On the application of incentive theory in enterprise management Abstract: Incentive theory is an indispensable branch of contemporary management and plays an important guiding role in management practice. This paper introduces several typical incentive theories, and probes into their enlightenment to enterprise management. Finally, it summarizes three commonly used incentive methods in enterprise management. Keywords: motivation; Incentive theory; Incentive mode 1, incentive theory The root causes of incentives can be divided into internal and external causes. The internal cause is composed of people's cognitive knowledge, and the external cause is the environment in which people live. In order to guide people's behavior to achieve the purpose of motivation, managers can create conditions to promote the satisfaction of these needs on the basis of understanding people's needs, and can also change the personal action environment by taking measures. Demand and people's intrinsic motivation and environmental stimulation. A variety of specific incentive theories have been formed, which can be generally divided into incentive demand theory and incentive process theory. 1. 1 Need Theory of Motivation (1) Need Hierarchy Theory. Maslow published the book Theory of Human Motivation in 1943, and put forward the famous hierarchy of needs theory. He believes that people have five levels of needs: physiological needs, security needs, social needs, belonging needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. These five levels are gradually formed and reached from low to high. Physiological needs and security needs are called lower-level needs, while social needs, home needs, respect needs and self-realization needs are called higher-level needs. (2) Two-factor theory. The two-factor theory was put forward by American behavioral scientist Herzberg. In the late 1950s, Herzberg and his assistant visited 200 engineers and accountants in Pittsburgh, USA. The interview mainly focuses on two questions: what are the things that satisfy you at work and how long this positive emotion will last; What are the things that make them dissatisfied? Estimate how long this negative emotion will last. Based on the answers to these questions, Herzberg set out to study what makes people feel happy and satisfied at work, and what causes unhappiness and dissatisfaction. As a result, he found that what satisfied employees belonged to the work itself or the work content; What makes employees dissatisfied is the working environment or working relationship. He called the former an incentive factor and the latter a health care factor. Health factors are related to working conditions and working environment, including company policies and management, supervision, salary, colleague relationship, working environment, interpersonal factors and so on. Incentive factors refer to factors suitable for personal psychological growth, including achievement, appreciation, work itself, sense of responsibility, self-motivation and so on. Research shows that not all needs can stimulate people's enthusiasm, and only those needs called incentive factors can stimulate people's enthusiasm when they are met. Lack of health care factors will bring strong dissatisfaction, but when health care factors are met, they will not bring strong incentives. 2.2 process theory of motivation (1) fairness theory. The theory of fairness was put forward by American psychologist Adams. The basic content of fairness theory includes three aspects: ① Fairness is the motivation of motivation. According to the fairness theory, whether people can be motivated depends not only on what they get, but also on whether what they get is fair with what others get. ② Model of fairness theory (i.e. equation): In the formula of Qp/IP-QO/IO, Qp represents a person's feelings about his reward. Ip represents a person's feelings about what he has done. Qo represents the person's feelings about the return of a comparison object. Io represents people's feelings about the input made by the comparison object. ③ Unfair psychological behavior. When people feel unfair treatment, they will feel distressed and nervous, which will lead to behavioral motivation, work efficiency decline, and even rebellious behavior. (2) Expectation theory. Frum believes that the motivation of an activity depends on the total expected value of the result he can get multiplied by the expected probability that he thinks it will be realized. It can be expressed as: M = V E, where: m-an incentive force refers to the intensity of mobilizing people's enthusiasm and stimulating people's potential. Five-target potency refers to the value of meeting personal needs after reaching the goal. Expectation refers to the probability of reaching the goal and leading to a certain result based on the subjective judgment of past experience. 2, the inspiration of incentive theory 2. 1 Incentive must consider the needs of employees According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, incentive must consider people's needs, and we will give what others need. This kind of incentive is really effective. For example, a person is starving to death, and it is useless for you to give him ten golden mountains. It is more direct and effective to give him a loaf of bread. The hierarchy of needs theory requires managers to correctly understand the hierarchy of needs of the managed; Strive to combine the means and methods of management with the needs of employees to meet the needs of the managed; While meeting the needs, we should also consider the various needs of employees and give targeted incentives. 2.2 Motivation should also pay attention to the psychological contusion caused by fairness, unfairness and indifference. There is an ancient saying in China that "people do not suffer from poverty, but suffer from inequality". In the process of motivation, we should pay attention to guiding the fairness psychology of the motivated people so that they can establish a correct concept of fairness. One is to realize that absolute fairness does not exist, and the other is not to blindly compare. In order to avoid employees' sense of injustice, enterprises often take various measures to create a fair and reasonable atmosphere within the enterprise, so that employees can feel the subjective sense of fairness. 2.3 Incentive target setting In terms of incentives, expectation theory generally encourages managers not to adopt general incentives, but to adopt the most effective incentives that most members of the organization think, and when setting an incentive target, the comprehensive value of its effectiveness should be improved as much as possible, so as to increase the effect price difference between the expected behavior and the unexpected behavior of the organization. In the process of motivation, we should properly control the expected probability and actual probability and strengthen the guidance of expected psychology. The expected probability is too high,