Essay on "Do Incentives and or Threats Really Help to Motivate Employees?"

Essay 3 pages (1228 words) Sources: 15

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Human Resources

Do incentives and/or threats really help to motivate employees?

Employers are always looking for ways to motivate their employees and employees are always trying to find ways to be rewarded for their hard effort. Incentive programs often provide employers with an out of the box system for motivating their staff and identifying them for a job well done (Paying for Performance, n.d.). At least three of four American companies rely on some sort of motivation program (Kohn, 1993).

Empirical research has time and again revealed that workers are not motivated by funds only. Though, this is extremely dissimilar from the outlook that cash is way down on the listing of worker's objectives. Actually, it is very high on the list. But it's the essential rewards, such as diverse and appealing jobs, challenging circumstances and creativeness that are frequently the real motivators. Even though compensation, bonus and enticement measures are necessary to fulfill fundamental employee requirements, they are thought to be short-term motivators and frequently do not lead to enduring modifications in employee performance (Motivating incentives, n.d.).

Motivating workers is not an easy chore, due to the reality that what motivates workers seems to transform overtime. Different workers are motivated in dissimilar ways according to their requirements. One worker will be motivated to do their job by way of accountability, while on the other hand another employee will be motivated by monetary rewards. It is therefore significant to try and find out what truly motivates the worker. Attempting to motivate a worker by erroneous means could therefore lead to a waste of funds and time, while leading the way to de-motivate the worker more (Scolara, 2010).

Attention, approval and challenge are all types of inherent motivation, which are factors that are related to the work itself and not to rewards for work, such as money, position or privilege (McGuinness, 2009). People work to please human desires at the most fundamental level which are physiological requirements such as food, water, and sleep. When these are adequately fulfilled, security needs kick in, shielding oneself from physical fears and security of person and possessions. Subsequent to safety needs are social needs, including the requirement for reception, fitting in, and feeling part of something. The next level contains esteem motivators, position, acknowledgment, and feeling appreciated and valued (Lockwood, Frayne and Stephenson, n.d.).

Incentive actions, such as money, minor benefits, and indefinable rewards, gratitude or punishments have conventionally been utilized to motivate workers to enhance performance. Motivators may be affirmative or negative. Decreasing deterrents or perverse incentives that support non-favorable actions can frequently be more significant than coming up with novel incentives. Incentive systems exist inside companies, their arrangement, policies, human resource administration, occasions, interior benefits, rewards and sanctions (Incentive Systems: Incentives, Motivation, and Development Performance, 2006).

Researchers have long documented that people's performance can be influenced by shifting the benefits and costs that are associated with a given set of options (Finkelstein and Kosa, 2003). Monitoring efficiency and sanctions can also be used as influences in regards to worker commitment. In efficiency wage models the likelihood of dismissal for shirking and the level of the wage are important in getting good effort from workers. In models of interactions between firms and workers, substantial consideration is being paid to crafting incentive-compatible payment contracts under which workers will execute at a required level (Clark, Peters & Tomlinson, 2003).

People have been persuading others to do things since the beginning of time, only the methods have changed. The autocratic administration method drives achievement principally through fear. The my way or the highway advances are often effective in the short-term, but not usually in the long-term. It makes employees aggravated, annoyed… READ MORE

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