Study: Power Of Money Is Limited In Workplace

BOSTON (CBS) - Money talks, but can it motivate your boss? WBZ business reporter Jeff Brown finds the power of dollar bills are limited in the workplace.

You know the saying, "money can't buy you happiness" and according to a new study at work it also applies to the boss.

"It's not just the compensation package, they need to make sure managers have fulfilling work," says Professor Laura Graves at Worcester's Clark University.

Researchers there and at the Center for Creative Leadership say a happy boss usually means happy workers and money alone as motivation does not get you to the sweet spot.

"We usually think of people as either being motivated from outside or inside," Graves says, "but the reality is we all have a mix of this external and internal motivation including most managers."

External motivators - money- and internal motivators - the ability to find purpose and joy in one's work, are both essential.

Money alone is not even half the battle.

"Just having the external motivation, people might be OK but they're not going to be truly satisfied and they're going to be likely to leave the company," Graves says.

And it really starts from the corner office and trickles down. It's more than bonuses, stock options and salary.

Organizations need to think about what's driving their managers.

And research shows, workers pick up on the mood and happiness of the boss.

"When one person is unhappy, you could end up with a work group that's unhappy. And that does spread."

And happiness produces a company culture and reputation.

"The key pieces of having managers or employees have this, possess this really good internal motivation is supportive bosses," Graves says.

Another way to produce happy bosses and workers? Knock off the office politics.

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