Employee Incentive Plans Make Them Worthwhile.doc

原文:
Employee Incentive Plans: Make Them Worthwhile
Charles .E. Boyle
A few years back, while leading a seminar, we asked the audience to see if anyone had an employee incentive plan. One person raised his hand and proudly said: "I do. If they work hard they get to keep their jobs, that's their incentive." Although this was said with a bit of humor, behind ment is a basic truth. Employees are hired and expected to perform at least "average." So why motivate them at all?
Starting from the 1960s researchers have shown great interest in motivation. Along with research in areas such as Human Resource Management anizational Behavior employee motivation has e a fascinating research topic also for Management academics. The research focus has been placed on the motivation process of employees as well as on the rewards which individuals find motivating. Further, some research has been conducted on finding out the differences in employee motivation in different countries. The following subsections cover some major motivation theories and their applicability in different countries as well as discuss the existing cross crossnational studies on employee motivation。
Prominent motivation theorists, such as Abraham Maslow (1968), Frederick Herzberg (1966), and David McClelland (1987) explain motivation through different models. Their theories, so called content theories, are concemed with identifying factors within the individuals, which "energize, direct, and sustain behavior ''15. Process theories, such as presented by Victor Vroom (1964) concentrate on how employee behavior is initiated, redirected and halted. Such theories focus on certain psychological processes underlying actions, in particular how individuals make decisions that are related to their behavior.
Many of the motivation theories are not "patible" which means that these theories do not necessarily work in different institutional frameworks, in other words, in different countries. Most of the theories were de