- Productivity in the workplace is affected by the level of motivation given to the employees. Employees expect to be motivated through monetary and non-monetary incentives that make them feel appreciated at the workplace. From the video ‘A motivation convention in Chicago’ mike and other people he managed to interview present different views on the use of cash and non-cash incentives in motivating the employees. Motivating employees requires giving them more than cash as a way of appreciating their jobs. This means that employees prefer appreciation and recognition of their efforts through being given non-cash tangible materials such as a medal or any tangible item bearing their name. This as one interviewee notes is a way of reminding an employee of what they had achieved, thus helping them achieve job satisfaction. Although non-cash items are the most preferred form of employee motivation, giving that cash also plays an important role in dealing with the level of employees’ dissatisfaction. The Herzberg’s two-factor theory notes that giving monetary rewards to the employees makes the employees satisfied to a particular level, but that does not mean that money makes them motivated. This similar case is evident from the video according to different people’s opinions. As seen in the case, both cash and non-cash rewards are important, and they affect organization’s productivity. This is whereby, employees expect to be paid enough salary worth of they contribute to the company and at the same time receive non-cash incentives as a means of recognition. This, as a result, leads to improvement of employee motivation thus leading to increased work productivity at the workplace.
- Looking at the executive compensation in the US, it is evident that the executive compensation plan is way out of hand as the companies are using a lot in rewarding the CEOs and top executives. The general reason that organizations give a higher package to the executives is mainly to motivate them to do better in moving a company to the set strategic goals or discourage them from moving to the competitors with better pays. However, as Fisman in the article ‘The real reason CEO compensation got out of hand” notes, this trend is exaggerated and as a matter of fact, executives focus on the short-term outcomes as a way of letting the stakeholders feel that they are doing a recommendable job. As seen in some cases, some organizations highest paid executives such as Citigroup ends up incurring losses despite of the efforts to motivate the CEO into achieving a set target. As a way of correcting this trend, organizations should focus more on compensating the CEOs on the basis of performance and merits.
- Reasonable pay is essential when it comes to reducing the level of dissatisfaction at the workplace. This is because every employee expects to be given a satisfactory pay for the work done and to ensure that the employees would not be tempted to move to other organizations with a better pay. However, pay alone does not contribute to job satisfaction as other factors such as favorable working conditions and employee rewards and recognition plays a more important role in achieving job satisfaction. However, this is not constant the level of skills and competence improves through learning and experience whereby, higher pay could be favorable in regard to the higher credentials.
References
Fisman, R. (2009). The real reason CEO compensation got out of hand. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/2009/05/comparison_shopping.html
Grifith, R & Hom, P. (2004). Innovative Theory and Empirical Research on Employee Turnover. Charlotte: IAP.
