Would a Pay-for-Performance Scheme Increase Students’ Motivation to Perform Well on a Certain Course?

Students performance needs to be improved. It is proposing that students who achieve a mark of 70% or higher on the first essay should receive a cash payment of £50, and that students who achieve a mark of 70% or higher on the exam should receive a cash payment of £100.

Is this pay-for-performance scheme likely to increase students’ motivation to perform well on the course?

The question of whether pay-for-performance schemes are successful is complex as it is entirely dependent on the context in which it is applied.   In terms of this particular case, it is important to appreciate the difficulty in transferring the theory of pay-for-performance from a work place to an educational environment.   This essay will assess whether a pay for performance scheme is likely to increase performance in a university environment on the ID200 course. In order to determine whether the result would be likely to be successful or not, the arguments both for and against will be considered.   Ultimately, this essay will argue that the pay-for-performance scheme is more likely than not to be successful.   However, due to the fact that ... is such a multidimensional organization it is difficult to achieve an explicit answer.

Firstly it is important to consider the ways in which the pay-for-performance scheme may increase motivation. In order to demonstrate how this may occur it is necessary to consider how students may be motivated at a basic level by money. As the scholar Maslow states, with regards to his hierarchy of needs[1] individuals pursue and strive to satisfy five needs starting with the extrinsic basic physiological and safety factors and progressing to the higher intrinsic growth factors of social, esteem and self-actualization. This argument demonstrates that a relationship exists between the fact humans require the extrinsic factor of money to satisfy their lower level needs and money as a motivational agent. However, the theory is limiting as it argues the relevance of...