Question 35

P1~~~ the x question our group chose to answer is question no. 35;

Surveys that directly ask employees how important pay is to them are likely overestimate pay’s true importance in actual decisions.

After doing some relevant research our group thinks that the answer for this question is false.

P2~~~ before doing any relevant research our group made a guess on the answer of this question, our opinion is the statement is false. We think surveys that directly ask employees how important pay is to them are more likely to underestimate than overestimate pay’s true importance in actual decisions.

In other words, when people do self-assessments or similar surveys most of them tend to underestimate the importance of pay to their behaviors.

P3~~~so what is the correct answer? To answer this question we found a relevant article “the importance of pay in employee motivation: discrepancies between what people say and what they do”
In this article the author adopted some other scholars’ studies to compare what people say and what they do when they are involved in the case of pay importance.
This article shows that only 35% of the respondents in the Rynes et al. study chose the correct answer (false).

P4~~ so, in terms of pay importance what people usually say in their self-reported questionnaire?
Herzberg’s study in 1957 shows that people tended to say they are other motivation factors that are more important than pay; for example job security, interesting work and opportunity for advancement. Pay only ranked sixth in importance.
Moreover, Jurgensen’s study in 1978 also indicated the similar result.
SEE PPT

OK let’s move to how pay actually influence people in the reality? In other words how important pay is to people in the reality?

The article we found indicates that when organizations use pay as motivator the organization’s productivity can effectively increase. For example SEE PPT

so, why the majority of the respondents did not choose ‘false’ --- the right answer?