In the field of human resources and compensation, incentives are specific rewards that are offered contingent on the achievement of some predetermined level of performance or the performance of some specific type of behavior viewed as desirable by the organization. It could be argued that the earliest systems of exchange between organizations and individuals were primarily incentive based (i.e., piece rate systems in which individuals were paid a fixed rate for producing a set number of units). However, with the introduction of scientific management around the beginning of the 1900s, organizations moved to paying a fixed base wage or fixed annual salary. For most jobs, with the exception of sales and some lower level jobs, monetary incentives played a secondary role as a type of ...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles