Motivation

Abstract

An incentive is defined by Webster as “something that stimulates one to take action, work harder, and is encouraging and motivating.” The use of incentives in American industry goes back to the early years of the century, when Frederick Taylor developed a 1911 book called Scientific Management. In that book, he described a system in which workers were paid by piecework, receiving a given fee for each wheelbarrow of coal delivered. The steel and textile industries were early users of Taylor’s management theory. In many of these companies, the objective of the incentive system was to stabilize costs. Management could precisely predict the cost of each delivered wheelbarrow because it was predetermined in the piecework pay method.