¡§Money Is the Only Thing That Really Motivates People¡¨. Discuss.
I. Introduction
Henry Fielding once said, ¡§Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil¡¨.
Money presents in so many aspects of life. It seems that almost everything can be bought, with the high value attached to money. People are very addicted to money because of the idea that if you have money, you have the success, popularity, power and acceptance. But, there is always danger in losing values such as love for sports or being a hardworking person. A good example is the current trend in sports wherein top players in football or basketball are only interested in picking up their paycheques more than genuinely loving sports and achieving success in terms of being the best athletes they could be (Money is not the motivation 2004). There are nagging thoughts of what the real motivation is for entering a venture as the importance of money is becoming more and more hard-hitting these days.
As the quotation above says, is money society¡¦s new god? If so, can other values such as freedom, love, achievement or even motivation also be bought? This is precisely the topic of the paper. All of these things can be pointed back to money and see how people treat it today. Besides discussing the real functions of money, this paper will also attempt to answer not just the questions above but also investigate whether money is the only thing that really motivates people today.
II. Money as Motivation
¡§Motivation¡¨ derives from the Latin verb ¡§movere¡¨ which means ¡§to move¡¨. Beck (2004, p.3) defined Motivation as an internal state which is the driving force that activates behaviour or gives directions to thoughts, feelings and actions of an organism.
The accumulation of wealth has become an important facet of society because of the increasing materialistic ideology spreading in the world. In addition, there is a growing concern for people to move upwards in society through earning or making more money.
It is undeniable fact that people are bowing to the demands of
Henry Fielding once said, ¡§Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil¡¨.
Money presents in so many aspects of life. It seems that almost everything can be bought, with the high value attached to money. People are very addicted to money because of the idea that if you have money, you have the success, popularity, power and acceptance. But, there is always danger in losing values such as love for sports or being a hardworking person. A good example is the current trend in sports wherein top players in football or basketball are only interested in picking up their paycheques more than genuinely loving sports and achieving success in terms of being the best athletes they could be (Money is not the motivation 2004). There are nagging thoughts of what the real motivation is for entering a venture as the importance of money is becoming more and more hard-hitting these days.
As the quotation above says, is money society¡¦s new god? If so, can other values such as freedom, love, achievement or even motivation also be bought? This is precisely the topic of the paper. All of these things can be pointed back to money and see how people treat it today. Besides discussing the real functions of money, this paper will also attempt to answer not just the questions above but also investigate whether money is the only thing that really motivates people today.
II. Money as Motivation
¡§Motivation¡¨ derives from the Latin verb ¡§movere¡¨ which means ¡§to move¡¨. Beck (2004, p.3) defined Motivation as an internal state which is the driving force that activates behaviour or gives directions to thoughts, feelings and actions of an organism.
The accumulation of wealth has become an important facet of society because of the increasing materialistic ideology spreading in the world. In addition, there is a growing concern for people to move upwards in society through earning or making more money.
It is undeniable fact that people are bowing to the demands of
References: Bartol, K. Tein, M. Matthews, G. and Martin, D. 2005, Management, 4th edn, McGraw-Hill Australia. Beck, R.C. 2004, Motivation Theories and Principles, 5th edn, Pearson Education, Inc., New Jersey. Bishop, J. 2004, ¡¥Money and motivation¡¦, Education Next, Winter 2004, viewed 31 August 2005, . Gellerman, S.W. 1968, Management by motivation, American Management Association, New York. Henry Fielding, Quotation Details, The Quotation Page, viewed 2 September 2005, . Pinder, C. 1984, The Scott, Foresman Series in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources: Work Motivation, Theory, Issues, and Applications, Scott, Foresman and Company, USA. Ventura, M. 1995, ¡¥The psychology of money¡¦, Psychology Today, March-April 1995, vol. 28, viewed 10 September 2005, .