‘Money is the key motivator an employer can use to get the optimum performance from employees in the workplace.’
Arguments for the moot:
Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the intensity of desire or need, incentive or reward value of the goal, and expectations of the individual and of his or her peers. When you hire and motivate the right people, the right work gets done in the right way.
Money is a crucial incentive to work motivation. It is a medium of exchange and the means by which employees can purchase things to satisfy their needs and desires. It also serves as a scorecard by which employees assess the value that the organization places on their services. Employees can also compare their value to others based on their pay. In addition, money also has symbolic value. John Stacey Adams, a behavioural and workplace psychologist, developed equity theory to explain this value. According to this theory, employees try to maintain equity between the inputs they bring to their job and the outcomes they receive from it. This is compared to the perceived inputs and outputs of others in the organization. The theory states that employees perceive they are being treated fairly when the ratio of their inputs to their outcomes is equivalent to other employees they work with. Fair treatment motivates employees to maintain this fairness within the relationships of their co-workers and the organization.
Reinforcement and expectancy theories also attest to the motivating power of money. According to reinforcement theory, if pay is contingent on performance, it will encourage employees to maintain high levels of effort. According to expectancy theory, money will motivate to the extent that employees perceive it as satisfying their personal goals and to the extent they perceive their pay as being dependent upon performance criteria. Some of the best evidence that money motivates employees to perform comes from the...