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Are people "NOT motivated
by money?"
Q. A
manager in our office recently came back from a very expensive seminar on the
coast. Since that time, he's been spouting the slogan, "People are
not motivated by money!" He says the renowned experts told him
so.
Now he disrupts every compensation discussion. I
guess we are supposed to pay everyone with blue ribbons and gold
stars!
Give me some good answers before he strikes again!
A.
We've heard this garbled, out-of-context slogan many times over many
years. It incorrectly poses money motivation as "YES" or
"NO." It gives false comfort that salary-budget problems are
unimportant. Do some research on your own, to get much more than our
EXTREMELY condensed response, as follows:
Money operates at many levels. The major
motivational theories don't deny that money can impact higher-level needs, such
as ego, esteem, appreciation, and recognition. Some people
"keep score" with money. To some people money means survival or
security, but to others it means freedom, victory, self-validation, or
peer-group acceptance.
In other words, money is not always a "low-level
factor" or a "hygiene factor."
The price of marital peace is sometimes money. Money
is a resource in courtship. Higher-wage people experience pressure to earn
increasing amounts of money to support higher-cost lifestyles.
A person's perception of compensation fairness affects
attitude and performance. Highly-motivated pro athletes, playing the sport
they've loved all their lives, strike over money. Some families feud over
money. For only the tiniest chance of money, sweepstakes and lotteries
motivate entrants.
Playing for money motivates gamblers. Seriously
substance-addicted persons who have lost their money, will seek enough money to
continue buying the substance. And what is the worldwide crime problem
about? Money.
Civil justice and criminal justice often take the form of
"liquidated damages" or fines. In other words, plaintiffs seek
money.
CEO's remind us that money motivates stockholders, many of
whom are also employees! Boards think that bonuses and stock options
motivate CEO's. Agency and fiduciary responsibilities involve a motive to
protect and maximize money value (on behalf of someone else).
Key corporate objectives and measurements involve
money. Very few merchants or creditors accept substitutes for money.
Free enterprise, personal liberty, capitalism, and private property all relate
in various ways to your right to earn and use money as you see fit.
"High-minded" pursuits such as education,
culture, the arts, travel, religious and political activism, scientific
research, exploration, and philanthropy, all require someone to obtain
money. Even if you want to give away your money, take a vow of poverty, or
hate money, money still entered into your motivation.
Money is liquid value, so to say people are not motivated
by money, is to say they are not motivated by value.
There is an old saying that the person who thinks people
are not motivated by money should try motivating his butcher, baker, and plumber
with non-money!
Having said all this, it is also true that we will do
things for free that we won't do for money. However, this ONLY illustrates
that other factors exist besides money.
Here is our truthful and useful version of your manager's
saying: "Money is a motivator but not the only motivator;
management's behavior can enhance or detract from the motivational value of
money."
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