The Effects of Pay on Employee Motivation: A Management Essay

This argumentative essay delves into the multifaceted concept of employee motivation within the context of management principles. It examines the central question of whether financial compensation, specifically the level of pay, is the primary determinant of employee motivation and performance. The essay presents arguments supporting the notion that higher pay leads to increased productivity, referencing Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the importance of meeting basic needs for job satisfaction. However, it also offers counterarguments, emphasizing the significance of a positive work environment, diverse job roles, and the limitations of Maslow's theory. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of non-monetary motivators such as paid leaves, recognition, and opportunities for advancement in fostering a motivated and productive workforce. The essay provides a comprehensive overview of the complex factors influencing employee behavior and organizational success.

MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Management principles refers to the propositions on the basis of which management of
activities and processes is done within an organisation. Various scientists and academicians have
devised principles of management, such as Henri Fayol, Taylor, Norton etc. (Kozel, 2016). In
this regard, the present assignment is based on a argumentative essay which enfolds debate over
the topic “ The only thing that effects employee motivation is the level of pay”. In this regard, it is
essential that employees of a firm are motivated on a regular basis so as to ensure that the work
is being performed in a desirable manner. This assists in ensuring that the organisations goals
and objectives are achieved in a timely manner.
MAIN BODY
Employee motivation is the internal as well as intrinsic drive that urges individuals
operating within a business organisation to put the best foot forward towards taking the
necessary actions and efforts directed towards accomplishment of work-related processes. It has
been widely regarded as the psychological forces that helps in ascertaining the direction of an
individual's behaviour within the organisational premises integrated with the persistence and
efforts put forward by personnel to carry out business activities (Kosoe and Osumanu, 2018).
Motivation can be considered to be the willingness of enhancing the zeal and energy with a view
to attain a goal or reward. Motivated personnel are the key to success of an enterprise as they are
generally found to be more productive than other individuals at work place.
A lot of authors and academicians believe that paying higher wages to employees strives
to make them work in a more productive manner. There are a number of reasons behind this
belief. The first one is that almost all the activities in today's world can be carried out only with
the use of funds and also that people need money for making their living at all the times. Money
is essential owing to the fact that it is intermediate for exchange process to take place and people
tend to pay for immediate needs and wants first. In today's modern world, money has become a
necessity just like other essential such as clothing, shelter, food, water etc. People depend on
money for procuring almost every thing in today's world. The second reason is that the factor
which is associated with higher wage significantly motivating workforce to work harder and
more productively is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. As per the views and ideologies of humanist
psychologist Abraham Maslow, the action of an individual is motivated with a view to fulfil
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certain specific personal needs. In this regard, Maslow first launched this concept of hierarchy of
needs in the paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" of 1943 (Stefan, 2017). This recommends
that personnel are significantly motivated to meet the basic needs before shifting to another level,
which means more advanced needs. As individuals progress and consequently move up the
pyramid devised by Abraham Maslow, people first want the Physiological needs and Security
needs to be fulfilled to instil a feeling of safety and security. This motivates them to work in an
effective and efficient manner with a view to ensure that the roles are assigned to them are
performed in a desirable manner and outcomes are achieved as per the stipulated goals and
targets (Levin and Nolan, 2014). To facilitate this, organisations have to ascertain the best way in
which they can pay wages to the worker. Thus, it can be said that the level of pay largely impacts
upon the productivity and the performance delivered by employees within the organisational
premises in a positive manner.
On the contrary, there are some arguments presented by authors and physiologists that are
against the ideology that only level of pay motivates the employees. In this regard, the first
argument is that environment can significantly change the needs and requirements of employees
at rapid intervals. At times, employees do not require money but just a slight change in the
working environment with a view to enhance the work productivity. This owes to the fact that
they get bored with the plain as well as monotonous work surroundings that they experience
every single day (Wisner, Tan. and Leong, 2014). Thus, HR department, CEO or the manager of
a company have to allot diverse set of job roles to workers so that they get to do experience and
do something new, thereby getting a chance to discover or learn unique facts and methods. This
can be done by way of changing the location of work place, altering the roles and responsibilities
of workers, changing the department or function to which an individual belongs (Khorasani and
Almasifard, 2017). All of these act as effective factors, apart from level of pay, and contribute in
directing the behavioural characteristics of employees towards the attainment of organisational
goals and objectives in a desirable manner within the stipulated time frame.
In addition to the above mentioned ideologies, yet another important aspect which
contradicts the aspect that level of pay is the only way to motivate employees is the opinions put
forward against Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. With regards to ‘Criticism of Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs’, some of the critics state that there is a slight evidence for Abraham’s ranking of the
needs and even lesser proof that such needs are present in a hierarchical manner (Worth, 2018).
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The other crucial criticisms of this theory point out to the fact that the definition of self-
actualization presented by Maslow in his theory of needs is tough to be tested in a scientific
manner. The research carried out by this physiologist upon self-actualization was found to be
conducted on a very restricted sample of personnel inclusive of individuals who he already knew
together with biographies of well renowned people that Maslow regarded as being self-
actualized, like Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Einstein (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). In
addition to this, there are some other experts who possess the belief that there was negligible
need for following this pyramid to reach at the topmost position. Thus, it can be said that there is
typically no need to act and operate in a manner that is consistent with this theory irrespective of
the prevalence of a number of needs of employees working in an organisation. At last, the third
argument against the hierarchical theory proposed by Abraham Maslow is the warnings and
considerations that, not at every moment, employees working as a part of an enterprise require
higher level of pay to get motivated to perform in an effective and efficient manner. In this
regard, the criticism of Maslow's theory propose that there are certain specific reasons owing to
which money is not necessarily the only aspect that motivates the workers to work harder
(Larson and Gray, 2017).
Firstly, the warnings that can significantly assist in enhancing salaries in the expectation
of promoting greater productivity possess the scope to backfire. Next, the considerations are to
give a boost to workers so as to enhance their productivity effectively. The second reason is
closely associated with the first reason (Liebler and McConnell, 2016). Thus, it can be said that
not all the times, money acts a driver to motivate employees to give desirable performance.
Further, it can be seen that the other factors which serve as effective drivers to encourage
employees to perform in the best manner are paid leaves, recognition, awards, appraisals,
maternity leave, promotion etc. All of these are significant aspects which influence the
behavioural characteristics of individuals and persuade them in a positive manner so that they
can work by utilising their full potential and achieve the organisational goals and objectives in a
timely manner. These elements are sufficient to keep the employees happy most of the times so
as to inspire them to work in the most efficient and effective manner.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it has been concluded that employee motivation is a key
aspect which provides assistance to an organisation in ensuring that the long term goals and
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objectives of company are met in a timely manner. In this regards, it has been identified that
some of the authors possess the belief that it is only the level of pay that motivates an employee
to deliver effective performance. On the contrary, some other authors are of the view that the
workforce of an organisation can also be motivated with the help of other rewards such as paid
leaves, recognition, appraisals, maternity leave, promotion, awards etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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matter managemnt in Wa, Ghana. Ghana Journal of Development Studies.15(1).
pp.151-172.
Stefan, M., 2017. The Right of Peoples to Self-Determination versus the Principle of the
Inviolability of Borders. In Conf. Int'l Dr. (p. 70).
Khorasani, S.T. and Almasifard, M., 2017. Evolution of management theory within 20 century:
A systemic overview of paradigm shifts in management. International Review of
Management and Marketing.7(3). pp.134-137.
Worth, M.J., 2018. Nonprofit management: Principles and practice. Sage Publications.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Larson, E.W. and Gray, C.F., 2017. Project management: The managerial process. McGraw-
Hill Education.
Liebler, G. and McConnell, C.R., 2016. Management principles for health professionals. Jones
& Bartlett Publishers.
Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. Cengage Learning.
Levin, J. and Nolan, J.F., 2014. Principles of classroom management: A professional decision-
making model. Pearson. One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.
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