It is an example of argumentative essay

1. ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY SAMPLE
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2. Money is a motivator at work…
Introduction: The word “motivation” in this essay will be used in order to
indicate the interests, desires and internal readiness of a worker to apply certain
efforts, take necessary steps to satisfy the career needs that are significant for
him. If there had been an opportunity to ask the company leaders, owners of
different companies, HR-managers or specialists what kind of employees they
want to have in their companies, the answer would have been unambiguous. All
of them would be unanimous about such qualities as the ability to think and act
independently, the ability to show personal initiative, take reasonable risks and
ability to take responsibility for actions, professionalism, be picky to the quality
of personal work and many other qualities. The question how motivated an
employee should be to correspond to this list of qualities-demands and is
money an effective motivator at work to make each of them to become an
“outstanding” employee. How does a company find itself in a situation when a
worker that has been chosen exactly by the company authorities starts being
lazy and his work turns into a “satisfactory” one? Any malfunctions during the
process of employee-selection? Could be. But what about the skill that the
majority of the company leaders are proud of – the skill to chose only those with
an “eyes blazing”? It goes without saying that money is an “engine” of
everything but sometimes it may not be enough to keep this “blaze”
in the eyes of an employee.

3. Managers apply a lot of effort to make the working places of their
companies look attractive for professional and skillful employees.
It is not enough just to pay the salary now! Money nowadays is
not a factor that can make the employee work at his full both at
work and even continue working at home. It is simple as that – if
a person works in a company only because of money, or is other
words is money-motivated, he can be easily “purchased” by a
rival. No existing company is interested in letting a valuable
employee to work for another company, because it can inflict a
considerable damage to the companies. So this is the primary
reason why employers should understand that a only money-
motivated employee is a potential “vermin” of the company.
Money by itself is obviously not a sufficient motivator at work. An
employee working for money only will leave work at the very
minute of its end and never do anything above his “duty
regulations”. He will never work with the company but always for
it. And therefore will not see the difference between working for
this or that company because it will be only the matter of the
salary-issue. This is the point when the authorities of any
company think with tension about the motivation of their
personnel. As the matter of fact the majority of contemporary
employees search other benefits from work, except their wages.

4. It is possible to identify four main motivational-factors. In the first place it is the
“compensational plan” which is the collection of material goods, which are given
by the company to the employee. The word compensation is the most
appropriate because in exchange for these material goods, the employer expects
honest labor, time and many other things from the worker. The mentioned
above “material goods” provided by the employer includes salaries, bonuses,
extra-pays and other financial encouragements. So as it may be understood
from the very beginning – money is only one the four major motivational factors
and therefore has a ¼ impact on the motivation of the employee. The next
factor that keeps the personnel motivated is the condition of their labor. To
make a long story short, it goes about making the working place comfortable for
the worker and making the atmosphere well disposed. The third factor
influencing motivation is the possibility to achieve self-actualization, to go in for
a favorite occupation, the possibility to grow personally and professionally.
These possibilities ordinarily result from the investments that the company
makes into its personnel, or in other words the material and other embeddings
into the development of the competency and loyalty of the employees. And the
fourth factor is the literal behavior of the company’s management of all levels,
promoting professional inspiration, conscious and productive work of the
personnel. All these factors are guarantors of the protections of the company’s
interests, represented through the employees of the company. So the main
question remains the same – how much an employee should be paid in order to
make him reveal his whole professional potential? In order to analyze the
capability of money as a motivator at work it is very important to understand the
existing general system of payments or in other words the existing way of the
“compensation plan”.

5. The longing for finding a compromise between the
interest of the company and the interests of the
employees should imply the principle of simplicity
and transparency. This means, that the personal of the
company has to have a clear “picture” of the system of
payment of the company, in other words to know what
actions and result should be financially encouraged
and what – not. So, basically saying – money can be a
good motivator if this system is clearly set and
understandable to the employee. If the model of
payment is too complicated, in this case it confuses
both the employer and the employee, and becomes the
reason of misunderstandings between them.
Complicated schemes do not stimulate, but truly
confuse the personnel. Each employee should feel that
he is very important for the company, even if his work
belong to the undermost category. These are the
conditions that do make money a good motivator, but
it is important to remember that it is not the only
necessary motivator that will bring results at work.

6. If the leaders of the company fail to combine all the listed above
factors, they turn to the easiest and quickest, but the most
unproductive way of motivation – money motivation. It may be in
some way compared to negative reinforcement – brings results
immediately, but in the long run causes a lot of trouble. According to
Jim Clemmer, only weak leaders use money as a motivator [3]1.
Basically saying is an employer does not want to invest into the
employees in the long run and is interested in the instant, short-live
result – than he may be called a weak leader focused on money as a
motivator. When it comes to the motivation of the employees it is very
important to understand the difference between a stimulus and a
motive. Everything is rather easy. A stimulus – is an external impetus
to any activity and a motive- is an internal one. So for instance, the
salary – is a stimulus, but the desire to achieve a certain level of
professionalism is a motive. The level of motivation strongly depends
on the managers of the company. The level of motivation for every
company is the statistical feature, defining in what degree the given
motive is capable of influencing the respondent’s choice either to do
or not to do the given work. “…But the big problem is that managers
have consistently listed money as the number one factor that they
think motivates people. So they keep fiddling with pay, bonus, and
financial incentives in a futile attempt to find the elusive combination
that will motivate people to higher performance” – the words of the
Clemmer’s article completely reveal the true situation concerning to
question “money as a motivator”.

7. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has already become legendary. The
Journal of Extension has applied this hierarchy to the sphere of
employment2. According to Maslow’s theory and the possible critical
analysis what can be made on its basis of the problem of money as a
motivator leads to the understanding that a worker will never reveal
his full potential only because of the monetary motivation. There is a
time in the life of every employee when motivation through money
plays an extremely important part in his or her lives. The maximum
level of the money-motivation is the age of 24-27 years and at the
very end of the professional career or in other words the pre-
retirement time. This happen due to the fact that in the beginning of
the career a person strives to become independent financially. And
during the pre-retirement age a person wants to provide a financially
independent retirement. The most vital part of the information given
above is that these two ages are the most sensitive periods, when
money can be a sufficient motivator. So money as a motivator is
productive only for a short period of time and the money-motive
cannot move the person onward constantly. It should be never
forgotten, that thought money are vital in the contemporary world
they are no the only thing that matters to people, especially when it
comes to their career and such things as recognition are much
valuable for each given employee in particular.

8. Conclusion. Money is definitely now a good and certainly not the
only motivator that should be used at work. A number of
misunderstandings occur when it is considered as the only motivator,
because the individual peculiarities of each employee are not taken
into account. In order to take into account the individual
peculiarities of the personnel, add flexibility and controllability to the
system of money-based motivation it is necessary to constantly
provide additions to the salaries, but these additions should be clear
and for certain reasons that the employee need to know. So the most
important is that the system of motivation needs to be absolutely
transparent and understandable for the employees and it has to react
at the changes in the external and the internal situation of the
company.
Sometimes the authorities of the company need to think first before
paying an employee because may be it is the time for a “thank your o
for your outstanding work” letter. Money is not an effective
motivator, because it cannot make the employee works at his full.
There different types of employees. Some of them need power, some
need authority, others prefer money, and another type will choose
stability and many other preferences. And what is really important to
remember that no money will change this needs and money by itself
is not sufficient to make the person successful in his career.