does money motivate?

This is a popular topic in human behavior. The dominant view is "not yes, but heck yeah." But the relationship between money and motivation is very complex. Here are a few principles:

1. the monetary reward must be of a size to have value (e.g., 2% raise vs 15%)
2. the monetary reward must be proximal to the behavior, that is, the money to be gained must be closely associated with what the person must do to get it.
3. the monetary reward is competing with other types of rewards, especially intrinsic rewards of meaning, significance, and enjoyment
4. the monetary reward is often a symbol for some other value the person has, such as fairness, status, and power

The research on when money motivates is quite extensive and basically concludes that money alone often does not motivate a specific behavior and reward givers must not see monetary rewards as a silver bullet to motivation.

But I want to venture into an area of this topic that may be more prevalent than the attention given to it. That is, what are the motivational implications of monetary rewards exceeding the need of the individual for money. Are there behavioral risks to emotionally turning your back on money?





Let's think about it this way. How do you feel when you believe that the monetary reward for what you are doing is in excess of what you need? This is a little different than believing you are overpaid for the work. That usually results in anxiety and fear that you will be found out and that you will lose what you have.

Being rewarded with money when you either have what you need or you are highly intrinsically motivated meaning you do not associate monetary reward with your behavior can create some interesting risks. One is that the world generally associates the desire for money with motivation to do the job. Communicating to others may make them feel you do not care, which has ramifications to how they view your commitment. Research also shows that when we are doing something we love to do and then money is provided as a reward for doing it, we can begin to lose the intrinsic value of what we are doing, be less enthused, and feel obligated to the reward giver.

The main point here is that monetary rewards create feelings in each of us differently based on our needs. Our feelings affect our motivation. The world operates on a system that people do what they do in exchange for rewards. Taking a "one size fits all" view of money as a motivator is risky for the reward giver and not being sensitive to how others read our response to monetary rewards has risk for the the one being rewarded.

just something to ponder ......