Supporting the Salesman II: Motivation and Compensation

Abstract

Any job will give rise to expectations: for the employer and the employee. The former will use various methods to motivate an employee in order to ensure that its expectations are met. The employee will also be keen to make sure that any system of motivation adequately accommodates his or her own expectations of the job in question. It is to the advantage of both employer and employee to see that these expectations do not diverge too drastically. There will be various control systems in operation to prevent this from happening — recruitment procedures, for example, endeavour to employ those whose job expectations will harmonise most readily with organisational expectations. Motivation schemes will also seek similar goals but they have a tendency for mainly administrative reasons to align themselves with group rather than individual expectations: what type of package will prove sufficiently attractive to act as an incentive for a particular group of workers with similar qualifications and experience. What can they reasonably and fairly expect from their employer? When the salesforce is considered, designing and controlling an appropriate motivational system for what is basically an individualistic group, working alone for most of the time and regarded as low-status within the organisation, will pose an acute problem.