Reward Management And Motivation Theory

Understanding Reward Management



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February 28, 2010





Introduction
Great debate exists within the academic community and the business community regarding what makes a superior manager, how management is defined and what type of management is most successful. This paper will provide an overview of management including a brief description of the term and some analysis of the academic definitions applied to it. The project will then discuss several theories of management, focusing on reward management theory and the application thereof. Finally, this paper will attempt to analyse when reward management is most appropriate and how it should be applied in the business environment.
Understanding Management
Management can be defined as the act of organizing people together with the aim of attaining desired and predetermined goals and objectives laid down by an organization or individual. Depending on the type of management theory involved, the practice may involve planning, organizing, staffing and a myriad of other activities that are carried on a group of people with the aim of attaining a certain goal that has been predetermined. In 1916, Henri Fayol proposed a set of elements and principles which he theorized were essential to the understanding of business management. Fayol’s theories provide much of the basis for the modern understanding of management. Thus, to understand management one must first look at Fayol’s theories.
Looking to the management theories of Henri Fayol as a base of more modern management theories can explain the primary operations of most forms of strategic management. Both Fayol’s five elements of management and his 14 principles of management play a major role in the development of management theory. Most modern theories of systemic management are derived from Fayol’s theories and the form the basis for nearly all the management theory textbooks in print (Carroll and Gillen 1987).
Henri Fayol’s was an engineer with a mining company at the turn of the 20th century who rose to the position of managing director of the French mining company Commentry-Fourchamboult-Decazeville (Marino 2009). During his tenure with the company, especially while a part of senior management, Fayol wrote a series of articles and then a book outlining what he perceived as the 14 principles of management and the five elements of management. Though the names of these elements have been updated through the years, they formed the basis for the development of most management theories in use today. The five elements of management as described by Fayol are planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling.
Fayol defined planning as the examination of the future and the drawing up of a plan of action or a strategy to cope with future events (Marino 2009). Over time, his definition of planning has been expanded to “drawing up plans of actions that combine unity, continuity, flexibility and precision given the organisation's resources, type and significance of work and future trends. Creating a plan of action is the most difficult of the five tasks and requires the active participation of the entire organisation.” (Weisner 2005)
To understand the importance of planning, one need only examine the concept of disaster preparedness, a vital part of emergency medical services. “[D]isaster preparedness is designed to predict – and where possible – prevent disasters, mitigate their impact on vulnerable populations, and respond to and effectively cope with their consequences” (Smith 2006). The entire concept of disaster preparedness is built primarily on Fayol’s first element – planning. The concept of what specifically needs to be planned for evolves over the years and is often spurred by a specific event. For example, the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. “Throughout history, certain major events or disasters have served as “focusing events”, leading to the development of new legislation, policy, planning, and practices” (Smith, 2006). Fayol understood that planning was a complex process and the most important element of the managerial process (Barnett 2007). “After evaluating the various alternatives, planners must make decisions about the best courses of action for achieving objectives. They must then formulate necessary steps and ensure effective implementation of plans,” (Barnett 2007).
In Fayol’s five elements, organizing is to “build up the structure, both material and human, of the undertaking” (Marino 2009). It is easy to argue then that some elements of disaster preparedness planning are also organizing. The third element of Fayol’s management strategy was commanding, maintaining the activity of the organisation. All three of the final elements of Fayol’s management style deal with the day-to-day operations of an organisation and in some management styles are considered one and the same. It is important then to understand the differentiation between commanding, coordinating and controlling as aspects of management. Commanding, in Fayol’s style, is the daily management of an organization, the part of the job where the manager makes certain that the overall goal of the organisation is met. In terms of a health service organization, commanding is making certain that at any given time there are paramedics available to do their jobs. Coordinating is the binding together of all activities and effort among the staff (Marino, 2009). It is in essence, the team-building aspect of management, the effort by the manager to coordinate all his staff to work together to a common goal and controlling is the enforcement power of management, the need to make sure that employees conform to the established rules and command structure of the organisation (Marino 2009).
Scholars evaluating the work of Fayol and trying to put it in a modern context argue that he was more concerned about the upper levels of management and the efficiency of a corporation at the highest levels than with the day-to-day operations (Wood & Wood 2002). In a collection of essays about Fayol’s work, the authors of individual papers cite the idea that Fayol was drawing from his experience as a chief executive and not necessarily addressing the concerns of middle management (Wood & Wood, 2002); However, it seems apparent in the application of his elements of management that the ideals his theories are based on carry down to the employee level quite well.
In more recent years, the definition of planning has also been expanded to include the idea of budgeting for the organisation. Fayol did not necessarily include any aspect of financial planning in his definitions of management.
In a 2009 article discussing management styles, Gary Ludwig, an emergency responder and fire captain from Memphis, Tennessee, USA, argues that there are four distinctive styles of manager that exist in the health services and emergency responder industry (2009). Each of the styles of management is appropriate at certain times and in specific conditions, he wrote, but the one that is most effective and most common is also most reminiscent of Fayol’s description of the elements of management. According to Ludwig, a manager who is an autocrat, who makes decisions himself or with the aid of only his closest advisers and shares information with his subordinates on a need to know basis is most effective in emergency management for health services (2009). His comparison of other leadership styles focuses a great deal on the means by which the manager plans. That is, the better a planner the manager is, the more likely he will be successful (Ludwig 2009). Though the argument does not tie back to Fayol directly, it certainly implies that the elements of management he developed are actively considered part of the job today. This argument also ties directly to the managerial grid discussed in the next section of this paper.
Another interesting aspect of Fayol’s management perspectives is the concept of the 14 principles of management. The 14 principles include a description of the duties that the Fayol anticipated that managers would need to be able to accomplish to be successful in completing their duties. The first principle that Fayol describes is the division of work. He explains this as allowing an employee to specialize in the job that he does and therefore become better and faster at it (Marino 2009). The second principle of management according to Fayol is the concept of authority and the responsibility that goes with it (Marino 2009). Fayol argues that the manager must act is a proper manner and the employee should obey good directions (Marino 2009). This principle works hand in hand with the second one and employees are expected to question orders when they are perceived to be incorrect or would pose a danger to the patient.
Few organisations seem to actually adopted Fayol’s fourth principle. He argues that there should be a unity of command; that is, each person should have just one boss that he reports to. The fifth principle, unity of direction, is something many organisations attempt to create via upper management. Usually, this is in the mission statement of the organisation. The author humbly disagrees with Fayol’s sixth principle, the subordination of personal interest to the organisation’s interest (Marino, 2009). The author recognizes that Fayol intended for the principle to mean that employees should work toward the mission of the organisation instead of worrying about petty personal needs. However, the author would argue that combining personal goals with the organisational goals will result in more motivated and happier employees, an idea discussed later in the section on reward management. Thankfully, Fayol recognized the need for managers to work toward motivating employees, suggesting in his seventh principle that adequate remuneration for their work is a vital part of successfully managing people. Many organisations recognize this need, but find themselves forced to balance the appropriate compensation of employees with the fiscal needs of the organisation.
Fayol’s eighth, ninth and tenth principles relate directly to the hierarchy of the organisation. He argues that it should be as centralised as is necessary and that lateral communication between co-workers be encouraged so long as management is aware of the communication. He also argues that management should be orderly. These principles are fairly universally accepted in business and seem to follow in the health services organisations as well. After all, being able to find a medication quickly, having it stored in an orderly manner, is imperative to saving lives.
His final four principles seem to focus on the treatment and motivation of employees and are in many ways, the essence of good management. First, Fayol argues that employees should be treated with kindliness and justice (Marino 2009). Next, he argues that workers will perform better and be happier when they have job security and when they are rewarded for their initiative. He even warns that managers may have to set aside their personal pride in the face of employee’s initiative (Marino 2009). Finally, he argues that management must establish and encourage an esprit de corps within its employees. These final four principles seem to be the most well-accepted of Fayol’s management ideals. In any organisation, it seems that nothing is more likely to upset employees than the perception that another employee is getting favourable treatment, i.e. not having to work weekend or overnight shifts. The concept of job security seems to meet one of the most basic of human needs and workers. Only the encouragement of initiative seems lacking.
Ultimately in reviewing Fayol’s principles of management and elements of management it seems obvious that most modern management flows from these ideas that are nearly a century old. Fayol’s theory of management works very well as it has been adapted over the years to be the basis of systemic management and create a starting point for manager in various fields.
A more modern interpretation of management comes from American author Peter Northouse. In his book “Leadership: Theory and Practice”, Northouse argues that leadership and subsequently management should be described as a process and necessarily involves followers and influence (2007). He defines management as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” (Northouse 2007). Without being able to influence followers, leadership in a vacuum does not exist. Furthermore, he argues that management occurs in groups, not in one on one relationships and that it is attentive to goals. The idea here is that management requires someone or something to manage.
The Managerial Grid
Since the 1960s, one of the best ways to analyze managerial styles is the managerial grid, which has since been renamed the Leadership Grid. The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid or Leadership Grid is considered to be a quick way to analyze a person’s leadership and management style. (MindTools 2010). Instead of analyzing the traits of a manager and trying to determine what makes a manager effective, the grid attempts to accurately describe the process of management and how it happens. The purpose of the grid is to label managers on a cross-sectional grid that measures concerns for people and concern for production as a determinate of managerial style. Each manager is measured on a scale of 1 to 9 in the two categories and receives a grade based on the two ratings. The purpose of the grid is to analyze the process of leadership. An example of the grid, as presented by the website MindTools, follows:



The primary measurements of the Leadership Grid are the concern for production and the concern for people. The traits that are most associated with the concern for production are attention to policy decisions, a focus on organization accomplishment and a desire for new product development. In the most simple of terms, a person who was more focused on the concern for production is going to put the development of the company or group above all else. This person would not be concerned with relationships at all, but would be very task oriented. Concerns for people focuses on relationships. A manager who is focused on this area will be concerned with building trust and commitment among his team. This is the type of manager who works on team-building and promotes the personal worth of his group members or employees. These people also focus on working conditions and social relationships, including fair salaries and equal treatment of people. Many people use this grid to define the difference between managers and leaders. Leaders focus on people; managers focus on tasks. The grid promotes the theory that the best managers are also leaders and vice versa.
Management and Human Resources
Reward management theory focuses on the establishment, maintenance and development of a system that has at its core the aim of rewarding the work done by employees within an organization or a business firm. On a wider context, reward management concerns itself with formulating and implementing strategies and other policies that are geared towards rewarding employees of the organization. To this end, the rewarding is aimed at being fair, equitable and consistent on account of the particular employee’s value to the organization that is in question. In a nutshell, those employees that are valuable to the organization are compensated highly than those whose value is deemed to be low. The basis for reward management theory is the basic notion of motivation theory. This is the theory that is of the view that for employees to be more productive and beneficial to an organization, they have to be motivated. There are several forms of motivations, including both monetary and non-monetary. Reward and recognition of the worker can be conceptualized as one form of motivation.
Objectives of the Study
Throughout this study, the author will be using one major objective: the analysis of reward management within the context of the motivation theory. To achieve this major objective, the writer will be using several specific objectives. By addressing these specific objectives, the writer will have effectively addressed the major one. These specific objectives are as listed below:
1. An overview of employee motivation
2. Discussion of motivation theories
3. Aims of reward management
4. Success in achieving reward management aims and goals
Employee Motivation
Motivation is the force that makes things happen. From a purely psychological and sociological point of view, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs attempts to explain the basic motivating factors of human existence. These needs and the desire to fulfill them encourage people to accomplish the tasks set before them. While there are specific needs that are common to the entirety of the human race, the means by which they are satisfied varies from person to person. The degree to which they are satisfied promotes the motivation to complete a task. How motivated we are determines the effort we put into our work to increase the standard and quality of the output because human motivation is a personal characteristic. Motivation can also be viewed as an internal drive “that activates and directs human action” (Geoff and Druker 2005).
The manager is the most important cog in the organizational wheel. He is tasked with the duty of getting work done and goals of the organization achieved through the employees that are under him (Lloyd 2008). In order to achieve this goal, it is very important for the manager to be able to motivate the employees. But many managers find this to be very difficult. This is because to be able to motivate his/her employees, the managers must be grounded in human nature. According to Lloyd (2008), “to understand motivation, one has to understand human nature itself. The problem is that though psychologists and sociologists will point to several basic human needs including food, shelter, and self-fulfillment, the means by which each person meets these needs and the degree to which they must be satisfied varies. One person may be perfectly happy with a two-room flat while another needs to own a house to feel that the need for shelter is met. Whichever the case, the manager has to be able to understand it in order to be able to motivate his/her employees. Employees who are motivated argues Pierce (2007), are more satisfied and hence more productive than their unmotivated counterparts.
There is an old adage that says people will do what they wish to, or what they are motivated to do. This is the case with employees in an organization. The manager and the organization can provide them with everything that they require in terms of the working environment but the employees will do what they wish to, or what they are motivated to do (Geoff and Druker 2005). The employees can be put under strict rules, or given freedom to do what they want but at the end of the day, they will do what they want and what they are inspired to do. This is the reason why the importance of employee motivation is important. Pierce (2007) suggests performance is always a function of ability and motivation
In this respect, ability can be considered as being a function of several factors on its turn. These are the education of the employees, their experience, their expertise and such other. The acquisition and improvement of ability is accumulative and takes a long process to be materialized. On the other hand, acquisition and improvement of motivation is quick (Pierce 2007). Motivation can be expressed in many ways as workers attempt to ensure the success of the business, but these may go unnoticed by some managers. Expressions of motivation may include: loyalty, hard work, commitment, skill, ability, adaptability, flexibility, punctuality, tolerance, determination, enthusiasm, trust in management, support from colleagues, equality, and positive reinforcement.
Motivation Theories
Among the most widespread motivational theories are Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, Frederick Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory and Elton Mayo’s motivation theory (Redfern 2009). McGregor's theory is based on the premise that there are two types of managers. Managers who subscribe to theory x have a pessimistic view of their employees. They are of the opinion that the employees are people who will evade job at the least opportunity and thus need to be closely monitored. On the other hand, those managers who subscribe to theory y are of the view that employees are motivated and they just need further motivation to work effectively.
Herzberg believed that job related factors can be divided into two categories, motivators and hygiene factors. Hygiene factors are those job related elements that results from but do not involve the job itself. Pay and benefits, for example, are consequences of work but do not involve the work itself. Motivators are job elements that do concern actual task and duties, Examples of motivators would be the level of job responsibility, the amount of job control, and the interest that the work holds for the employee. Herzberg believed that the hygiene factors are necessary but not sufficient for job satisfaction and motivation. That is, if a hygiene factors is not present at an adequate level (e.g. the pay is too low), the employee will be dissatisfied, but if all hygiene factors are represented adequately, the employee's level of satisfaction will only be neutral. To achieve job satisfaction, the employee needs to have some autonomy within his work.
Herrzbeg's theory is one of those theories that makes sense but has not received strong support from research. In general, researchers have criticized the theory because of the methods used to develop the two factors as well as the fact that few research studies have replicated the findings obtained by Herzberg and his colleagues (Knoop, 1994). In fact, replication of the research is one of the major problems with most management theories. Because the culture of an organization can vary drastically, the findings may vary as well.
But perhaps, the theory that most appropriately connects the idea of motivation and rewards is Vroom’s Valence x Expectancy Theory. This theory is about the mental processes that revolve around the choices that the employees make. This describes the processes which the employee goes through in the process of making any decision in the work place. This theory is associated with Victor Vroom, who is a business professor at Yale School of Management (Gellman 2009).
The theory argues that the strength of a predisposition to act in a certain way is directly related with the strength of the expectations or the rewards that are expected from this act (Geoff and Druker 2005). When it comes to employee motivation, this theory is of the view that an employee will be motivated to perform better when they are convinced that their improved performance will lead to “a better performance appraisal” (Pierce 2007). It is expected that this better performance appraisal will lead to the attainment of personal goals. The goals are conceptualized in forms of rewards.
According to Vroom’s theory, for employees to be motivated, several conditions must be met. The employees have to believe that:
 putting in more effort in the job will result to a better performance of the same
 When the job is performed well, what will follow are rewards that are specific to the organization (Gellman 2009). These rewards may involve an increase in the salary of the employee or introduction of benefits such as bonuses.
 For the rewards to be satisfactory to the employee, they must be valued. In other words, the employee must hold those rewards in high regard. For example, an employee will be motivated if he is sure that he will be rewarded by getting a pay rise, benefits and good feedback. To increase the effectiveness of goal settings, feedbacks should be provided to the employee on his/her progress in reaching his/her goal (Locke& Latham 1990). Feedback can include verbally telling an employee how he/she is doing, placing a chart on a wall, or displaying a certain colour of light when the employee's work pace will result in goal attainment and a different colour of light when the pace is too slow to reach the goal. Feedback increases performances best when it is positive and informational rather than negative and controlling.
Another set of theories hypothesizes that workers are motivated when they are rewarded for their behaviour, as a result, organisations offer incentives for a wide variety of employee behaviours, including working overtime or on weekends, making suggestions, referring applicants, staying with the company (length of service awards) coming to work (attendance bonuses), not getting into accidents, and performing at a high level (Henderson 1997).
From the above discourse, it is very clear that there is a direct connection between rewards, actual and expected and performance of the employee (Redfern 2009). This connection must always exist for the employees to be motivated and it is the duty of the managers to make sure that they do. If the connection is not there, or does not exist, they should make sure that they establish it.
Expectancy theory view is that behavior is a result of deliberate and conscious choices that are made by the employee (Geoff and Druker 2005). The choices that the employee makes are from a myriad of alternatives. The aim is to maximize on pleasure, or gains, while mitigating the likelihood of pain (Geoff and Druker 2005). The performance of an employee is determined by his personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities (Geoff and Druker 2005).

Aims of Reward Management
There are various aims of reward management when practiced by managers within organizations. Some of them are as follows:
1) Create total reward processes (Redfern 2009). The rewards in this case are grounded on beliefs about the values and aspirations of the organization.
2) Reward employees for the value that they add to the company. What this means is that the persons are rewarded in accordance with the amount of value that they put into the organization. The higher the value, the higher the amount of reward.
3) Alignment of rewards with the aspirations of the business and the values that are held dear by the employee (Redfern 2009).
4) Another aim of the reward management system is to reward the right outcomes (Lloyd 2008). This will purvey the message to the rest of the employees as to the expected and valued behaviors and outcomes within the organization.
5) Perhaps the most important facet of the reward management is the attraction, retention and satisfaction of the most qualified professionals in the field (Pierce 2007). This will lead to the attainment of what Pierce calls the winning of the war for talent (Pierce 2007).
6) Motivating employees so that they can be committed and engaged in their job.
7) Fringe benefits, benefits like health insurance, interest free loans from the company, performance-related pay and profit.
Achieving the Aims of Reward Management
Reward management is not always successful. Usually this occurs when managers cannot match the rewards with what the employees value most. For example, the employees may value salary increment more than they do value promotion as a reward. This being the case, when the employees are rewarded through promotion, they will not be motivated. Motivation is the major aim of rewards. If the managers improperly matches rewards and requirements, motivation will not occur.
Managers must therefore come up with a strategic reward management scheme. This means that the system is long-term oriented rather than short term. Strategies of rewarding the employees have to be integrated into the business strategy, which means that they are not just spur of the moment decisions that are made by the managers. For example, it has to be clearly stipulated within the business strategy on how to reward an employee who attains a given or set or goals (Redfern 2009). This is part of establishing a culture within a business organisation. If the corporate culture rewards hard work with, for example, a better parking spot and does so consistently, employees may come to value the better parking.
Methods of Reward Management
Many different strategies are used to ensure that employees are rewarded by the organisation. The strategies must ensure that the aspirations of the employees, together with what they regard to be valuable, are taken into consideration. This is because the success of the reward management will depend on the validity of the strategy that is adopted. In other words, the degree to which the reward management motivates the employees will depend on the effectiveness of the strategy that was used
The methods that can be used could be monetary or non-monetary rewards. They will depend on what the managers will regard as being important to the employees and as such, what is likely to motivate them more. Some monetary rewards include pay rise, commissions and bonuses and such other cash rewards. Non-monetary, on the other hand, include complements, promotions and others.
Pay and Compensation
Compensation is one of the most important factor of human resource management. It is also one of the most important motivators of the employee, albeit not the only one. Compensation is often the main drive behind performance and yet it has no long lasting impact. However, an increase in compensation usually only increases motivation for a short period of time. Compensation is also regarded as the most sensitive and controversial elements in the field of worker motivation and human resource management.
The pay that is accrued to the employees is both monetary and non-monetary. It is a return in exchange between the two parties-employers and employees. The employees receive pay by virtue of them being workers in the organization, or as a reward for what they have done for the company, especially when the performance is exemplary.
Reward management is a strategy and a practice of pay system, all rolled into one. It is the managers that determine the forms of payments and amounts that will be awarded to employees, while the finance department is concerned merely by the function of processing these payments. As such, it can be seen between the human resource managers and the finance managers, what the finance managers do is just to implement the decisions of the resource managers as far as motivating the employee is concerned. Many reward system managers seem to favour two basic types of pay schemes. But there are cases where instead of adopting one scheme, some managers adopt features of both to some extent, to come up with something entirely new. These systems are as follows:
1: Fixed Levels Pay
In this instance, the wages and the salaries of the employees are constant. They do not vary from one period to the other. Exceptions are made when the salaries and wages are being increased. The increment is always done on an annual basis. Scales of payments are determined by the age of the employee, their responsibilities in the organization and their level of seniority. This is a motivation technique that had been used for employees in the white collar sector until latter years, when reward linked to performance was adopted.
2: Reward Linked to Performance
The link in this case may vary periodically. It can be daily, weekly, monthly or annually. However, the compensation for any one of the periods differs from that of the previous one. This depends on the quantity and quality of the work that the individual performed. The higher the quality and the quantity, the higher the amount of rewards accrued to the employee. A case in point is commissions that are paid on sales. When the sale turnover is high, the rewards are high and vise versa. Manual workers may be paid on the amount of work that has been completed or the number of items that they have produced. Another category of this form of workers is caterers. These workers get rewarded by their clients based on the level of satisfaction that they give the client. This is the same for other employees in the service sector, for example beauticians and such others.
Both of the methods above have been known to work well. This is given that the scales are easy to comprehend both for the employee and for the manager. It also depends on the accuracy of the tools that are used to gauge the amount and quality of finished work. The methods are not only supposed to be accurate but also fair to all the employees. If some employees are favoured, the reward system will be skewed and the motivation accrued to the employees affected.
Challenges Facing Reward Management
Reward management strategies, despite their obvious attractive disposition, are not keeping in pace with the changes in the market and business forces. There are some shortcomings, some of which seem to be inbuilt to the strategy while others are seen to be external to it. Some of those shortcomings are as follows.
1: Preoccupation with Tactics as Opposed to Strategy
Many of the reward system schemes seem to lack the ability to reach for the large scale strategies. These are the strategies that have the capability of making a difference in the performance of both the employees and the organization in extension. Majority of the reward managers are engrossed with the desire to focus on incremental changes that are visible in variable-pay plans that they have adopted. They are also preoccupied with changes to the performance management system and also the changes that are accrued to the new technology of the system.
2: Use of Pay as a Blunt Object
These managers seem to forget that the employees are not only motivated by pay but by a combination of many other factors in their lives. The use of money to motivate better worker performance has again become popular (Schuster& Zingheim, 1992). However, money alone does not fix motivational issues. There are other rewarding strategies that the managers seem to ignore. These are for example skill-building opportunities, where the employee feels that his competence, and in extension his worth, is been enhanced. There is also another important fact of motivating and rewarding workers by creating an environment where they feel that the top management is interested in their well-being. This is for example through the opening of the communication channels between the two. When the employees feel that they stand a chance to advance their career, they will be more motivated than when they are assured only of pay. it is important to reward employers for productive work behaviour, but different employees like different types of reward, which is why supervisors should have access to and be trained to administer different types of reinforcement. For example, some employees can be rewarded with praise, others with interesting work, and still others with money (Filipczak, 1993)
3: Insufficient Address of the Human Side of Performance Management
Managers seem to be preoccupied with the technology side of performance management. This is whereby they are preoccupied with the out-put of the employee, the amount of work that they complete and the quality of the same. They reward what the employee has done. This is as opposed to the human side of performance management. This is the side that deals with the feed-back between the employees and the management. The employees feel motivated when they feel that they are able to communicate with the senior managers. They regard this as one form of their rewards.
A compensation plan should always include base pay and a benefit package to provide employees with security, salary adjustment to cover such condition as undesirable shifts and geographic areas which high cost living, and variable pay to provide an incentive to perform better. though incentive system often result in higher level of performance, when designed poorly, they can result in such a negative outcomes as increased stress, decreased health, and decreased safety ( Schleifer& Amick; Scheifer & okogbaa, 1990). Incentive can be given for individual performance or group performance.
Conclusion
Reward management can be viewed as a form of management practice where employees are compensated for their performance. They are compensated for the value that they add to the organization; the higher the value, the higher the reward. However, in many cases it is exercised poorly or not at all, leading to the perceived failure of the system.
An organisation ought to see the direct relationship between what they are contributing and the rewards which are given to them as an offshoot of their efforts. In these times of cutthroat competition and dynamism across industries , the human resources management of the company ought to look more profoundly into the implications of motivational theories, and attempt to draft programme that leverage on these. Ultimately, a highly motivated and empowered workforce is the most certain way of putting in more into the firm's coffers.



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