Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap
Fairness in rewarding and recognising employees for
their contribution holds the key to productivity and employee morale
It is the last few days before the financial year 2012-13
draws to close. At the workplace there
are talks about rewards, recognition and yes the often repeated appraisal.
There is inherently nothing wrong with either of these. However from an
organisational perspective a more loaded question is, “Are employees being
rewarded fairly for their efforts?” What is more important here is not whether
the organisation (read management) believes that employees have been rewarded
fairly but whether employees think they have been rewarded fairly or not. What
if the entire process of reward and recognition is unjust – does it impact the
organisational fabric? A number of research points out that reward and
recognition programs effect employee motivation and productivity. As a matter
of fact employee rewards and recognition are positively correlated with the
motivation and productivity. It is specifically herein that the fairness (as
opposed to injustice and favouritism) component in rewards and recognition
arises.
Off the record chit chat with friends did give me reasons to
believe that the reward and recognition process is not entirely just and fair;
yet I had every reason to believe that not all is bad, until I read this story.
False Glory (http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/false-glory) and its
subsequent telecast on CNNIBN is a clarion call on the need to revisit the
finer nuances of fair reward and recognition and its impact of employee morale
/ motivation. The story dwells on how a
senior CRPF officer, a senior Indian Police Service officer and an inspector
connived to get themselves nominated for the prestigious President’s Police
Medal for Gallantry (PPMG), while sidelining two brave soldiers who were the
real heroes. All this while there is
clear evidence to suggest that the senior IPS officer and the inspector did
nothing to deserve the award. The story goes on to state that, “the injustice
went unopposed for about a year, the overlooked jawans did not raise an
objection. They were resigned to their fate, telling themselves that this was
how the system worked. They stayed on in the force, but their morale fell. On
crucial operations, they lost their will to take any initiative. It affected
the morale of other jawans as well.”
The question then is – does the same happen in organisations
too? Well seen from an organisational perspective, this perhaps is not a new
phenomenon. It’s no secret that the playing field among workers isn’t level in
most workplaces. Favoritism and taking undue credit of good works done by
juniors is perhaps not new. A survey conducted by Georgetown University’s
McDonough School of Business found that 92 per cent of senior business
executives have seen favouritism at play in employee promotions, including at
their own companies (84 per cent). About a quarter of the polled executives admitted
to practicing favouritism themselves.
But how does such behaviour impact an organisation and its
employees? The fact is that employees who don’t feel they are fairly rewarded
are likely to become de-motivated to perform, frustrated, resentful and seek to
leave the organisation at the first opportunity. True that with the current
economy, this may not happen right away, but while these employees may stick to
their current jobs, they will not put forth their best of efforts towards
achieving organisational goals. Also, by focusing attention on particular
employees, it’s easy to overlook growth opportunities and unique skill sets
offered by others. If the yardstick for success has nothing to do with
performance then there’s every chance that the organisation may lose good
people, if they feel their talents are going unnoticed.
What is the way out? Simply put, managers (or those assigned
with the task) must be sincere (and not be manipulative – as in the story
above) in deciding as to who should be rewarded and for what. While it makes
sense to gather accurate details in highlighting performance and avoiding
insincerity in work, it is equally important to figure out who is the actual
performer. There may be situations where people are getting recognised for a
work done by some other person. It is important to get beneath the surface and identify
who has actually performed the job and recognise their effort. This would
prevent unfair treatment being meted out to unrecognised employee.
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