Reward

Rewarding Equally in an Organisation

From September 2007 to September 2008 I worked for a company called ABC Costume Hire.
The other staff and I would be rewarded with nice coffee, cookies, and other treats when sales and hires were high, to show that our place in the organisation was appreciated. We also received a 50% discount on all purchases, as well as free access to the costumes.
The managers would often take the staff out for dinner on special occasions. For example: Christmas, birthdays and leaving doo’s.

As the company was quite small, all the tasks were shared, and it was therefore hard to decipher who performed the best. However, this didn’t matter as the full organisation would be included in all rewards. People were happy to share rewards, as they were usually socially oriented prizes anyway.
This social atmosphere and the size of the company meant that everyone saw each other as friends as well as colleagues.


Rewards Despite Underperformance

Chief Executives are often known to receive large bonuses. Sometimes they receive them despite their organisation underperforming. Often this is seen as unethical, and frowned upon, but there are some pro’s to giving them bonuses despite poor performance.

The bonuses will encourage the executives to stay with the organisation, thereby reducing staff turnover.
It is easier to keep and motivate the same executives, rather than introducing new ones. New executives would have to be trained and gain experience in order to perform their role at their best. This would possibly be more costly than the bonus, and may result in an initial slump in performance from others in the organisation.
There may be an environmental or circumstantial reason why the organisation underperformed, and therefore the underperformance won’t have been the Chief Executives fault. It would not be fair to remove their reward because of reasons beyond their control.

There are, however, also reasons why the Chief Executives should not get the bonuses.
The money used for bonuses may have come from investors or tax payers. If an organisation being supported by public shares or the government is not making a justifiable profit, or increasing its share value, it cannot justify the bonuses.
If the company didn’t achieve the objectives, do the people in charge really deserve to be paid bonuses? If there is something wrong with their leadership skills, then they should not be in that position in the first place.


Rewarding Teachers

There are many financial and non-financial ways in which primary school teachers can be rewarded and motivated.

Financial rewards:

Receiving bonuses for high grades from students would be very rewarding (Democratic Staff of the House Education and Labour Committee, 2007).

When bought better teaching or learning equipment by the school, the teacher will feel like they can better their teaching methods or routines, and progress.

Professional development, such as training courses, will make the teacher more qualified, and therefore feel like they have a better understanding of their role. They will also feel that they can make a more valuable contribution to their organisation.

Non-financial motivation:

Seeing evidence that they have had an impact on the kids they have taught will motivate most teachers. If the students are successful with their tasks, the teacher will feel proud that they inspired the children to work hard.

Being given time by management for team for tasks is very important. Feeling like there is not enough time to perform tasks makes any job feel half done. So the more time to explore a subject or work on a project the better, as there will be more to show for the efforts at the end.

High levels of trust from managers within the school may allow teachers flexibility with the curriculum they teach. Being allowed to explore tangents which move slightly off the beaten track, shows that the management have confidence in that teacher.

If I were a teacher, I think the thing that would motivate me the most would be the opportunity to be flexible with the curriculum. This is because the subject can be made more personal at the teachers end, and they can be proud to teach the topic, rather than just feel bound by regulations and requirements. Tight rules in teaching can have an opposing effect and de-motivate.


References:

Democratic Staff of the House Education and Labour Committee (2007) Rewarding teachers for excellence. [online]. Available from: http://edlabor.house.gov/publications/20070917PerformancePayFactSheet.pdf [Accessed 3 May 2010]