Employee Motivation: The Power of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors

Employee Motivation
2019
Student’s Name
5/21/2019

Employee Motivation 1
Employee motivation reflects how committed the employee is towards the job and the degree
of engagement the employee feels with the goals of the company. The force of motivation
gives rise to a certain behavior of the employees to achieve the goals of the business.
Employee motivation is considered important for enhancing the productivity of the company
and creating a positive working environment. The degree of employee motivation is directly
linked to the performance of the organization. If the employees are highly motivated they feel
happy and valued and are more engaged towards the goals of the organization (Lazaroiu,
2015).
The employees can be motivated through intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. It is analyzed
that when the employees are motivated through extrinsic motivation .i.e. money or status it
leads to an increase in the productive and higher satisfaction among the employees. The
further paragraphs of the essay will reflect that the level of pay is the only thing that affects
the motivation of the employees (Kuvaas et al, 2018).
In accordance with the Maslow’s need hierarchy theory every human possess different needs
which range from physiological to the self-actualization needs. At every stage, the human
requires money to satisfy the diverging needs. The first need consists of the physiological
needs which are the basic needs for the survival of the human but will only be satisfied by
providing money. However in context to the business the employee will get highly motivated
by receiving pay as a source of motivation. Increase in the pay improves the morale of the
employees and make them more dedicated to the goals of the organization (Mikkelsen et al,
2017).
Money is considered as the crucial incentive to work motivation. It is considered as the
medium of exchange for satisfying the diverging needs of the employees. The employee’s
uses pay as a scorecard to compare the value of their services with the pay of the other

Employee Motivation 2
employees. The equity theory of John Stacey Adams states that money has a symbolic value.
The employee of the organization try to create equity between the inputs made and the output
received from the organization and compares it with the input and output of the other
employees. When the ratios of input and output are equivalent the employees get motivated
from getting the fair treatment and in turn exhibit positive relation with the co-workers (Lee
and Raschke, 2016).
The reinforcement theory also reflects the power of money for motivating the employees. The
reinforcement theory states that if the pay of the employees is contingent upon the
performance it will lead to enhancement of the employee’s performance. The employees who
desire to attain higher pay will put extra efforts to increase the pay and in turn, will enhance
the productivity of the company. In accordance with the study analyzed by Locke, it is
analyzed that the only reason for enhancement in the performance of the employees is
money. It is observed that a 30% improvement in the performance was due to the increase in
the pay rather than higher job responsibilities, decision making and improvements in the job
design (Mikkelsen et al, 2017).
It is analyzed that the money is considered as a key motivator for enhancing the employee
productivity but it is based upon certain conditions. For enhancing the employee productivity
it is essential that money is considered important by the employee. The employees must
perceive money as a direct reward for the performance and the marginal amount of money
offered for the performance must be considered significant (Lee and Raschke, 2016).
Contrary to the above views, it is analyzed that money is nice but is not the only way to
motivate the employees. In accordance with the research of Herzberg, the intrinsic factors
create employee motivation and the extrinsic factors create job dissatisfaction. He states that
in order to motivate employees for the longer period of time it requires intrinsic factors