Non-Monetary Incentives: Do People Work Only for Money?

The paper explores the problem of motivation in organizations. This problem arises because people may prefer to pursue their own interest instead of the firm’s common goals (the two underlying forces in any organization). First, the most representative economic proposals to motivate people are studied and summarized. The study leads us to the conclusion that those proposals do not mitigate the conflict of interests, because they do not make people pursue the common goals. To solve the problem, the common elements of the firm must be promoted. In order to be really “common,” those elements must be composed of “non-material” goods, which are the only perfectly shareable ones. They motivate workers by attracting their internal faculties, making the job more interesting and appealing, and providing it with a meaning. Finally, these considerations imply that a richer model of human motivation must be developed in order to reach more comprehensive conclusions.