BGP7730 Business Research Project Assignment Sample

BGP7730 Business Research Project Assignment Sample

Executive Summary

The following report emphasised on the importance of the reward system on the job satisfaction of the workers and their performance. For that purpose, the mining industry sector was selected for better understanding and ease of collecting data for the research. It was determined that reward management system is crucial for all organisations in order to motivate employees to come to office and help in achieving organisational goal. It was also told that sometimes employees may get motivated with intrinsic rewards while a few time, they may need extrinsic rewards. Therefore, the organisation should think about a mix of the two kinds of rewards.

1. Introduction

The mining industry is one of the significant parts of the country’s economy and it is very crucial in the competitive market for a mining firm that employees are performing at their best. There is no doubt that employees are the quintessential assets for any organisation, especially for the mining sector as it is primarily dependant on manpower. Therefore, it needs to keep the satisfaction level of the employees high. There are many ways of doing it and many literature works suggest that reward system might be a tool in this direction. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of reward system programme on the job satisfaction. For that purpose, this research proposal tries to determine more information on the topic. Numerous literature work and journal articles are referred to determine the research gap, theories, and work out the research hypothesis for this study.

2. Research Objectives & Question

The following study focuses on the identifying the following:

1. The type of reward system best suited for the mining sector
2. The impact of reward system on the job satisfaction level, turnover rate, and employees’ performance of the mining sector.

3. Literature Review

In the past few decades, organisations have realised the importance of rewards and many researchers have laid down their interest on this area. According to Deckop, et.al, (2015), rewards are considered as one of the best way to motivate the employees to give their best efforts while carrying out their job. It has been that people do not work hard for an organisation automatically. In order to motivate them in pursuing their strategic vision and goals, employers must find a way (Yue, et.al, 2019). Suttapong et.al (2015) supported that reward system can be a tool to facilitate manager who strive to induce a feeling of enthusiasm among employees.

• Reward

Rewards in the organisation can be both intangible as well as tangible. These can be provided by the employer to the employees when they do an exceptional work for the company. According to Deckop, et.al (2015), majority of the rewards offered by the company are aligned with the organisational objectives. They can be implemented with a motive of benefitting the company in the long run. When the organisational goal is accomplished, they receive rewards for the efforts. Just by concerting efforts of the workers in achieving organisational goals and rewarding people, organisational can produce high quality performance within their organisation. Yue, et.al (2019) recommend that workers can be impelled to give their best execution just by offering a type of remunerations as motivating forces. In any case, it can have negative outcomes too. Two unique individuals can have distinctive sentiment about the impetuses being offered to them. Bruccoleri and Riccobono (2018) contend that prizes are required to be increasingly possible so as to make individuals spurred. Additionally, motivations work just when an individual gives a lot of consideration on getting rewards. Suttapong et.al (2015) argue that higher these rewards are, more will be the motivation level among the employees.

• Total Reward Management & Its Impact

According to Deckop, et.al (2015), the total reward comprise all kinds of rewards, namely direct and indirect, intrinsic & extrinsic. Each aspect of reward is important. Talking about the total reward system, it is an inclusive approach and employers aim at making the best reward system that can have both tangible as well as intangible elements. Cooke and Saini (2015) mentioned about the total reward theory that encompasses elements of other theories of motivations. These include Alderfer’s ERG theory, Maslow’s hierarchy theory, Expectancy theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory, and equity theory.  

Also, organisations may also get benefitted immensely from making use of total reward system effectively. This approach strives to inspire employees and build a feel of enthusiasm in them towards their work while satisfying their personal and professional needs. The approach also encourages the employees to respect their employers and complete their work on time effectively and efficiently. This improves the relationship between employees and employers. As per Bruccoleri and Riccobono (2018), rewards are considered as extraordinary compared to other approach to persuade the representatives to give their earnest attempts while completing their activity. It has been that individuals don't buckle down for an association consequently. So as to spur them in seeking after their key vision and objectives, managers must discover a way (Suttapong, et.al 2015). As per Cooke, et.al (2019), rewards are considered as extraordinary compared to other approach to persuade the representatives to give their earnest attempts while completing their activity. It has been that individuals don't buckle down for an association consequently. So as to spur them in seeking after their key vision and objectives, managers must discover a way (Grolleau, et.al, 2016)

• Total Reward Management Theory/Model

In the past, many researchers have come up with their reward model and theories. The Tower Perrin Model is one such model. The framework is having four quadrants including benefits, remuneration, learning & development, and work environment. Most interestingly, the upper part of this framework is associated with financial rewards while the lower one comprises non-financial aspects. In order to make use of this system in the best way to design the reward system for itself, organisations should make use of both quadrants.)

Talking about the theories of motivation, Atten (2014) mentioned that “Incentive Theory” is the crucial one of them. The theory suggests that human gets motivated by a desire of incentives. The incentive theory came into existence between 1940s and 50s. It proposes that employees can be instigated to give their best performance just by offering some sort of rewards as incentives. However, it can have negative consequences as well. Two different people can have different opinion about the incentives being offered to them. Cooke and Saini (2015) argue that rewards are required to be more obtainable in order to make people motivated. Also, incentives work only when an individual pays much attention on getting rewards. Moreover, incentives can be very useful in getting people engage in some behaviours but they may sometime end up performing certain actions in case they do not feel motivated with the incentives or if they are not happy about them.

• Types of Rewards

Bruccoleri and Riccobono (2018) talked about the two types of rewards that a firm can give to its employees. These are intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Both of these can help in maintaining high employee engagement. Talking about the intrinsic rewards, these are related to personal satisfaction an employee achieves from his/her job. Koritzky, et.al (2014) called them self-initiated rewards, such as having satisfaction by accomplishment of personal goals, taking pride in the work assigned, working as a team, etc. Managers can make their employees more engaging just by making the work more meaningful or purposeful for them.

In the work of Cooke, et.al (2019), extrinsic reward was given more importance as a part of the reward system. External rewards come from external sources and are usually tangible in nature, such as incentives, gifts, etc. These are another way of motivating employees to give their best performance for getting rewarded for their efforts. Grolleau, et.al (2016) classified that rewards can be divided into financial and non-financial rewards. The authors argued that rewards may or may not improve financial well-being of an employee. Organisation can reward its employees in terms of bonuses, wages, profit sharing, or any kind of subsidies, such as vacations, purchase discounts, or paid sick leaves. Suttapong, et,al (2014) mentioned that non-financial rewards can be associated with those employees who take pride in their work. They are status-oriented workers and non-monetary rewards can be promotion, recognition, or any appraisal. These can stimulate or enhance the performance of the employees.

There is another classification mentioned by Decko, et.al (2015) in their work. The authors talked about membership-based vs. performance-based rewards. The rewards that a company provides to the employees are either based on performance or membership. The HR managers in many firms generally consider both of them in order to have a sound reward system. The performance-based reward systems are dependent on incentives, group bonus, merit pay, and other types of performance system. On the other hand, the characteristics of the membership-based system is that it is in the form of benefits, cost-of-living increment, promotion, seniority, and other sort of rewards (Suttapong, et.al 2014).

References

Atten J. 2014. “Building Workplace Safety with Rewards and Recognition,”  Occupational health & safety (Waco, Tex.), 83(6), pp. 36–36.

Bruccoleri, M. and Riccobono, F. 2018 “Management by Objective Enhances Innovation Behavior: An Exploratory Study in Global Management Consulting,”  Knowledge and Process Management, 25(3), pp. 180–192. doi: 10.1002/kpm.1577.

Cooke, F. L. and Saini, D. S. 2015 “From Legalism to Strategic Hrm in India? Grievance Management in Transition,”  Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 32(3), pp. 619–643. doi: 10.1007/s10490-015-9417-0.

Cooke, F. L., Liu, M., Liu, L. A. and Chen, C. C. 2019 “Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations in Multinational Corporations in and from China: Challenges and New Insights,”  Human Resource Management, 58(5), pp. 455–471. doi: 10.1002/hrm.21986.

Deckop, J. R., Giacalone, R. A. and Jurkiewicz, C. L. 2015 “Materialism and Workplace Behaviors: Does Wanting More Result in Less?,”  Social Indicators Research : An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 121(3), pp. 787–803. doi: 10.1007/s11205-014-0661-3.

Grolleau, G., Mzoughi, N. and Pekovic, S. 2015 “Work Recognition and Labor Productivity: Evidence from French Data,”  Managerial and Decision Economics, 36(8), pp. 508–516. doi: 10.1002/mde.2690.

Koritzky, G., Dieterle, C., Rice, C., Jordan, K. and Bechara, A. 2014 “Decision-Making, Sensitivity to Reward and Attrition in Weight Management,”  Obesity, 22(8), pp. 1904–1909. doi: 10.1002/oby.20770.

Suttapong, K., Srimai, S. and Pitchayadol, P.2014 “Best Practices for Building High Performance in Human Resource Management,”  Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 33(2), pp. 39–50. doi: 10.1002/joe.21532.

Yue, Q., Liu, F., Diao, Y. and Liu, Y. 2018. “Research and Application of a Big Data-Driven Intelligent Reservoir Management System,”  Journal of Coastal Research, 82(Sp1), pp. 270–279. doi: 10.2112/SI82-039.1.