Assignment Sample on ENGL1150 English for Master Preparation
Introduction
Individuals working in an organisation receive salaries and wages for their contribution to the organisation. Hence, employees get paid for their performance that allows a company to maintain its position and competitiveness in the market. However, it is essential for employees in an organisation to have a certain level of motivation so that their performance in the company adds to the productivity of the overall workforce. Hence to motivate employees’ companies often promote them based on their performance. The following essay aims to identify how higher salaries being paid to employees acts as a more effective tool of motivation compared to incentives.
The thesis statement of the study is, ‘higher salaries can motivate employees more effectively compared to incentives.
Discussion
Salary is referred to as the payment which the employees of an organisation receive from an employer on a monthly basis. Salary plays a significantly potential role in motivating the employees in carrying forward the success of an organisation. However, there are other forms of payments such as weekly payments which are referred to as weekly wage payments (Asaari et al. 2019). In this system, the workers are paid on a weekly basis for every task assigned to them. The level of motivation which the employees receive in the wage system is comparatively lower than that of the salary. In the weekly payment of wages, workers have an idea regarding the absence of job security present in the job for them and they will be paid only for that specific week which they are working for. However, in the salary system of the companies, the workers have job security as well as they can rely on it for executing other life decisions which cannot be done without monetary assistance (Razak et al. 2018). One other form of payment is a stipend which is provided to the worker either on a fortnightly basis or as per the specific time period mentioned by the organisation. However, it can be said that only in the salary system, workers are highly motivated as that source of income becomes the point of dependence for the employee regarding performing other decisions of life as well as provides a sense of belonging towards the company which triggers the enthusiasm of working joyfully while providing their best. Salary can be a source of classifying an employee within an organisation.
In different organisations, there are different slabs of salary through which employees classify themselves. The lowest slab implies that an employee is new to that organisation or rather in that industry and just being hired with the lowest slab of salary in the learning phase (Hitka et al. 2019). Whereas, the highest slab defines the higher officials of the company with extensive experiences in that particular field of job and has been working for quite an extended period of time. These systems of slabs assist an employee in identifying themselves in the categories they belong to presently and further motivate them to learn and work harder for achieving the higher slabs. Performance of the employees is the key to progress through the ranks which are motivated to achieve by the extensive motivations conveyed by the leaders of the organisation. In case an employee from a group of employees belonging to the same slab progresses to the higher slab, works as a motivating factor for the other employees in order to perform well and achieve a higher salary. Furthermore, the motivation is intrigued further by different leadership and human resource management skills (Vlacsekova and Mura, 2017). Organisations have adopted appraisal and review systems which help the companies as well as the employees to analyse and evaluate the performances every six months or a year. Furthermore, it helps the employees to showcase their best in that time span in order to get an increase in the salary. Without the presence of the appraisal and review systems, there would have been no scope for the employees to perform well and get a hike in the salary. However as per De Kock et al. (2020, p.17) “in performance appraisal “accuracy” might not always be the primary objective of supervisors”. Incentives are provided alongside the salary in order to motivate the employees to work more and perform well.
Incentives are often referred to as the extra payment provided to the employees apart from the salary in order to increase their motivation to work for extra hours and others. Different organizations have different systems for paying incentives to their respective employees. Incentives do not have any fixed amount which the employees can rely on every month like salary (French et al. 2017). There are several types of incentives which the organisations provide to their employees ranging from financial, profit sharing, bonus, dearness allowance, better performance, commission to non-financial incentives. However, there is no alternative for salary as the incentives are solely dependent upon the extra efforts that the employees put into the organisations. Motivation in the case of providing incentives can be triggered to some extent whereas salary plays the most important role in motivating an employee. The reason for such difference is due to the factor of no fixed amount in the part of incentives as it varies from time to time. However, in the case of salary, it is fixed and can be easily relied on (Duricek and Cynarski, 2017). The role of incentives is significantly lower than salary in regards to motivating employees. With better performances, an increment in salary motivates far more than just incentives which are not even fixed as salary. However, there are certain ways and to a certain extent, incentives can be used in order to motivate employees.
Since incentives evoke hope and motivation for better work, a decent amount of incentive is a major factor for sustaining a good workforce. Employees can be motivated in two major ways, creating a provision for monetary incentives and non-monetary incentives (Alcover et al. 2020). Monetary incentives fulfil several social and materialistic needs of an employee. It also assures secured job expectations and increases the satisfaction level of the employees even further (Ali and Anwar, 2021). Therefore, a good bonus plan or incentive scheme is often initiated to keep the workers motivated. However, the non-financial incentives are intended to evoke psychological motivation. Ensuring job security is an essential source of motivation for an employee. Besides, proper assessment of work, praise and recognition of an employee’s position in the company is another aspect that creates a major motivational ground for the workers. Thereby, rewards and recognition programs are introduced occasionally. Moreover, employee feedback is also another important notion to consider as feedback reveals the requirement for upgradation or modification of the work environment. As per Johennesse and Chou, (2017, p.50), “appraisal and feedback processes include the review and assessment of employees’ task performance, to enable career development decisions”. Lastly, promotional opportunities offer scope for professional and individual growth which is a significant tool to inspire an employee to feel complacent and well contented. Therefore, job enrichment enterprises play a vital role in motivating the employees as it offers greater responsibilities and designations. A sense of responsibility evokes self-worth or self-importance which is also a key stimulus to induce in order to run a successful organization.
Therefore, based on the comparison of incentives and salary it can be stated that incentives that are provided to employees working in an organisation have several variations and conditions which employees need to fulfil in order to achieve them. While on the other hand salaries are fixed and, in most cases, there are no variations in salaries and employees only progress through the ranks to achieve better salaries (George and Rhodes, 2017). Only in cases where employees are demoted from their position can there be a cut in an employee’s salary, however, this also occurs as a result of poor performance and lack of motivation. Therefore, salaries that are provided to employees act as a constant source of motivation and a hike in salary can be identified as one of the factors that can generate a higher degree. A hike in salaries can also act as a source of motivation for other employees working in the same position. While on the other hand incentives are dependent upon an employee’s performance. Moreover, in many cases, employees need to work beyond the stipulated period of time in order to achieve a certain proportion of incentive and this reduces their work-life balance and can act as a motivating factor (Xu and Fei, 2019). Therefore, the psychological aspect linked with incentives can sometimes act as a motivating factor for employees where they need to work beyond their usual workload. While on the other hand that the salary that individuals receive do not have such variations and employees only need to work as much as mentioned in their contract.
Conclusion
The discussions in the above study reflect a brief comparison and critical evaluation of salary and incentives from various perspectives. The above discussion has identified how a higher salary provided to employees in an organisation can act as a motivating factor while at the same time comparing how incentives can also act as a motivating factor. Nonetheless based on the findings it has been seen that a higher salary can motivate employees to a higher degree compared to incentives which are generally provided to employees if a certain condition is fulfilled by them which is beyond their stipulated work.
Therefore, the thesis statement has been proved which states ‘A higher salary can motivate employees more effectively compared to incentives.
Reference
Alcover, C.M., Chambel, M.J. and Estreder, Y., 2020. Monetary incentives, motivational orientation and affective commitment in contact centers. A multilevel mediation model. Journal of Economic Psychology, 81, p.102307.
Ali, B.J. and Anwar, G., 2021. An Empirical Study of Employees’ Motivation and its Influence Job Satisfaction. Ali, BJ, & Anwar, G.(2021). An Empirical Study of Employees’ Motivation and its Influence Job Satisfaction. International Journal of Engineering, Business and Management, 5(2), pp.21-30.
Asaari, M.H.A.H., Desa, N.M. and Subramaniam, L., 2019. Influence of salary, promotion, and recognition toward work motivation among government trade agency employees. International Journal of Business and Management, 14(4), pp.48-59.
De Kock, F.S., Lievens, F. and Born, M.P., 2020. The profile of the ‘Good Judge’in HRM: A systematic review and agenda for future research. Human Resource Management Review, 30(2), p.100667.
Duricek, M. and Cynarski, W.J., 2017. Motivational incentives of allround entertainers and types of psychical processes of participants during animation programmes. Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, 17(1), pp.9-14.
French, S.A., Rydell, S.A., Mitchell, N.R., Michael Oakes, J., Elbel, B. and Harnack, L., 2017. Financial incentives and purchase restrictions in a food benefit program affect the types of foods and beverages purchased: results from a randomized trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), pp.1-10.
George, G. and Rhodes, B., 2017. Is there a financial incentive to immigrate? Examining of the health worker salary gap between India and popular destination countries. Human resources for health, 15(1), pp.1-10.
Hitka, M., Rózsa, Z., Potkány, M. and Ližbetinová, L., 2019. Factors forming employee motivation influenced by regional and age-related differences. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 20(4), pp.674-693.
Johennesse, L.A.C. and Chou, T.K., 2017. Employee Perceptions of Talent Management Effectiveness on Retention. Global Business & Management Research, 9(3).
Razak, A., Sarpan, S. and Ramlan, R., 2018. Effect of leadership style, motivation and work discipline on employee performance in PT. ABC Makassar. International Review of Management and Marketing, 8(6), p.67.
Vlacsekova, D. and Mura, L., 2017. Effect of motivational tools on employee satisfaction in small and medium enterprises. Oeconomia Copernicana, 8(1), pp.111-130.
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