1. Many experts argue that people do their best work when they are motivated by a sense of purpose rather than the pursuit of money. Do you agree? Critically evaluate and explain your position.
The study of what motivates people has fascinated researchers and academics over the years. Many renowned researchers have come up with their own model explaining the mechanisms of motivation. Though all these theories are unique in their own right, the division of motivations into two forms; extrinsic motivations and intrinsic motivations is a common sight. Both these factors have their place in getting people out of their beds in the morning and trading the better part of their waking hours for work. However, for people to do their best work, a sense of purpose is often more useful than the pursuit of money. The type of job and position are also key factors in determining whether money or a sense of purpose will be the better motivating factor that encourages people to deliver their best work.
George Bernard Shaw once said that “Lack of money is the root of all evil.” Money is defined as whether money is shells or rocks or gold or paper, in any economy it has three primary functions: it is a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value. Of these three functions, its function as a medium of exchange is what distinguishes money from other assets such as stocks, bonds or houses (Mishkin, 1992).
The pursuit of money is rooted in human behaviour today and the motivations for it functions in a similar manner to the pursuit of food or sex (Stephen E. G. Lea, 2006). One of the motivators for the pursuit of money stems from the basic premise that money enables people to build a home and life for himself. While animals build their homes by its own efforts, the function of money is now regarded by modern men as the means to secure their homes. In this aspect, money as an incentive is only as attractive as the goods and services it can be exchanged for (Stephen E. G. Lea, 2006).

The pursuit of money is also caused by psychological triggers that operate beneath our conscious mind. According to renowned psychologist B. F. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning (Skinner, 1953), when an external stimulus is paired with a certain result numerous times, the mind starts to associate that result and its related emotions to the external stimulus. In the case of money, the positive associations that are continually being reinforced are the goods and services money can buy (Stephen E. G. Lea, 2006). This set up a positive feedback loop that constantly strengthens and reinforces these associations as people continue to work. Hence the pursuit of money becomes second nature and motivates people to work.

Since the industrial revolution, people have collectively come together and formed themselves into organised groups such as companies to work. Much has changed since and in developed countries, much of the work has been mechanised and computerised such the workforce is shifting from the manual labourers working in factories to knowledge workers working in their cubicles (Drucker, Management, 2008). Concurrently, as the demand for knowledge workers in developed countries surges and society now favours knowledge workers over manual workers, the prestige and remuneration that the knowledge worker enjoys surpasses that of the manual worker (Drucker, Management, 2008). The fundamental differences between the knowledge and manual workers help us explain and understand what motivates them to do their best work.

The manual worker of today is often seen as the underachiever in many developed countries. Having lost their edge in the education system, they often leave formal education to seek their fortunes in the working world early on (Drucker, Management, 2008). Due to the increasing reliance on formal education qualifications as one of the key considerations for the job of a knowledge worker, an underachiever in the education system will find it difficult to seek employment in such jobs. He then turns to jobs that value manual labour. These jobs are all around us. From the pizza delivery man to the supermarket cashier to the air conditioner mechanic, all these jobs value the amount of output that the manual worker can deliver and the best work of such jobs are often measured by the amount of output that the worker can generate. Take delivery service staff for instance. They are paid a basic amount for each hour and a commission for each delivery trip. As manual workers are relatively lowly paid (Drucker, Management, 2008) every delivery trip adds a significant portion to their income. To maintain a healthy income that the manual worker requires, generating a high output is essential. As such, a major and effective motivating factor for manual workers is the pursuit of money as it fulfils their lower order physiological and safety needs as addressed by Maslow in his hierarchy of needs theory (Wood, 2010).
Another possible explanation for the weakness of intrinsic motivation is that manual workers are often relatively uneducated and hold blue collar jobs. The nature of work that they perform is often repetitive and unchallenging to the mind. As such, blue collar workers might be more inclined to seek a sense of purpose out of the workplace, either in their hobbies or family (Gruenber, 1980). Work becomes merely a means to a regular pay to support their lifestyle. Hence what a manual worker seeks in a job is financial security and not to develop his sense of purpose which is why a sense of purpose is not as effective in motivating him to do his best work.

According to (Mourkogiannis, July/August), there are three different kinds of purposes that drive people to achieve. The first is the desire to innovate and be a ground breaker. This is the key driver in many successful IT companies. The second is the desire to achieve excellence. This relentless quest to deliver results that are better than before is most prominently seen in Apple Computers. The third purpose is that of altruism where people are driven by the desire to help others in need. This spirit is reflected in successful health care companies and pharmaceutical companies. In Apple Computers Inc’s case, the company lost its direction and sense of purpose when Steve Jobs left and it only recovered when he returned to the company. After which, the financial results followed (Mourkogiannis, July/August).

A knowledge worker is a term coined by Peter F. Drucker in 1959 in the book Landmarks of Tomorrow (Drucker, The Age of Social Transformation, 1994). Knowledge workers are people with a specific skill set and intellectual knowledge that allows them to work in a particular job. (Alvesson, 2000) These jobs include doctors, teachers and IT engineers among many others that we see amongst us today. Motivating knowledge workers to do their best work is different from motivating manual workers to do their best work. While manual work can be easily measured by output, knowledge work is less measurable as the best work of a knowledge worker is often defined not only by the quantity of the work but also by its quality (Drucker, Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge, 1999). What then defines the quality of work that a knowledge worker produces? A major challenge that is facing knowledge workers today is that their job scope is often diverse and they have many tasks to complete. For example, a nurse in a hospital is expected to perform a wide array of tasks ranging from cooperating well with the doctors to answering the patient’s bells to doing paper work. Upon questioning, nurses have varied responses about what defines their best work but they were able to agree that certain tasks made them unproductive and unable to deliver their best work. These were the paper work and answering of phone calls which were distractions that prevented them from delivering their best work in what they were trained to do; caring for patients (Drucker, Management, 2008).
A sense of purpose determines what a knowledge worker deems to be unproductive tasks and what he deems to be productive. Tasks that directly relates to fulfilling the worker’s purpose of striving for excellence, altruistic inclinations or need to be innovative are also tasks that define the worker’s identity and self esteem. Allowing workers the freedom and independence to plan their work promotes the motivation to achieve results and fulfils their need to fulfil their higher self (Frank M. Horwitz, 2003). This frees workers from the drudgery of unproductive work and empowers them to direct their energies with a sense of purpose towards doing their best work for the organisation.
In addition, knowledge workers are relatively higher educated than their manual worker counterparts (Drucker, Management, 2008). This could indicate that due to the increased education level, knowledge workers are more inclined to have the need to express themselves creatively and seek meaning through their work. (Blauner, 1964). White collar workers attach more meaning to their jobs as they form part of their identity. This is evident as they increasingly see themselves as associates rather than subordinates (Drucker, Management's new paradigms, 1998). This allows us to understand the key reasons why knowledge workers require more meaning out of their job and indicates that a sense of purpose is quintessential in keeping a knowledge worker satisfied and motivated to give their best.
There are many factors that have been discussed on what drives workers to deliver their best work; the pursuit of money or a sense of purpose. Both of these motivating factors work tremendously well in promoting best work from workers but only if they are applied in the right job. In the case of manual workers, much of their motivation to work harder and perform better stems from the extrinsic motivation of money whilst knowledge workers mostly require a sense of purpose to motivate them to give their best for their employers. It is also important to remember that in all occupations, a certain level of acceptable remuneration is the prerequisite before one can start to negotiate the difficulties of motivating workers to do their best work.

Bibliography
Alvesson, M. (2000). Social identity and the problem of loyalty in knowledge-intensive companies. Journal of Management Studies , 1101-1120.
Blauner, R. (1964). Alienation and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Pres.
Drucker, P. F. (1999, Winter). Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge. California Management Review XLI:2 , p. 84.
Drucker, P. F. (2008). Management. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Drucker, P. F. (1998). Management's new paradigms. Forbes Magazine .
Drucker, P. F. (1994, November). The Age of Social Transformation. The Alantic Monthly , p. 8.
Frank M. Horwitz, C. T. (2003). Finders, keepers? Attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers. Human Resource Management Journal , 13 (4), 23-44.
Gruenber, B. (1980). The Happy Worker: An Analysis of Educational and Occupational Differences in Determinants. American Journal of Sociology , 86 (2), 247-271.
Mishkin, F. S. (1992). The economics of money, banking and financial markets. HarperCollins Publishers.
Mourkogiannis, N. (July/August). Using purpose to drive innovation. Ivey Business Journal , 2007.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. Macmillan Publishers.
Stephen E. G. Lea, P. W. (2006). Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive. Behavioral and Brain Sciences , 162.
Wood, Z. F. (2010). Organisational Behaviour core concepts and applications. Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.