Is money the key motivating factor in driving employee performance?

A good question and thank you for the invitation,

While the prime reason for undertaking a job is earning a suitable livelihood , money may not be the key factor for driving employee performance. Employee performance may depend on many other factors such as: working environment and working conditions, job security, employees position with respect to the authority and responsibility in the overall organizational hierarchical , job progression, employee's own skills vs. scope of his job, performance recognition whether monetary or not, training and development, employees relations with his superiors and subordinates etc etc. Since each employee has unique behavioral traits the performance may therefore, differ among similarly paid employees working in similar job conditions.

Money is part of the motivation, but there are two main factors, namely training and development and work environment that serve largely in the completion of work and be significantly greater productivity

Yes indeed! Why people work in the first place? To get basic needs satisfied, and this is attainable through money.

its the base , if you really seek the key factors of motivation and relationship with the performance i highly recommend to study maslow pyramid needs which summarize that they motivation factors changes according to the need which move from level to other , for example if employees have low salary then money will be big motivator but for whom have very good salary or package may other motivate them like power , recognition , learning etc....

Tons of data and research is available that money is not a primary factor which motivates employees. Yes, it  is one of important factor and we do plan our polices and incentives to keep engage employee but their are other non-financial factors also.

Money can be one of the key factors but not the only one.

Of course! We cannot ignore the impact of performance driven incentive schemes on people motivation to achieve better results, especially in a region predominated by expats as Gulf region. From the other hand; motivation and performance is not limited to money, but also succession planning and organization culture play a significant role in enhancing performance through motivation.   

It is no doubt that money CAN drive performance.  It always feels good that at the end of every month, you have a bank account that shows the fruits of your labor.  However taking into consideration the part where you have WORK for the money brings out the question "HOW?"  

The answer to that is motivation... A factor that comes from within... it is a decision to perform or go home... money can be a source of inspiration that will tell you "I am inspired" ... but other factors come into play as well... environment, time constraints, religious beliefs and other factors...

If I would ask you now, why did you leave your job? or why do you stay?  you'd probably tell me  different answer...

It purely depends upon the employee's perception about his life,career and ambition.

For sure money is a motivator but only to a point (e.g. in USA money will remain a motivator till the employee salary reaches the amount of3500.00 dollars) after reaching this points other benefits will be the motivator.