HCM 433 MANGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR.pdf

for performance, money is important. This unit discusses money as a positively reinforcing reward
system in an organisation.
2.0 OBJECTIVE
At the end of studying this unit, you should be able to;
1. Comment on the different views as to the role money can play and also its limitation.
2. Explain the reasons people work.
3. Discuss how to Motivate and Improve Employee Performance
3.0 MONEY
3.1 PERSPECTIVES AS TO THE CONCEPT OF MONEY
In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy, money is often equated only with the most basic level of man’s
needs that is, the physiological needs. It is viewed in the material sense of buying food, clothing
and shelter.
But as some writers have pointed out, money is often more than monetary value. It also has a
symbolic as well as economic material meaning. It can provide power and status and can be a
means to measure achievement. Economists and most managers have tended to place money high
on the scale of motivators, while behavioural scientists tend to place it low. Probably neither view
is right or wrong. But if money is to be the kind of motivator that it can and should be managers
must remember several things
First, as money, is not likely to be more important to people who have “arrived” in the sense that
their money needs are not so urgent. Money is an urgent means of achieving a minimum standard
of living, although this minimum has a way of getting higher as people become affluent.
Secondly, if money is to be effective motivator, people in various positions, even though at a
similar level, must be given salaries and bonuses that reflect their individual performance. Infact,
it appears that, unless bonuses to managers are based on a major extent of individual performance,
an enterprise is not buying much motivation with them. The way to ensure that money has
meaning as a reward for accomplishment is to base compensation as much as possible on
performance.
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