Business Organizational Behavior: Reward Systems and Employee Satisfaction

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to define the relationship between effective reward systems and employee satisfaction. An effective reward system relating to employee motivation and efficiency are two very important concepts for any organization to run effectively. It is an organizations job to make sure that their managers understand these concepts fully, so that they can in turn apply them to the workers to maintain an effective workforce. Positively motivated employees will always yield better work and produce high levels of productivity, while employees with negative motivation and low levels of job satisfaction will always produce lesser work and lower quality (Northhouse, 2007).

Table of Content

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion2

Defining Motivation2

Maslow's “Hierarchy Of Needs”3

Herzberg's Two-Factor Model4

Alderfer's Erg Theory4

Other Theories Of Motivation5

Reward Systems6

Incentives Linking Pay And Performance7

Wage Incentives8

Profit Sharing8

Gain Sharing9

Skill Based Pay9

Performance Appraisals10

Conclusion11

Business Organizational Behavior: Reward Systems and Employee Satisfaction

Introduction

Workforce efficiency and motivation of employees is achievable through many ways like equal treatment, positive reinforcement, punishment and discipline in equal measures amongst other means (Smith, 2010). Managers should always be aware of the needs of their workers so that they can work to fulfill them. Moreover, there are various motivational theories that can help managers in identifying the needs of their employees in order to keep them fully motivated and working efficiently. Some of these theories are based on maintaining the drive of the workforce, some on employee needs and others are based on employee behavior. However, it is clear that reward systems are one of the best ways of keeping employees efficiently motivated.

Performance based incentives, wage incentives, profit and gain sharing as well as skill based pay are all a part of such reward systems. Newstrom (2011) describes work motivation as an outcome of a combination of external as well as internal factors which guide an employee towards the correct course of action and nudges them towards positive behavior. Expected behavior and motivation are always geared towards positive enforcement and achievement of the set goals and targets of any organization, and therefore, all managers should eb aware of three basic elements of behavior in their employees, the direction, the level of effort and the continuation of such behavior (Newstrom, 2011).

Discussion

Defining Motivation

To ensure employee motivation and leading workforce efficiency, managers should be always be aware of the drive and needs of their employees. 'Drive' in this context can be defined as some strong desire to achieve something, and all individuals tend to grow such emotional drives due to a multitude of cultural and societal factors (Newstrom, 2011). David McClelland highlighted a classification scheme in which three dominant drives were outlined and their significance in context to individual motivation was defined (Newstrom, 2011). These three drives are famously known as achievement motivation, power motivation and the affiliation motivation.

Any individual who is achievement motivated will mostly take up personal responsibility for finding the solution to any problem presented to him, he will in short be termed as a highly goal oriented, energetic, risk taking individual ...