but still it has a gap between with big companies. Normally she is O.K but some times she has a sense of inferiority. Finally, party planer is a free lance. He has not proper company but he is quiet famous in this industry and also his colleagues are free lance. So when they have a party request, they are working. He has not any rewards but he loves his job and his motivation is his work. Through the theories and example we can expect how financial rewards help to motivate workers. However author still concerned about the relationship between financial rewards and motivation. So, directly, this author interviewed four friends who are working in the company. They are working in bank, dot com company which services music, publishing company and free-lancer party planer. They are working in difference sectors and the scales of companies are the different and this author asked how much financial rewards they are receiving and how is their feeling about rewards and motivation. Reference: Armstrong, M (2004). How to Be an Even Better Manager: A Complete A-Z of Proven Techniques. Kogan Page Eisenhower, D (2006). Leadership and Management Handbook: Leadership and Management. The Stationery Office Management Forward, J. and Zander, A. (1971). Choice of unattainable group goals and effects on performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 6, 184-199. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959). The motivation to work. New York: John Wiley & Sons Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, July 1943. 370-396 Marzano, R.J et. al. Classroom instruction that works. ASCD . Read More