Reward

John Lewis rewards their staff by distributing a proportion of the company's profits to its employees (John Lewis Partnership, 2010). No groups in the company are exempt from receiving a proportion of the company's profits. The reason for this is that it would be unfair for certain employees working in the organisation to receive a share of the profits while others don't receive anything, taking into account that everyone has contributed to the company. In this respect, John Lewis ensures fairness and equality. On the other hand, the company's profits are distributed as a percentage of the employee's salary (John Lewis Partnership, 2010). As a result, the higher paid employees are more likely to receive a greater share of the profits than the lower paid employees. In this respect, fairness and equality isn't fully ensured as certain employee groups e.g. Managers are more likely to receive a greater share of the profits than other groups e.g. Checkout staff because they earn more.

Having said that, the reason why the share of the profits are distributed as a percentage of one's salary is because the employees that earn more have greater responsibilities and more difficult jobs to carry out. Based on this, you could argue that the higher paid earners in John Lewis receiving a greater share of the profits is perfectly fair. In addition, it is also arguable that employees earning the most have a bigger influence in generating the profits that are shared in the company than the employees that earn less, so it would make sense that they receive a greater share of the profits. In this respect, fairness and equality are ensured as the employees that have a bigger effect on the company receive a greater share of the profits.

Arguments for Chief Executives to receive bonuses even if the organisation that they have led has underperformed:

1. Receiving bonuses even if the organisation underperforms would encourage Chief Executives to stay in the company instead of leaving the organisation for a position in another company that gives bonuses to Chief Executives regardless of whether the company underperforms or not.

2. Receiving bonuses even if the organisation underperforms may make the Chief Executives feel valued in the business. This may motivate them into working more effectively which may improve the company's overall performance.

3. The performance of the company may not always be the fault of the Chief Executive/s or at least not totally. As a result, the Chief Executives may have actually performed well in reality even if the company as a whole hasn't. In this case, bonuses for Chief Executives even if an organisation is performing badly is justified.

Arguments against Chief Executives to receive bonuses even if the organisation that they have led has unperformed:

1. Company's that are underperforming are generally short of income. As a result, bonuses for Chief Executives aren't justified in underperforming business's considering that they are largely responsible for the lack of income in the first place.

2. Company's that are paying Chief Executives bonuses when they are underperforming are encouraging poor performance on the behalf of the company. This is because its part of the responsibility of the Chief Executives for the company to perform well. This may encourage subordinates in the company to work less efficiently and effectively with the expectation of receiving bonuses.

3. Company's that are paying Chief Executives bonuses when they are underperforming may damage or harm the morale in certain organisations. This is because it's unlikely that any other employees in the underperforming companies are receiving bonuses. As a result, it may create a "them and us" type divide in company's, which may further worsen the company's performance.

Three financial ways of rewarding a teacher at a primary school are:

1. Wages - Teachers are paid based on the number of hours worked, usually each week e.g. the number of hours a teacher teaches his/her classes in total.

2. Salaries - Teachers are paid at the end of each month for their work. Salaries are annual.

3. Performance related pay - Teachers are paid based on meeting or failing to meet certain targets. A typical target might be to have 60% of a teacher's class to be averaging a "C" grade in Maths.

Three non-financial ways of rewarding a teacher at a primary school are:

1. Job enrichment - a teacher may be given more interesting, challenging and complex jobs to carry out e.g. becoming more involved in solving any bullying issues that may exist in a primary school.

2. Job enlargement - a teacher may be given more tasks to carry out that they are familiar with e.g. teaching more classes than before and or marking more pieces of homework.

3. Empowerment - a teacher may be given greater power and control in a primary school e.g. have the authority to decide on punishments for misbehaved children.

Out of the financial/non-financial ways of rewarding a teacher stated above, one of the ways of rewarding a teacher that would motivate me the most would be to empower me through empowerment. This is because it would make me feel like I'm an asset to the school because I'm given extra responsibilities that I otherwise wouldn't have. I would therefore feel valued as an employee. Another way of rewarding a teacher that would motivate me would be to give me more interesting, challenging and complex tasks to carry out through job enrichment. This is because it would involve carrying out jobs that are more challenging than what I would usually carry out. It would therefore test my skills as an employee, which would motivate me to work harder than I usually would.

In conclusion I've enjoyed this topic on rewards greatly. This is largely because this topic is relatively unfamiliar to me. As a result, I've learned a lot on the subject. In addition, this topic is relevant to me once I finish University and seek employment so I've found the topic particularly interesting and insightful.

References:

John Lewis Partnership (2010) Pay and benefits [online]. John Lewis. Available from: http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/Display.aspx?&MasterId=68408a6d-eee2-4873-a2fb-420aad32e547&NavigationId=556 [Accessed 20 April 2010].

Reward image [online]. [n.d.] [s.n.] Available from: http://customerservicevoodoo.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/incentiverecognition.jpg [Accessed 22 March 2010].