The Incentive Theory of Motivation

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The Incentive Theory of Motivation involves giving workers praise and rewards for any work done, not merely for completing a task. For example, if I gave you a candy bar for every sentence you wrote in this post, it would spur your motivation to write more sentences. This theory is widely used in management and administration. This theory was developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in 1911 and does not work well if individuals are not competitive. This can lead to low morale among workers and can potentially cause high turnover rates, which is the exact opposite of what employers are trying to achieve via this theory.

Even though incentive theories are widely used in management and administration to motivate workers, there are some who argue that these theories could be potentially dangerous as they can create unrealistic expectations that employees cannot meet which lead to employee dissatisfaction with their work place or job (Chopra, 2019). For example, if an employee thinks they will be promoted to a higher position, they may feel obligated to work additional hours because they do not want to disappoint the employer. This can lead to poor quality work and ultimately can be dangerous if an emergency arises.

Although these theories may seem unfair the extent of which employees are motivated by this theory depends on their position within the company and in general each worker receives an individual reward that is proportional to their performance level. By giving an incentive for every task completed, managers can try to encourage higher performance from their staff. Although these theories are widely used in management and administration as a method of motivation there are disadvantages as well as advantages. One of the major disadvantages is the inability to motivate employees who require “job enrichment”, which is best explained as providing opportunities for workers to expand their job responsibilities (Lazear, 2018). This theory may also be ineffective depending on the employee’s position within a company. For example, an employee working in an administrative position will not be motivated by this theory as much as someone working in a managerial position.

References

Chopra, K. (2019). Indian shopper motivation to use artificial intelligence: Generating Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation using grounded theory approach. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.

Lazear, E. P. (2018). Compensation and incentives in the workplace. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(3), 195-214.