Dan Pink

In the entertaining animation The surprising truth about what motivates us Dan Pink's knowledge about our motivators is sketched. In short: money matters in simple, mechanistic assignments, but for tasks that put our cognitive skills to the test, a financial reward doesn't work and can even be counter productive. Faced with questions that are complicated and appeal to our creativity and intelligence, we perform best when we have autonomy and the opportunity to develop our skills and be of significance to others. We shouldn't have to worry about basic needs and in that sense money matters, bur more money doesn't lead to better performance.

There is also a contribution of Dan Pink on TED.