Staff Motivation in the Present Context

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W. Edward Deming declares “pay is not a motivator” (Stabile, 1999, p. 241). Findings show that money comes only fifth or sixth position when people are directly questioned what do they care about. Frederick Herzberg argues, “assume that if someone’s take-home pay was cut in half, his or her morale would suffer enough to undermine performance. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that doubling that person’s pay would result in better work (Ghazanfar, Chuanmin, Khan & Bashir, 2011, p. 123).”

Shifting Paradigms of Motivational Incentives

On the basis of expectancy theory, one way to remedy low productivity in performance groups is to increase the value associated with contributing or with achieving the collective good. This can be accomplished by providing an incentive for contributing. Providing an incentive addresses the problem that group members often perceive no benefits to contributing; either by design or by accident, it is the approach most investigators have used to address low productivity. However, the nature of the incentive (external vs. internal) and the target of the incentive (a good individual performance vs. a good collective performance) varies.

Incentives for a Good Individual Performance. Similar to external incentives, internal incentives for individual performance enhance productivity in performance groups by increasing the value associated with contributing. Internal incentives are present whenever individuals personally value the collective performance or whenever individuals find the task itself intrinsically interesting. Unlike external incentives, with internal incentives the motivation to contribute arises from personal benefits associated with performing the task or achieving the outcome and not from external benefits received for contributing (Shepperd, 1993, p. 72).

Incentives for a Good Collective Performance. The studies by Shepperd and Wright and Zaccaro suggest that providing external incentives for a good collective performance is a solution to low productivity in performance groups. Internal incentives for achieving a good collective performance exist when individuals identify with, or feel a sense of pride in or duty toward, their group. These group qualities facilitate group cohesiveness and can evoke high-effort contributions from group members even when individual contributions may go unrewarded. The incentive value of these group qualities lies in the fact that individuals personally value the success of the group and are motivated to work hard to ensure the group's success (Shepperd, 1993, p. 73).

Other forms of Non-Material Incentives or Rewards. There are many other various non-material or non-financial incentive schemes which too play a vital role in motivating employees. In this kind of incentive schemes employee identifies himself or herself with the goal and mission of the organization.

Special benefits such as additional paid leave, paternity leave for men, paid family vacation, child care facility in the office and so on. Employee recognition in a small or big way play as an incentive which makes high-impact on employees. The recognition is celebrated through various means of communal gatherings or through any other means. In the modern corporate world, some organizations use special opportunities as incentive schemes to give their employees special trainings, assignments, flexible working conditions, mentorship and so on.

In modern practices as an incentives golden handcuffs are used to retain talented employees. Through the scheme of golden handcuffs organization demonstrates how it values her employees and their fair and consistent works. This kind of incentives make it difficult for employees to leave their organization easily. On the other hand, in the higher level in the organization, in present times, there exist a practice of shared ownership of the company in which employees become co-owners through the employee stock ownership scheme.

In recent years, there have been many successful experiments on employee-empowerment to enhance customer service and motivating employees for self- directed work teams. The one of non-financial motivators that plays important role in shaping employees’ behavior is job design.

Conclusion

A substantial amount of research suggests that the reward systems that provide the most meaningful or valuable incentive to the worker will be those that are most likely to enhance subordinate motivation. The supervisor might improve his subordinates' level of performance significantly, then, by designing his unit's current reward system so that more meaningful incentives are obtained by individuals for better performance (Oldham, 1974, p. 13).

It is therefore, a right mix of incentives which would create a better link between the work context, the individual/team, and the available motivational factors and a harmony between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.

In their 2002 book, Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, authors Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria argue that all managers and business leaders need to get things done through people. “It is hard to be a great leader without understanding what drives and motivates the people you need to lead.” The authors go on to state that leaders have several structural devices they can use to promote a balance between the four drivers they have identified as essential to employee engagement, workplace harmony and overall productivity - acquire, learn, bond, and defend. For example, the authors advise leaders to balance financial and symbolic rewards for both individual achievement and teamwork (Schweyer & Stotz, 2011, p. 12).

Thus, motivation of employees is a tricky business and therefore at times it’s better to provide extrinsic rewards that will help their employees intrinsically motivated to become top performers.

References

Baker, G. P., Jensen, M. C., & Murphy, K. J. (1988) Compensation and Incentives: Practice vs. Theory. The Journal of Finance, XLIII (3), p. 596.

Feyisetan, O., Simperl, E., Kleek, M. V., & Shadbolt, N. (2015) Improving Paid Microtasks through Gamification and Adaptive Furtherance Incentives. University of Southampton, p. 334.

Ghazanfar, F., Chuanmin, S., Khan, M. M., & Basir, M. (2011). A Study of Relationship between Satisfaction with Compensation and Work Motivation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2 (1), p. 123.

Oldham, G. R. (1974). The Motivational Strategies Used by Supervisors Relationships to Effectiveness Indicators. Faculty

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