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Pay for Performance: Effect on Employee Motivation

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Pay for Performance: It’s Effect on Employee Motivation
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Pay for Performance: The Effect on Employee Motivation Managers are continuously looking for ways to motivate their employees. Many methods have been tried and many methods have failed. Consequentially, human resource professionals and managers continue to work to develop effective performance management systems which serve to motivate employees, with an end result of improved morale and increased productivity. Designing an effective performance management program, combined with the appropriate compensation methods, can serve as tools to inspire and motivate employees to improve and/or maintain the highest levels of performance. Compensation administrators are encouraging the use of pay-for-performance plans to meet this goal. Pay-for-performance plans motivate employees to be productive and perform at higher levels by linking their pay directly to their pay. The idea behind pay-for-performance plans is that money serves to motivate employees to perform. Maslow’s theory of motivation “suggests that employee needs are arranged in priority order such that lower-order needs must be satisfied before higher-order needs become motivating” (Leonard, 2010, p. 121) with the lowest level of needs being basic biological needs and the highest level being self-fulfillment. When an individual is on the lower levels of the spectrum and trying to fulfill his/her basic biological or security needs, or even social needs to some degree, they are often motivated by money. The money serves as an extrinsic motivator; people are motivated to work harder and longer for higher wages, benefits, etc. The money serves as a way to fulfill the needs by being able to purchase food and shelter (biological needs) and insurance (security needs). When an individual is on the

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