Finding the key to motivating employees is not a lesson easily learned, nor is it a lesson which, once learned, can be considered mastered. Instead, individual employees respond to different types of motivation in different ways, and successful supervisors develop comprehensive understanding of each of their employees and the corporate environment in which they operate. Employees in different types of jobs respond to motivation differently, as well, with those in jobs requiring a high level of independent thought likely to respond to different types of motivation than employees in highly regimented positions. This research examines types of motivation, the components that go into successfully motivating employees to meet their goals and objectives, and the specific challenges associated with motivating sales personnel.
There are a number of different approaches to work motivation, most of which can be broken down into either content theories or process theories. Content theories focus on what motivates people to perform, and are concerned with identifying the different rewards that people seek in their work. Process theories focus on how rewards control behavior. These theories are concerned with the dynamics, or process aspects, of work motivation (Gordon & DiTomaso, 1992).
One of the first attempts at developing a motivational theory focused on the principle of hedonism, which finds that people will seek pleasure and avoid pain. Advocates of this approach hold that individuals make rational choices based on a careful evaluation of costs and benefits. While hedonistic approaches are useful for describing behavior after the fact, it has proven to be vague in terms of predicting behavior, and of limited practical use.
Freud and others focused on the role of unconscious motivation for human behavior. This led to the development of the instinctual theory that was based on inborn or innate predispositions. Instinctual vi...