What is the relationship between money and motivation? Do we perform better if there is an opportunity to make more money?

Money and Motivation in the Workplace

If you were to do a survey and ask those people participating what it is about their job that motivates them, where do you think money would fit on the list? Most people would include money on the list, but not likely at the very top of it. Such factors as having work that the person finds interesting or fulfilling or being able to work with a group of people they find easy to get along with would likely place higher on the list than money.

When considering money and motivation as far as work is concerned, take a minute to look at the example of a highly-paid celebrity or business leader. At some point, simply making money must cease to be a determining factor for choosing to work. How much money does Oprah need anyway? In this case, money and motivation don’t seem to go together.

This statement is not made to imply that money has no importance…just ask someone who doesn’t have enough of it to meet his or her daily needs. Money, after all, is a tool that we use to purchase things that we need or want. If we were to see it in that way, would it make a difference to us when we consider the relationship between money and motivation?

Let’s see…some things we do strictly because we enjoy them, without expecting to be compensated for them in any way. For example, no one becomes a parent and decides to raise a family as a money-making venture. Many of us have hobbies that we enjoy but we would balk at the idea that a hobby could be turned into a source of income.

We have been told different things about money and its importance in the whole scheme of things. Money does but us tangible things but cannot buy happiness. The Bible states that the love of money is the root of all evil. At the same time, though, North American society has the view that the way we determine the value of a particular type of work (and the person doing the work) is by how much he or she is paid for it.

If you were an employer who wanted to motivate your employees to increase sales, produce more goods, or attract new business (and retain existing customers) by the use of better customer service skills, where would giving them more money fit into the mix? Most managers might say that with enough carrot (money) being dangled in front of the employees, this would be no problem at all.

If you were to ask the employees, though, you might well get a much different answer as far as whether money and motivation do go hand in hand in this case. The manager might well find that increased compensation will motivate employees to work better over the short term, but that over the long term, he or she will not get the desired results.

A much better way to go about giving employees an incentive to do their jobs well is to not fall into the money and motivation trap in the first place. Instead, a better choice would be to pay employees well for the work that they do. In addition, employees need to paid fairly and be provided with good working conditions, so as to avoid the money and motivation trap.

While there is a relationship between money and motivation, it isn’t the one that a lot of employers might think exists between these two concepts.