Money is the prime motivator at work’. Discuss this statement with reference to theories of motivation.

In today’s economic crisis with the UK having been through a double dip recession, and suffering major benefit cuts, money could be seen as the prime motivator at work. Motivation could be said to be “the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.” (Mitchell, 1982)

In 1943, Maslow published his paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in which he depicted that a person desire to succeed could be linked to five distinct categories, the categories were rated in order of lowest to highest. The study concluded that Psychological Needs are the lowest on the scale and cover the basic needs to survive such as food, water and shelter. To continue onto the next level you must have attained required elements on the level they are currently on (Gasper, (2006) p236) When the basic level is not met, Money is seen to increase as a motivator, overshadowing other factors such as employee relations and promotion. Maslow’s Theory can still be seen to be a reliable guide to motivating employees, this can be seen as a recent survey carried out showed that salary had only a 20 percent influence on job satisfaction. Employees required a large array of other factors to keep them satisfied. (Bowen, Sadri, (2011) p44) This makes it apparent that money does not play a large part in motivating employees past a certain point, once they acquire a suitable amount of finance to support their basic needs. Money seems to lessen as a motivator and other factors such as Social and Esteem become a greater influence.

Herzberg Two Factor Theory surveyed 203 American accountants and engineers in Pittsburgh, when the Theory was published it highlighted that there were two sets of factors. Motivation and Hygiene Factors, Motivation or Satisfiers are related to the job itself such as achievement responsibility and growth whereas Hygiene Factors are related to the job contexts these includes working conditions, policies and pay. If Motivator factors were apparent, this lead to Job Satisfaction, if there was a lack of Motivation Factors these lead to there being neither Satisfaction nor Dissatisfaction in the work place. A lack of Hygiene Factors will lead to Dissatisfaction, when Hygiene factors were identified this lead to neither Satisfaction nor Dissatisfaction. (Schermerhorn, (2012) p312) Herzberg’s Theory highlight how Money isn’t seen to motivate employees, instead personal gain and growth is seen to be more motivating to