PERFORMANCE AND REWARD MANAGEMENT.

Performance and Reward Management

Performance and Reward Management

Introduction

Reward systems are not always rewarding, either to organizations or to the employees they are supposed to motivate. Often, they fail to reinforce desired behaviours, they encourage unwanted behaviours or they fail to result in improved performance. Organizations need to find away to reinforce employees daily for positive behaviours and then to reward the performance results these behaviours directly support.

Literature Review

During the past decade, important research has been conducted on reward system design. At the same time, many academics, consultants and practitioners have begun to address specific questions of behaviour management. They have looked beyond pay to examine work environment issues and the levels of employee involvement in decision making. Competency-based pay has spurred additional interest in how to manage behaviours and tasks. (Hoerr 1998, 327)

While pinpointing tasks and behaviours, organizations need a clear idea of the results they are trying to achieve. Many organizations spend time and money pinpointing "core competencies" with little or no return on their investment. (Hoerr 1998, 326)

The failure of many reward systems to produce desired results has led to criticism of incentives as a means to influence behaviour. In his 1993 book Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes, Alfie Kohn fuels the debate about the negative impact of reward son behaviour. At the heart of his argument is an attack on B.F. Skinner and his behaviour modification systems. Following the same line of reasoning as many of Skinner's critics, Kohn views behavioural reward practices as manipulative and control-driven. He emphasizes the need for employees to experience intrinsic satisfaction from their work, as opposed to the extrinsic satisfaction offered by reward systems. (John 2002, 109)

The arguments advanced by Kohn and others are short-sighted. These critics have missed the scientific substance of Skinner's discovery and, ultimately, the positive and practical applications.

Skinner's basic discovery was functional analysis, which demonstrates that behaviour is a function of the external environment and of controlling variables that allow observers to predict what will happen. The issue is not whether sources of control, both positive and negative, exist in a work environment - that much is fairly obvious by simple observation. A more practical issue understands how these environmental variables affect behaviour and how they can be influenced to improve employee performance.

Edward E. Lawler III, Ph.D., Director of the Centre for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California based his 1974 study, Motivation in Work Organizations, on expectancy theory, which states that people's expectations drive behaviour. According to Lawler, employees need to feel competent and effective at their work, satisfying internal needs, before they can perform at a high level.

Lawler, who also stresses the need for external rewards, says that employee participation in the reward system design and implementation can also satisfy these personal needs. (John 2002, 99)

More recent research provides a new behaviourist perspective that shifts the focus from internal causes, favoured by Kohn, to internal and external ...