Faculty of Social Sciences: Rewards and Benefits in the Workplace

This essay delves into the critical role of rewards and benefits in shaping employee behavior within the workplace. It begins by establishing the significance of employees as the primary focus of human resources and the need for organizations to adapt their practices to promote positive behavior. The essay then discusses various theories and research related to rewards and benefits, including Vroom's Expectancy Theory, which highlights the relationship between effort, performance, and rewards. The essay examines intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, job satisfaction, and the impact of pay-for-performance policies, along with the significance of goal setting and employee engagement. Case studies, such as General Motors and Amazon, are used to illustrate how companies implement reward systems, including recognition programs, training opportunities, and performance-based pay to enhance employee motivation, commitment, and productivity. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of aligning reward systems with organizational strategies, culture, and goals to attract and retain talented individuals, fostering a positive and productive work environment.

Student Name
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION(S)
INTRODUCTION TO PEOPLE AT
WORK

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Rewards and benefits
Introduction
As manpower constitutes to be pivotal in every business success, employees have
become the primary focus of human resources. In today's world when the change has become
prevalent, particularly with regards to innovation and communication technology, there is a
huge need for organizations to reassess their processes to ensure people behave positively
within the workplace. Therefore, apart from financial benefits, most of the contemporary
organizations adopt various means to reward employees which includes the opportunity to
take special projects or gain leadership attention (Baskar and R, 2015). According to (Munap,
Badrillah, and Rahman (2013), organizations must comprehend the implications of rewards
and benefits and design their incentives in a way that can attract and retain talented
employees. Therefore, this essay intends to discuss theory and research related to rewards and
benefits to understand why people behave as they do at work due to rewards and benefits. To
support the illustrations made, this paper will use business case studies which demonstrate
how rewards and benefits have changed people behaviour in their workplaces.
Critical Discussions
Reward systems is an organizational strategy that gives directions to the organizations
concerning devising actions which can certify rewards according to the employee’s
performance metrics. It can be noted that reward strategy predetermines pay system
consumption, an effort through which more emphasises is given upon individual contribution
working towards accomplishing strategic objectives of the organization. Most of the
organizational behaviour researchers believe that reward system has a constructive

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consequence on employee's behaviour and work performance (Trivedi, 2015). The purpose of
rewards strategy is to build practices and policies that can attract, motivate and retain
potential people in the organization and support business goals achievement. Expectancy
theory of Vroom demonstrates how an individual comprehends the relationship between
rewards, performance and effort. The theory of Vroom Victor revolves around the notion
behind the stimulation of individual effort to make employees put their best efforts as if the
job completion was their primary motivation. The theorist identified three core factors that
modify employee's behaviour according to the motivation received. While expectancy refers
to the believe where an individual perceives that certain actions will yield a specific result,
instrumentality denotes an extent to which employees believe that their high performance will
help them achieve the desired result. Valence can be referred to as strength or belief that
attractive rewards and benefits are available for performing highly (Nsofor, 2009). In this
sense, rewards act as a lasting impression upon employees and continues to motivate
employee’s perception regarding their value in the workplace.
General motor (GM) is one global automotive company where more than 160,000
employees work throughout the six continents. In 2017 meeting, when the GM leaders and
human resources observed that their employees are dissatisfied with the company's existing
reward and recognition plans, they decided to adopt two new and important features in their
company: outlook integration and announcements. With the help of outlook recognition,
every employee of the firm can easily send recognitions through the outlook platforms which
made the ability to recognise much easier than ever before. The global team of the firm
substituted 23 localised service awards with new global Service Milestone Program which
gives consistent and common ways to recognise employee's behaviour, their efforts,
appreciation and celebration for colleagues' achievements. On service anniversaries,
employees receive impactful and memorable messages with celebration cards signed by other

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colleagues and leader. This makes employees remind of their journey in their company and
career achievements besides inspiring to grow and make increased contributions. Such
impactful efforts made by the human resources contribute to organizational culture positively
and employees tend to behave in an engaged and productive manner (Achievers Solutions
Inc., 2020). As a flourishing firm always looks way to make its employees more contended,
GM rewards its employees both intrinsically and extrinsically to boost up satisfaction and
performance of employees.
Job satisfaction is one very significant aspect which reflects an employee’s behaviour
within organizations. Attitude or behaviour is another factor which helps human resources in
identifying whether their employees are dissatisfied or satisfied with workplace policies and
rewards systems. Organizational behaviour literature states that to give shape to job
satisfaction, managers have to involve various substances. Therefore, Nwokocha (2016)
refers to job satisfaction as a comprehensive attitude of employees and everything related to it
can be measured and underestimated. While a positive attitude can be associated with job
satisfaction, negative behaviour can be associated with dissatisfied ones ( Hajdukova,
Klementova, and Klementova, 2014). Herzberg was the first researcher who developed the
concept behind intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and motivation which defines the significance
behind both aspects. Study shows that extrinsic rewards motivate employees but sometimes
can create demotivation or dissatisfaction also. The financial benefits have a great influence
on employee’s behaviour which motivate them to work more for goal achievement. However,
individual goal achievement may vary from person to person and so does their meaning for
rearward varies. Theoretically, extrinsic rewards are those commotions or actions which are
undertaken to accomplish distinguishable goals and emphasise more on instrumental tangible
values that can be measured in terms of money. Intrinsic rewards, are immaterial rewards
desired by employees from their workplace in the form of recognition, appreciation,

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promotion, and healthy work environment ( Riasat, Aslam, and Nisar, 2016). It can be said
that the concept behind rewards and benefits can be analysed from employee motivation
perspective where motivated employees tend to behave effectively and in the desired manner.
Organizations motivate employees through appropriate recognition and rewards
programs besides developing other benefits. It can be said that compensation system delivers
various objectives such as labour cost of control, legal compliances, increased employee
performance and perceived fairness for employee’s efforts so that higher productivity levels
are achieved (Safiullah, 2014). Adams equity and justice theory theorise that individuals
struggle for equality between people in the workplace and themselves. Inequity comparisons
are achieved due to state of tension or dissonances which motivates employees to develop a
behaviour designed for relieving tensions. For example, leaving the situation that arises
tension and lowers or increases efforts to re-establish equity. Although equity theory
emphasises more on equity and justice theory, in organizational behaviour research it faces
various ups and downs (Lee and Raschke, 2015). Amazon is one example that can be used
here where the CEO of the company, Jeff Bezos provides a unique reward to its employees.
Every employee of the firm is sent to the learning centres to learn new skills required in the
contemporary workplace. With rewards choice system, Amazon pays around 95% of tuition
fees i.e. up to $12,000 for training and development fees and other textbooks. Along with it,
the employees are provided with associate degrees or certificate required in specialized jobs
such as machine tool technologies, nursing, aircraft mechanics and medical-lab technologies
(Crouse, 2018). With benefits such as training and educating, the workforce behaves
productively while the compensation and other rewards keep them motivated.
Rewards and benefits related schemes such as pay for performance policies have a
great impact on employee's behaviour and feedback efforts. It can be argued that pay for
performance logic requires every employee to think about their organization similar to the

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way an organization thinks of themselves. According, pay for performance approach in
reward management posits that employees will complete their jobs ahead, provide with
results and fight against losing the schemes on an everyday basis. Under such circumstances,
employer-employee association needs an acquisitive dimension which eliminates under
performers. Adjustable pay in the reward systems can come with an arrangement of
individual incentives or rewards offered for individual performance. Group incentives or
rewards assumes that organizational members will focus on working with groups or teams
based upon a shared standard. With such schemes, many contemporary workplaces have
succeeded in enhancing employee teamwork approach as well as individual behaviour
( Chaudhary and Kashyap, 2016). For example, performance management systems in
McDonald's considers long term effects on employee performance and commitment from
them. The firm establishes an effective communication system between human resources and
employees to establish unbiased rewards and performance-based pay. Benefit programs in the
company include training and development classes which develop below-average employees
and help them improve their work productivity in longer time (Qureshi and Hassan, 2013).
With rewards systems, employees are encouraged to work productively and give more
efforts to earn more. On the other side, benefits provided by the organization make them
achieve higher output level from employees and thereby increased profits. The use of rewards
and benefits programs in workplaces are pervasive and vast body of literature suggest that
setting certain and challenging goals can have a positive impact upon employee's behaviour.
Here, employees' rewards for goal attainment can be linked with performance goals in
organizations. By doing so, goal attainment becomes more attractive and in turn, increase
employee's commitment towards goal achievement. Moreover, workplace managers allow
employees to make voluntary participation in performance goal setting which leads to
increased employee participation and job commitment (Presslee, Vanse, & Webb 2011).

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Though the ideologies of goal setting developed by Edwin Locke have not been accepted by
several theorists such as Edward Deming who believed more in Total Quality management,
goal setting concept is still accepted and many contemporary workplaces depend on it and
finds goal setting very productive and inspiring for employees (Teo & Low, 2016). Lee &
Raschke (2015) argues that several evaluations and analysis made of the literature containing
goal-setting theory concludes that there is a very critical connection between employee’s
behaviour, rewards and goal setting. Moreover, when a feedback process is involved
simultaneously, goal-setting approach proves to be most effective. Specifically, challenging
goals make employees perform efficiently than specific goals or no goals at all. In this sense,
rewards and benefits play a major role in employees goal setting and henceforth behaviour in
them.
It is important to comprehend the reasons why organizations encourage rewards and
benefit systems to flourish and prosper in the ever-changing business environment.
Contrastingly, Hoole and Hotz (2016) argues that though intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and
benefits inspire individuals to work more, employee engagement proves more effective
particularly when employees feel that one size does not fit all and that their efforts must not
be measured in terms of rewards or performance-based pay rather than their contribution
towards organizational development. In this sense, work engagement provides employees
with the facility to contribute their dedication towards organizational goals and in turn, the
organization equips them with necessary autonomy and resources for goal achievement. At
an organizational level, such behaviour of employees acts as a predictor of job satisfaction,
higher commitment level, and reduced turnover. This has also made reward systems in
organizations change constantly with time. Now, organizations not only focus on financial
benefits but consider motivation and employee engagement as an important tool for enhanced
organizational behaviour (Hoole & Hotz, 2016). This implies human resources design

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rewards structure in a way which can motivate employees in terms of superior productivity,
commitment level and engagement. Reward system must also match with organizational
strategies, culture and goals to ensure talented people are retained.
Conclusion
Rewards and benefits are those added payments which employees receive in addition
to their salary after completing a specific job. From the above paper, it can be concluded that
rewards and benefits are highly relevant to explain why people behave as they do in the
workplace. It is identified that rewards are divided into two types, intrinsic and extrinsic. The
above paper also observed that good reward and benefits strategies motivate employees,
induces a feeling of job commitment and increase performance within the workplace. Based
on case study examples, it can be said that if rewards and benefits are matched with
organizational strategy, every employee’s performance can be measured individually and in
turn, employees will behave positively to earn recognition. This implies human resources to
include reward systems in core business strategies and comprehend the association between
rewards and how employees behave to meet organizational goals effectively. Certain rewards
and benefits policies are good predictors of enhanced employee behaviour than others and
thus mangers must steer away from one size fit all reward policies.

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References
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Munap, R., Badrillah, M. I. M. & Rahman, B. . A., 2013. Organizational Rewards System
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