Drive Theory - Motivates and Rewards Employees

Drive Theory

The drive theory's key concept is that we seek to satisfy needs. According to Freud (1915) all behavior is motivated to serve the fulfillment of need (Reeve, 2001, p. 30). The motivational concept was later improved by Hull's drive theory that first allowed for prediction of motivation before it occurred. According to Reeve (2009), Clarks Hull's drive theory is based on a physiological basis and bodily needs that are the ultimate basis of motivation. This paper will examine three workplace situations drawn from personal experience that the drive theory was applicable to these situations.

Star Cards

Star cards are compliment remark cards that are made available within my organization as a way to congratulate others. They can be found next to work elevators available for anyone to pick up and fill out and drop in the star card box. Star cards recognize care and service that an employee demonstrated to those with whom they came in contact with. It's a mode to thank and recognize employees for their continued hard work, dedication and commitment to providing excellent service and demonstrating our organizations values.

Motivates and Rewards Employees

According to Garone, three key activities that motivate employee's performance are: motivation and rewarding employees, customer service, and converting information into sight (Garone, 2001). To motivate employee's drive to go above and beyond the service they provide towards one another or towards customers, my employer uses and offers cards to be filled out by others to recognize and nominate an employee on excellent service they have provided. One example is when a fellow coworker filled out a star card on for me after I covered for her while she was away on vacation for the great work I provided while she was away. This card outline how I her coworker went above and beyond taking care of her patients, providing a thorough report and exceptional documents to summaries what occurred while she was away in a report style. This star was filled out not because she had to but because she wanted to. Each star card earns the employee one gold star, which equals the value of one dollar in the hospital cafeteria and coffee shop. This reward system creates a motivational drive to promote positive employee behavior towards the organization and customer care. Also, it promotes employee participation, production and decreases employee turnover because employees are stimulated and engaged.

Organizational Phone Surveys

Customer service phone surveys drives employee motivation because it allows organizations to determine what the target costumer needs. Phone surveys allows organizations to determine what target customers want by simply asking them over the telephone, this data is then gathered and studied to determine significance and to build organizational improvement goal strategies. According to Barocas (1999) motivation usually applies to changing employee's behavior. Phone surveys allow organizations to motivate employees to exceed performance expectations by clustering target customers opinions based on their common behaviors, and knowing that targeting the wrong customers can have adverse effects on the organization. Meeting customers' basic needs or expectations does not always bring high levels of satisfaction. Exceeding expectations produces high satisfaction--therefore, phone surveys allow for organizations to determine customers' ideal desires, and to drive employee motivation.

Customer Service Drives

According to Garone (2001) customer service motivates employees performance Garone, 2001). My organization holds a customer service award contest each year. The winner of the most positively and most frequent