Motivation Case

Motivation is the force that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors, according to Reeve (2009). It is what causes us to take action. Motivation can be driven by a number of forces; biological, social, emotional or cognitive in nature. These factors are prevalent in all aspects of life. Several theories of motivation have come to light through intense study over the past two hundred years. Broadly speaking, the major theories of motivation include will, incentive, drive, humanistic, instinct, and arousal.

Specifically, in my personal work environment, I have observed the incentive theory of motivation to be a constant driving factor. The incentive theory, discovered by Alfred Adler around 1920-1927, suggests that people are motivated to do things because of external awards. "The incentive theory says that in fact the environment brings out behaviors. The basic concept behind the incentive theory is goals. Incentive theory explains motivations in terms of external stimuli. Psychologists have even suggested an incentive pull theory because they claim external stimuli pulls the individual towards a goal. When a goal is present, the person attempts to reach that goal and perceived reward" ("Incentive Theory", n.d.). For example, you might be motivated to go to work each day for the monetary reward of being paid.

Currently, I am employed in the auto industry. Like most sales jobs, our sales staff consists of strictly commission based employees. Our management team sets salesperson goals on a monthly and yearly basis. The goals are pertaining to the number of units sold by each employee as well as the amount of gross made on the vehicle, both front end and back end. As the incentive theory suggests, we our motivating our sales staff by means of external awards. In this particular case: money. Each salesperson's pay is structured so that an additional bonus will be retroactively received once they reach a certain number of units sold per month. For instance, the commission is twenty percent for each car up to twelve units in a given month. However, beginning at thirteen units the commission increases to twenty-five percent, retroactively. In this instance, the perceived extra incentive, should the sales person reach the thirteen units, is a huge source of motivation needed for the sales staff to continue pushing for the sale. As the salesperson begins to see themselves nearing their thirteen car goal, they become increasingly motivated. They typically start working longer hours. They devote more time to making appointments and calling potential customers. Because of the incentive program in place, their motivation and drive to sell more units before the month ends and count starts over significantly increases. In addition to salesperson incentives, the dealership, as a whole, has incentives that come from our financial corporation and automaker. These serve as extra motivation from a dealership support staff perspective, not just on the sales floor.

However, it's important to note, the incentive theory cannot be applied to every customer oriented situation at the dealership. Take for example, a customer who recently purchased a vehicle. He or she has now returned to the dealership for a minor maintenance issue after only a couple of weeks. The motivation that previously existed within the salesperson is no longer there. This is mainly due to the fact that the initial sales incentive, monetarily speaking, no longer exists with that customer. Therefore, their desire to help the customer resolve their problem has drastically decreased as opposed to the employees eagerness before. Unfortunately, this is where a dealership or company can run into situations in which the customers feel as though they are "just a number" versus a valued long term customer. In this instance, a salesperson needs to draw on his/her ethical and moral duties to ensure the customer is still feeling valued. To continue helping the customer can