The positive side of this form of motivation, which relies solely on money, is that the more you produce, the better your pay is. But this can lead to issues around quality. By rushing to finish products can cause mistakes and faults in products so will not satisfy the customers.
Mayo
Elton Mayo took Taylor’s ideas and tried to explore them further, as he recognised that there may be more motivation than just better pay. Mayo found that after giving employees rest periods, hours of works, lighting and changes in heating helped productivity rise this was not due to financial rewards but management involvement, team working and communications.
Mayo suggested that workers should:
- Be given a say in what happens to them
- Have improved communication
- Be organised in teams
- Be given social facilities such as clubs and sports facilities.
Maslow
Abraham Maslow suggested that the needs of individual employees revolve around a set of needs that could be ranked into a hierarchy. The lower ranking needs such as the need for food, water and also shelter. He believed that needs must be met before employees can be motivated.
Maslow’s ideas can be usefully applied by managers in a number of ways and are influenced by the structure and culture within the organisation.
- All employees have a range of needs to be satisfied. Any unsatisfied lower-level needs will mean that employees cannot be motivated.
- Offering pay rewards or increasing salary may not motivate employees but inadequate pay will de-motivate them.
- Strategies such as increasing responsibility may be used to motivate workers but if basic needs such as safe working conditions are not met, workers will remain de-motivated.
Herzberg
Frederick Herzberg like Maslow believed that pay was no the only way to motivate employees and he came up with his own theory which had two elements in it hygiene factors and motivators. For an employee to be motivated, all the hygiene factors have to be met first and then the motivators can be used to make them work harder.
The table above shows that Herzberg’s theory works in a similar way to Maslow.
Reward systems
There are different issues linked with motivation and that some theorists believe that pay is the most important factor, whereas others believe it is something that must be given to avoid de-motivation but does not motivate itself. There are different ways rewards can be given to employees to make them work to the best of their ability.
Pay
This is one of the main reasons why employees come into work. Employees may feel being paid will motivate them to work harder as they need to pay bills and support their family. So when employees get paid they feel more motivated to come back the next day this reward system relates to Taylor who says pay motivates workers.
Performance related pay
This is a way of giving employees extra money depending on their performance in the previous time period. There are many types of businesses that do this reward system. This is a simple reward for a manufacturing business because the more products that are made or sold the higher the performance level.
The main point about this reward is that the method used to calculate the pay must be easily measurable for all employees regardless of race, gender or religion.
I think that this is related to Taylor’s theory because he believes that money motivates workers to work harder and be more productive.
Staff discount
Many organisation offer staff discount across the range of their products they can even receive negotiated discounts on the products offered by other businesses they work with.
I think this rewards is related to Maslow and Herzberg because they believe that money does not really motivate employees, so by giving staff discount employees can buy things they need like clothes or food.
Pension schemes
Some organisations offer pension schemes as a reward for their employees. There are two types of pension schemes. A contributory pension scheme means that the employee and employer both put money into a pension scheme for the retiring employee and non contributory which means that only the employer puts money in for the employee when they retire.
I think this applies for all four theories because scheme relates to Maslow, Mayo, Herzberg and Taylor because the retiring employee and employer is paying money for shelter and caring facilities, also the employer will be paying for the pension so that is why it applies with everyone.
Bonuses
Bonus is an excellent way of giving employees extra money without including them in their usual yearly pay. Bonuses can be a one off reward which links to the performance of the employee. Employees enjoy rewards like this after completing a project or their job.
I believe this rewards falls under Taylor because the employer uses money to motivate employees and get them to work harder.
Company vehicles
When an organisation gives an employee a company vehicle it motivates them to work harder as they can use the vehicle for their personal use as well as for work, this reward system is related to Mayo and Maslow they believe that taking care of employee needs is more important in order to work Toyota does this because they are a car manufacturer so they have enough cars for workers.