The impact of pay on productivity and motivation on general workers in South African platinum mines

Abstract

Pay is the main concern of employers, as it affects motivation and productivity. How well the firm motivates its workers is important in achieving the firm s set goals since motivation increases productivity. Motivated workers help make the company profitable. Pay is a powerful motivator for general workers, and no other motivation or motivational techniques is better than money. General workers performance is driven by the motivation to exert more effort in their job. South African companies are performing poorly in investigating and implementing motivational strategies that will drive productivity and very small number of studies has been carried out in labour intensive industries, such as the mining industry. The aim of this research was to understand if pay does have an impact on general workers motivation and productivity. The result of this study will help South African platinum mine managers to understand what motivates general workers and can also be used by other firms in the mining industry to put together pay strategy that will motivate general workers to be more productive. In line with qualitative research methodological principles, this study followed a non-empirical exploratory and adopted phenomenological approach in order to understand the impact of pay as a motivator for general workers. A total of 29 semi-structured interviews were held with general workers. Participants were selected from general workers that were working for the three biggest platinum mines in South Africa. These general workers were doing work that was linked with production. Permission for general workers to participate in the study was requested before commencing with the interviews and the participants were guaranteed confidentiality. The finding of this study revealed that pay was an important and main motivator for general workers in South African platinum mine and it drives workers to be more productive. General workers will work hard if they are happy with their pay and if pay is increased regularly. The study proved that there is definitely a link between motivation and productivity. When general workers are motivated, they will work hard to achieve a set target. Good supervision and good relationships between general workers and their supervisors was found to be a second motivator for general workers.