Motivation - a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way. (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013)
The role of money as a motivator at work has been widely argued over a number of years. Some people say that money is the prime factor that gets employees motivated at work; some people say there are other more important factors that influence employees. It is necessary to look at various theories in order to answer the question about the role of money as a motivator in the workplace.
“Where there is little pleasure in the work itself…many people may appear to be motivated primarily, if not exclusively, by money” (Mullins, 2007). Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation (1964) develops an idea that the amount of effort and level of performance directly depends on the value of the reward at the end and the overall probability of achieving it and thus, motivates employees (Mullins, 2007). The motivational force is presented as follows:
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MOTIVATIONAL FORCE = (EXPECTANCY ×INSTRUMENTALITY) × VALENCE
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Source: Hitt, Miller, Colella (2006)
A combination of factors such as the sense of manageable, attractive outcomes/rewards (valence) and the overall probability of getting the reward (expectancy), leads to motivation with the help of hard work and effort. Hitt, Miller and Colella (2006) claim that the given theory has got some implications for managers who try to increase motivation in the workplace, with one of the things that could be done is providing highly valued, attractive rewards for workers. This theory suggests that achieving rewards can lead to satisfaction, meaning that money can be seen as a vital factor in motivating employees at work. Unlike Vroom, there are other theorists such as Herzberg, who has created a theory which controverts given theory