Study suggests cash might not be the best way to achieve employee motivation

Aug 16, 2022

New Delhi, Aug 16 (ANI): The findings of a new study suggest that tangible rewards motivate employees when they're easy to use, pleasurable, unexpected, and distinct from salary. The study was recently published in the journal Accounting, Organizations, and Society. A recent survey of firms in the United States revealed that 84 per cent spent more than USD 90 billion annually on tangible employee rewards, such as gift cards, recreation trips and merchandise in hopes of increasing productivity. “We found that there is, at best, mixed evidence regarding the motivational efficacy of tangible rewards versus cash rewards,” said Adam Presslee, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo's School of Accounting and Finance. “It is somewhat puzzling why so many companies go to the trouble of tangible rewards when cash rewards also lead to motivational differences.” Presslee and his co-author, University of Wisconsin-Madison's Willie Choi, used four experiments to investigate the factors driving the preference between cash and tangible rewards. The researchers recommend managers interested in motivating employees using tangible rewards would be best served to offer tangible rewards that incorporate these four attributes.