Title: Impact of reward and recognition programs on employee performance in the

UK retail sector. A case study of Iceland, UK

Student Name:
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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background to the Study...................................................................................................................3
1.2 Research rationale...........................................................................................................................4
1.3 Research aims and objectives............................................................................................................4
1.4 Research questions............................................................................................................................4
2.0 Literature Review..................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Reward and Recognition Programs....................................................................................................5
2.2 Concept of Employee Motivation.....................................................................................................5
2.3 Impact of Reward and Recognition Programs on Employee Performance........................................6
3.0 Research methodology..........................................................................................................................7
3.1 Philosophy.........................................................................................................................................7
3.2 Research approach............................................................................................................................7
3.3 Research Design.................................................................................................................................7
3.4 Research method...............................................................................................................................7
3.5 Data sources......................................................................................................................................8
3.6 Research instruments........................................................................................................................8
3.7 Data Analysis techniques...................................................................................................................8
3.8 Sampling technique...........................................................................................................................9
3.9 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
4.0 Time Schedule.......................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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1.0 Introduction

This paper develops a research proposal on how reward and recognition programs influence on
employee performance of UK retail sector including Iceland, UK. Thus, this paper outlines
research aim along with research objectives and research questions. Then, these paper overviews
of short literature on the research topic and subject matter. Finally, this paper outlines the
research methodologies and design for the proposed study.

1.1 Background to the Study

According to Boeuf (2010), the only way the employees will fulfill a dream is in sharing it.
Above all, reward schemes provide mechanisms for this to happen. Likewise, you get more of
the behavior you reward. You don't get what you hope for, wish for or beg for. You get what you
reward. Reward Systems (2008). This means that the main aims of the reward schemes are to
attract new employees to that specific institution, elicit good work performance and to maintain
commitment to that organization. Torrington et al. (2015) correspondingly observe that reward
schemes help to maintain the “psychological contract”. Furthermore, it indicates what behavior
the organization values coupled with what is paid for (Mullins, 2014). Comparatively, if an
institution values team work, then a team bonus of some kind is provided. This psychological
contract will somehow determine what the employees perceive to be “fair” in terms of the
reward for the work they do (Mullins, 2014). Deviant behaviors like theft in the work place are
often due to an attempt to restore “fairness”, to the remuneration, Torrington et al. (2015).
Violation of the psychological contract is likely to cause problems with employees more than
any other single factor (Mullins, 2014). This can be supported by The Porter and Lawler Model
which suggests that the actual performance in a job is primarily determined by various factors:
the effort spent by a person’s ability to do the job and the individual’s perception of what the
required task are (Shah and Shah, 2017). Kelly (2019) for instance suggests that a movement to
school based reward schemes can increase the precision at which resource are allocated by
encouraging the alignment from top down setting organizational goals and from bottom-up
setting since the teachers are gaining feedback and benefit from better resource allocation and
policy coherence.

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1.2 Research rationale

In the last decade, staff reward and recognition schemes in UK retail sector have received much
attention. However, their utilization remains questionable since some have not yet been
effectively implemented. According to Evaluation of Performance Contracting Report (March,
2010) from the office of the prime minister, a culture of professionalism, competitiveness,
innovation and target setting is being inculcated into the public sector. This, they plan to do
through Performance Contracting (PC). Waswa and Katana (2008) demonstrate that pay for
performance system has two advantages in the organizations practiced; attracting high-quality
employees and secondly motivating employees to exert more effort at their jobs. Is there any
evidence that the schemes have the capability to complement quality of service delivery in terms
of staff work output? How do they contribute positively to job performance and motivation? This
study therefore, seeks to fill this knowledge gap by investigating the effects between rewards and
recognition on employee performance in UK retail sector.

1.3 Research aims and objectives

Aims
The aim of this study is to understand the reward and recognition programs and their influence
on the employee performance in the UK sector. Then, the study will provide recommendations to
the retailers how they can improve effectiveness of reward and recognition programs to improve
staff performance in the workplace.

Research objectives

1) To understand the importance of reward and recognition programs in the UK retail sector
2) To evaluate several reward and recognition programs used in the UK retail sector
3) To understand the importance of employee performance in the UK retail sector
4) To analyze the impact of reward and recognition programs on the employee performance in
the UK retail sector
5) To provide suggestions for the UK retailers so that they can improve effectiveness of reward
and recognition programs to influence employee performance

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1.4 Research questions

a) What is the importance of reward and recognition programs in the UK retail sector?
b) How effectively different reward and recognitions program are used in the UK retail sector?
c) What are the importances of employee performance in the UK retail sector?
d) How do reward and recognition programs influence employee performance in the UK retail
sector?
e) How can the UK retailers improve effectiveness of reward and recognition programs to
influence employee performance?

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Reward and Recognition Programs

As Troutman (2016) notes, employee reward and recognition program state a set of programs
that is established by an organization to motivate the employees and improve their performance
in the workplace. Virginia (2017) disclosed that employee reward and recognition programs are
mainly designed to motivate the employees and also improve their performance through both
financial and psychological advantages. A study by Fisher (2016) said that reward and
recognition are mainly applied in business organization to reward employees to prompt their
behavior and recognize employees. Katou (2017) stated that the main purpose of reward and
incentive program is to motivate the employees to increase their performance. A business
organization mainly focuses on the reward and recognition program that focuses on key four
sections including compensation, recognition, benefits and appreciation. A study by Reena
(2017) indicated that a business organizations use reward by focusing on the two types of
activities of the employee such as employee behavior and employee performance. On the other
hand, an organization focuses on two types of rewards including extrinsic and intrinsic rewards.
According to Mcrill (2015) notes, the extrinsic rewards include promotion, pay rises, respective
benefits and bonuses. The extrinsically-motivated employees focus on their performance
outcomes. Moreover, intrinsic rewards mainly come from the verbal rewards including positive
praise or feedback that increases job satisfaction. Donata (2015) said that the intrinsically-
motivated employees contribute willingly in the jobs for different internal reasons.

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2.2 Concept of Employee Motivation

Tinokla (2017) disclosed that employee motivation means how an employee is committed is
his/her job, how an employee is understood the goals of an organization and how an employee is
empowered in his/her daily works. As Finney (2016) notes, employee motivation is describes a
level of commitment, energy as well as creativity in that employees of an organization bring to
the jobs. It is essential for the business organizations to find the ways to motivate their
employees. Motivating the employees or the motivated employees is the key factor for any kind
of businesses. According to Chiu (2017) notes, motivated workforce describes highly productive
employee that help business organizations to achieve the goals of the business. In addition,
proper and timely motivation to the employees can help to increase the employee performance
and business productivity. Negussine (2015) stated that when employees of an organization are
motivated highly they present satisfaction in their working, create good relationship with the
managers and develop their performance.

2.3 Impact of Reward and Recognition Programs on Employee Performance

Rashid and Hafsa (2016) stated that reward and recognition program of business organizations
have great impact on motivating employee and developing employee performance significantly.
Managers of business organizations use different extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to stimulate the
creativity of the employees. Extrinsic rewards mainly help to improve the creative performance
of the employees. A study by Armstrong and Brown (2017) disclosed that suitable and
appropriate reward and recognition programs can help to motivate and encourage the employees
in the workplace, and also improve their performance. Ali and Ahmed (2015) said that proper
reward and recognition in workplace makes good relation between the employees and the
managers. Only rewards are not proper idea to improve employee performance. It is also
essential to give recognition to employee’s brilliant and successful work (Bishop, 2017). As
Fareed (2016) notes, without any reward and recognition programs, business organizations
cannot be able to motivate their employees properly, and improve their performance at
workplace. Thus, reward and recognition programs play the great role to not only motivate the
employees but also improve their organizational performance.

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3.0 Research methodology
3.1 Philosophy

Philosophy vary person to person and it is developed on the basis of the practical knowledge,
aims and the objectives of the research (Saunders, 2014). There are several kinds of philosophies
such as pragmatism, realism, positivism and interpretivism philosophies. In this study
pragmatism philosophy suits best. Pragmatism philosophy is best suited for when the study coves
both qualitative and quantitative (mixed) method. Since the study is based on both the qualitative
and quantitative method pragmatism best suits for it.

3.2 Research approach

Research approach is the approach which focuses on the preparation of the research. There are
three kinds of research approach. According to Kothari (2016), these three kinds of research
approach are deductive, inductive and abductive approach. With the help of the deductive
approach a theory is tested. A new theory is created with the help of inductive approach by using
data. Whereas the weaknesses of these two approaches are sorted out with the help of the
abductive approach. Abductive approach is more suitable for this study as this study
encompasses both quantitative and qualitative research.

3.3 Research Design

 
According to Kothari (2016), a study can be designed in three ways such as exploratory,
descriptive, and explanatory. In this research study, the exploratory design is excluded. In order
to design the research, the topic of the research should be understood first by the researcher. As a
result, the researcher will describe the effect of relationship marketing on the customer loyalty of
Tesco first. Then the researcher will use explanatory design to identify the real effect of
relationship marketing on the customer loyalty of Tesco.

3.4 Research method

Method means the process of doing something. Likewise, Research method refers in which way
the research is prepared. There are two types of research method like quantitative and qualitative
method. According to Robson (2015), mathematical and statistical data are the main ingredients
for quantitative method. On the other hand, qualitative data is the focused item for qualitative

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method. In order to make the research worthy the study should be encompassed more than
method. For this reason, the researcher of the study will use both method.

3.5 Data sources

According to Bajpai (2015), in a research two types of data are used namely primary and
secondary data. Primary data is a type of data which is collected by the researcher on his or her
own. And it is collected from the first hand sources such as interviews, surveys and experiments.
On the other hand, secondary data is a data which can be gathered from different websites,
books, journals, other research’s etc. in this study, both primary and secondary data sources are
used. The primary data source of this study includes semi-structured interview and survey. In
this study, the main focus of the primary data is evaluating how the reward and recognition
programs works out on the employee performance in relation to the employees of Iceland retailer
in UK.

On the other hand, the secondary data sources for this research are university online portal,
books, journals, magazines and newspapers. The main focus of the secondary data is in
conducting a critical literature review of both the subject and topic of the study as well as the
reward and recognition and their classification and effectiveness, importance of employee
performance in the retail sector of UK.

3.6 Research instruments

There are several instruments for collecting the primary and secondary data (Saunders, 2014).
The instruments for collecting the primary data are- survey, focus groups, semi-structured
interview, ethnographic, case study method, observation, experimental methods. On the other
hand, the key methods for collecting the secondary data are- books, journals, websites etc.

3.7 Data Analysis techniques

According to Saunders (2010), data analysis techniques are the techniques by which the collected
data is analyzed. In this study, the MS Excel and SPSS will be used to analyze the quantitative
data and the content analysis tools are used for the qualitative data.

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3.8 Sampling technique

Sampling is the process by which the primary data is collected according to particular principles
and guidelines. Bryman and Bell, 2015There are two types of sampling like- probability
sampling and non-probability techniques. In the probability sampling, every item has the fair
chance for getting involved. On the other hand, in non-probability sampling every item does not
has the same chance of getting involved.

3.9 Conclusion

The study encompasses the pragmatism philosophy, both qualitative and quantitative, primary
and secondary data sources. In this study, to collect the primary data survey and semi-structured
interview will be applied. Furthermore, the survey probability sampling technique will be used
for sampling the data.

4.0 Time Schedule

Areas February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020

1W 2W 3 4 1W 2 3 4W 1 2 3W 4 1 2W 3 4W
W W W W W W W W W
Approval of
proposal
Introduction
Literature
review
Methodology
define
Data collection
Data analysis
Finding and
discussion
Conclusion
Research
submission

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References

Armstrong, R. and Brown D. (2017) Increasing the effectiveness of reward management on

employee performance, Journal of Employee Relations, Vol. 12, P. 106-120.

Ali, R. and Ahmed, S. (2015) The impact of reward and recognition programs on employee’s
motivation and satisfaction: an empirical study, International Review of Business Research
Papers, Vol. 5 (4), P. 270-279.

Bishop, J. (2017) The recognition & Reward of Employee Performance, Journal of Labor
Economics, Vol. 5 (4), P. 36-56.

Bajpai, N. (205) Business Research Methods. 2nd Ed. Harlow: Pearson Education

Bryman A. and Bell, E. (2015) Business Research Methods. 4th Ed. Lonond: Oxford University
Press
Chiu, L. (2017) Retaining and motivating employees. 3rd Ed. New York: Free Press.

Donata L. (2015) Employee Motivation Techniques: Extrinsic Rewards vs. Intrinsic Rewards. 3rd
Ed. Oxford: Prentice Hall.

Fisher, J. G. (2016) Strategic Reward and Recognition: Improving Employee Performance. 3rd
Ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Finney, M. (2016) How to Motivate Employees. 2nd Ed. Harlow: Oxford University Press.

Fareed, E. (2016) The Impact of Rewards on Employee’s Job Performance and Job Satisfaction,
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Katou, A. (2017) Measuring the impact of Reward and Recognition programs on Organizational
performance, Journal of Industrial Management, Vol. 13, P. 134-156.

Mcrill, D. (2015) Extrinsic Vs Intrinsic Employee Rewards. 3rd Ed. Harlow: John Wiley and
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Negussine N. (2015) Relationship between rewards and work motivation, Journal of Business
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Reena A. M. (2017) Impact of Reward and Recognition programs on employee’s motivation and
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Rashid, S. and Hafsa, N. (2016) An Empirical Investigation of Rewards and Employee

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Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2014) Research Methods for Business Students. 6th
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Troutman, B. (2016) Employee Recognition Ideas and Recognition Programs. 4th Ed. London:
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Tinokla, P. (2017) Motivation in the Workplace. 3rd Ed. London: Sage publication.

Virginia, S. (2017) Employee Reward and Recognition Program Handbook. 2nd Ed. Boston:
Pearson Publication Limited.

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