Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Over 100 years of organizational research has been devoted to the study of employee performance. Although theoretical models of performance have argued that employees require motivation, ability, and opportunity to perform at work, this research has primarily viewed money as a motivational lever with less attention offered to its impact on the latter dimensions. Across three essays, this dissertation expands this literature by developing and testing theory regarding how a person’s financial standing can spill over into their performance ability and opportunity. Essay 1 discusses the conventional approach to the role of money in employee performance and proposes moving from conceptualizing money in terms of compensation and incentives to employees’ financial standing as a means of departing from the primary treatment of money as a motivator. This discussion is followed by the development of two conceptual models that explain the mechanisms underlying a relationship between employees’ financial standing and their ability and opportunity to perform at work. Essay 2 examines the hypotheses regarding the impact of personal finances on performance ability using a field study and a laboratory experiment. Essay 3 investigates the hypotheses related to the impact of financial standing on the selection for performance opportunities in a series of four vignette experiments. Overall, my dissertation offers a novel perspective on the role of money in work behavior with important implications for organizational theory, managerial practice, and public policy.
Author: Jirs Meuris
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2901272786