i. People do come to work for money i.e. they have economic motives. It is unlikely that they come only for money. The reasons why people work have been studied by various writers and researchers. In several cases, assumptions about people’s behaviour have been considered as important as research evidence.
ii. In the first twenty-five years of the 20th Century, the assumptions made by owners and managers were that people come to work primarily to fulfil economic needs. Therefore pay and monetary incentives are the key to employee motivation. Examples of this concept are those of F.W. Taylor and the scientific managers.
iii. By the 1930s it was becoming evident, on the basis of research studies such as the Hawthorne experiments, that people have other needs, especially needs relating to personal relationships. In other words, while money is still an important factor, it is by no means an overriding one.
iv. Since the period following World War II, a number of theorists and research workers have concluded that people have a variety of needs at work .In particular, there is strong evidence, from the work of social scientists such as Herzberg and Likert, that people seek self-actualisation at work, i.e. they seek to realize their full potential.
v. The implications of self-actualisation are that people seek more than financial returns from work. They seek more than friendly relationships. What they are looking for are opportunities to exercise responsibility, to obtain a sense of achievement and to develop new ways of doing things.
vi. In the final analysis, people come to work for a variety of motives. Each person has his or her own set of priorities. The challenge for modern management is to be aware of these needs and to meet them in an adaptable manner.
