Reward Management

How can Multi National Companies use Reward management to motivate the Employees of Different Countries? : A Case of Marriott Hotels in UK.

Abstract

Employees are always considered as people who play a vital role in each and every organisation. The relationship between employee and employer changes frequently through out the years. Several concepts of employees are also varying time by time.

Now a day's employees are having the bargaining power and they are more concerned about their individual needs and well being of their working environment. This dissertation analyses various factors which motivates an employee to work within an organisation. Employee will stay in an organisation only when their expectations are satisfied or otherwise there is a chance for him/her to leave the company. High employee turnover is a big issue in companies today.

Organisations will look forward to retain only the potential key employees who will make real difference to their customers and their stake holders. This dissertation proposes a frame work to retain the employees and to reward those employees for their potential by which they are taking the organisation to a different level.

This research has been progressed through literature study on employee concepts, Human Resource Management and Reward management of employees. The data from the primary research has been analysed compared and verified with the findings of secondary research and produced recommendations for the effective management of employee in multi national companies.

Introduction

Reward management is nowadays considered as an important topic in order to achieve the goals of a company. Employees are considered as the main factor which plays an important role in the organisation. The success of each and every organisation is its dedicated employee's .Current world is filled with changes and competition. In order to survive in the current situation companies should be having employees who are loyal and expert in their own field. New technologies are developed constantly and the companies are eagerly trying to catch up those talented employees with right expertise in their own areas. Human resources as an important factor should get increased attention in managing business (Lindergen & Paulson ,2008)`. Multinational companies are facing increased challenges from all around the world due to globalisation.

1.1 Reward management

Reward system usually means the financial reward on organization gives its employees in return for their labour.The term rewards system, not only includes material rewards, but also non-material rewards. The components of a reward system consist of financial rewards (basic and performance pay) and employee benefits, which together comprise total remuneration. They also include non-financial rewards (holiday trips, moving to large office, recognition, promotion, praise, achievement responsibility and personal growth) and in many case a system of performance management. Pay arrangements are central to the cultural initiative as they are the most tangible expression of the working relationship between employer and employee. Many papers examine the role of organizational culture that is, the demand for monitoring compensation. Such investigations conclude that organizational culture places a significant role in determining the level of economic demands. Recent researches on industrial unrest indicate that reward criteria of the organisations both financial and non-financial rewards have tremendous influence upon the employees and employers performance.

Reward is a broad construct that can include 'anything an employee may value and desire that an employer is able or willing to offer in exchange for employee contribution'. A conceptual distinction can be made between the three main constituents of reward--type, system, and criterion. (Henderson 1989, p.2) Chiang, Flora F.T. ; Birtch, Thomas A (2006) An empirical examination of reward preferences within and across national settings. Management International Review

Reward type refers to the nature of the reward itself (e.g., financial and non-financial; extrinsic and intrinsic). Financial rewards include direct (e.g., basic salary) and indirect (i.e., benefits and services) as well as incentive (e.g., variable pay) and non-incentive (e.g., fixed pay) categories. Non-financial rewards, on the other hand, do not benefit employees in a monetary sense and consist of both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic non-financial rewards are tangible rewards attached to the job and are given and controlled by a firm. Examples include employment security, promotion, status, relationships, and work conditions. By contrast, intrinsic rewards accrue from performing the task itself and are self-reinforcing. Job challenge, variety, and sense of achievement are good examples of this category.

Reward system represents the method or mechanism (e.g., seniority-based, performance-based) by which organizations determine employee reward outcomes (e.g., pay increases). Systems can be either performance or non-performance oriented. Where performance-oriented reward systems compensate employees based on how well they perform on the job, non-performance systems compensate employees based on a different set of criteria, such as seniority/years of service, and skills/competencies. Reward criterion then, refers to the basis of allocation (i.e., individual or group) used to determine the reward.

1.2 Marriott International

Marriott International is a leading, worldwide, hospitality company and has more than 2,300 operating units located in the U.S. and 59 other countries and territories. It employs approximately 154,000 workers. Fortune magazine has recognized Marriott as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" (1997-2001), one of the "Top 80 Companies for Minorities" (2000), and one of "America's Most Admired Companies" overall (2001). In addition, Sales and Marketing Management magazine has named Marriott Sales as one of the top 25 sales forces in the U.S. (1997-2000).(mariott.com 13th jan 09)

Marriott is and always has been an equal opportunities employer in all aspects of employment. The company is fully committed to providing a good and harmonious working environment that offers equal treatment and equal opportunities for all its associates, and where every associate is treated with appropriate respect and dignity.

It is the company's policy that there should be no unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation of any associate, job applicant, customers, providers of service or member of public, whether in connection with recruitment, placement, training, benefits or promotion, either directly or indirectly, on grounds of race, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, marital or family status(Marriott handbook for employees 2009)

Marriott is committed to fair treatment of associates and to providing training and advancement opportunities to all. Marriott has an unshakeable conviction that there associates are the most important assets for them. Marriott always look forward to an environment which will always supports associates growth and development. Marriott is a reputation for employing caring, dependable associates who are ethical and trustworthy and is always keen to give a home like atmosphere and friendly workplace relationships. They always try to achieve a performance reward system that recognizes the important contributions of both hourly and management associates. There are two types of associates as explained above. Hourly associates are those employees who are paid on the basis of the hours they worked. In the other hand management associates are those who are paid a fixed salary on the basis of job content assigned to them.

Marriott has been selected for the research as they are having employees from all over the world. They employ people not on the basis of ethnicity, caste and religion but on the basis of experience. As they have employees from different parts of the world their needs will be different. They will be looking forward to different types of reward schemes which will suit to their needs and will satisfy them to stay with the organisation. Research has been conducted by taking Marriott as the company because they are facing a high risk of satisfying the needs of employees who are having different tastes regarding rewards which they are looking forward from the organisation. As stated earlier, Marriott has been recognized as one of the 100 companies to work for in America by Fortune magazine. This states that the employees are satisfied to an extent with the rewards which they are allotted by the organisation. As the reward management plays a role in the organisation it will be worth doing a research on the company who cares and gives equal opportunities to each and every employee in the organisation.

1.3 Current postion

1.3.1Current Policy

At present Marriott do not have an existing policy for reward system to their employees. However, their ‘unofficial' approach can be viewed below. But they are considering reward management on the basis of “Spirit to serve”. It is based on the service which the associate delivers to the customer to keep the good will of the firm. The manager will nominate the name of the associate to the Human Res department according to their service. Associates name will be displayed in the notice board and sometimes this is valued more than money as an individual and as an employee.

1.3.2 Current Issues

a) There is no documentation for reward management policy.

b) There are currently no KPIs (key performance indicators) for monitoring and rewarding for employee's performance activities.

c) Human resource policy document is rarely provided to employees or it's not updated.

d) Literature tends to be piecemeal - Employee guidelines are a separate document to the job without any details on employee recognition/reward.

e) Employee recognition is applied inconsistently.

f) Difficult to assess the employee performance and it's questionable.

g) Employee satisfaction stands at very low rate.

1.4 Expected Results

Results are expected by looking through the issues regarding the current policies and try to make changes in order to get it done properly to satisfy the employees. Enhancements are required for the policies for the well being of the relationship between the employees and the employer. After this research it should be helpful for the company to implement activities and to sort out the responsibilities to the concerned parties. Reward management should be monitored and evaluated regularly .Employer should go to the next level to satisfy the reward and needs of the employees to get them done with the job allotted.

1.5 Objectives

The objective of this research is to recommend improvements to Marriott's Human Resource policy. Ultimately, the policy will aim to:

a) Reduce the dissatisfaction of the employees on promotion criterion, on appraisal system and on salary, bonus and other fringe benefits.

b) Improve the work performance and productivity

c) Reduce the level of occupational stress that arises from feeling of inequality on reward.

d) Describe HRM, IHRM and its importance and various HRM strategies and its importance in the current scenario.

e) Identify and analyse various factors that drive employees to dissatisfaction

f) Analyse various factors that motivates the employees to stay with the organisation.

g) Reduce the perception gap on reward management system and develop a culture of high performance.

In order to carry out the above objectives it is necessary to analyse:-

>What are the human needs?

>What are the organisation various approaches towards employee needs and satisfaction

1.6 Scope

The project will cover the following

a) Review of all associated literature - reward management in service and related industries.

b) Review of the front-end activities to understand the extent of the employees' work related problems and other dissatisfaction if any.

c) Review of current HR policy promises and approach to recognising good work of employees

d) Establish links with enhanced HR strategy

The project applies to

All UK domestic and international employees working in Marriott

Both emergency and normal working conditions in and out of the working hours. Establish synergies with employee Performance and HR Policy.

Out of scope

Developing processes or process mapping.

Service delivery project to amalgamate employee and their locations / roles (Including transfers).

1.7 Overview

This Report analyzed trends of reward management, and its influence in multi national companies in UK. It analyzed various approaches that the industry has taken to reward employees, primarily through literature reviews, and also through the analysis of questionnaire done with the employees from Marriott in UK .This dissertation also produced recommendations for the effective management of reward process for the improved business case.

Chapter 1: This is the introductory chapter that explains the Significance of the chosen field, Aims and Objectives, Rationale, The reason for selection of multi national companies especially Marriott , and end with the Overview of the Project Report.

Chapter 2: This chapter proceeds with a literature review about various HRM strategies and approaches taken for the reward scheme , and to maintain the needs of the employees in the organisation for the improved product quality and services etc.

Chapter 3: This chapter illustrates the characteristics of Marriott, its business nature, global exposure and the various issues that the industry is currently facing in case of reward management

Chapter 4: This chapter explains various research methodologies that are used for

collecting data and information to carry out various analyses that are required to complete the research and documentation.

Chapter 5: This chapter analyses various reasons in order to maintain a good reward management. This is carried out through literature analysis and through data

analysis of the Survey conducted on various employees from the Marriott industry in

UK. This chapter ends with the findings from the analysis with critical evaluations.

Chapter 6: This chapter explains evaluated recommendations for the findings to the

reward management of employees, as a management strategy for improving the brand standards.

Chapter 7: this chapter gives conclusion about the future development in the industry if the reward management schemes have been allocated properly, which may provide a solution for the future possible issues.

Literature Review

The basic mantra for the success of any business organization is the appropriate allocation and usage of resources. The most important resources comprise of four M's - man, material, money and machine. The dissertation under consideration deals with the first ‘M' that is the manpower or the employees of an organization. They are the backbone as they put every plan into action which is inevitable for the success of a company. So their importance in business cannot be ruled out and they form the backbone of every organization because they determine the success and failure rates.

Since the most important set of public for an organization is its workforce which forms the key ingredient of its success, it is a necessary fact that the employees must be kept happy and well bonded. In today's competitive labour market, irrespective of the size of the organization it has become a major concern to attract and retain employees. One of the important reasons underlying the high turnover is low job satisfaction, appreciation and non competitive benefits package. Corporate should keep one point in mind that there is no lack of opportunities for a talented person. So if he/she is not satisfied means they will switch over to some other firm which provides them with more suitable job. So in order to retain the employees and make them happy, there are so many ways like appreciation, recognition, incentives and awards .In addition to that several motivational tools should be implemented from time to time to keep the employee's morale high.

These promotional items make for a smart tool because they serve as a token of gratitude and also show that you care. It is a great way of thanking the employees for their services .Moreover they are also expecting some sort of recognition from the company and promotional items help to do just that. Making the employees happy as well as a feel that they are cared is very important if the organization wants them to exhibit performance in a desired manner. Promotional items also give a sense of recognition to the employees. Thus it helps in the strong bonding between employees and the employer which ultimately leads to the smooth functioning and a pleasant work environment which is a must for an organization aiming to reach at the top.

In the 1920's, the view on a person's role in the industrial working world started to change, the human was beginning to be seen as a subject with potential (Kressler, 2003). As described by Wilson” Technology can be replicated, capital can be acquired, and distribution channels can be created through new alliances, but the actions of people (what they do or fail to do) have become the critical factor in achieving enduring success” (Wilson, 2002, p.15).

Today's competitive world demands the firm to invest in people and skills rather than spending huge capital on physical assets, then only they can achieve competitive advantage .Thus it's no surprise that a reward strategy can help the organizations to attract and retain the talented ones and to motivate them to led the company to its desired goal . Companies in the service sectors require skilled and committed workforce to exhibit desired performance and also provide good services in a timely manner to their targeted consumers in various countries across the world .Commitment towards job and in return job satisfaction are unavoidable for the successful growth of the companies across the globe. All these facts interested the researcher to select this topic for research to analyze the reasons for the dissatisfaction of job and various factors which helps in motivating the employees of different sectors especially service sector.

Kressler, H.W. (2003). Motivate and Reward - Performance appraisal and incentive systems for business success. (S. Pearce, Trans). NY: Palgrave Macmillan. (Original work published 1988.)

Wilson, T. B. (2002). Innovative Reward Systems for the Changing Workplace (2nd Ed.). Blacklick,OH, USA: McGraw Hill Companies. Retrieved 20071108,from https://site.ebrary.com.bibl.proxy.hj.se/lib/jonhh/Top?layout=document&id=10153055&?nosr=1

2.1 Employee

An employee can be defined as an individual who was hired by an employer to do a specific job(web.01). He has to do a specific job efficiently within a functional area or department to accomplish the goals of the firm. In most of the organizations a performance development planning process is undergone which will define the specific task of the employee as well as their expected performance. Employees trade their knowledge, skill and experience in exchange for compensation from the firm. If they are not satisfied with the compensation means the propensity to switch the company will be high, this will result in high turnover. So it's high time to give importance to the rewards.

Employees, considered as human resources of the organization are used for the benefit of the organizations, employees and the society. (Aswathappa, 2008). In order to drive the flow of business in the right direction for better results they have to be valued, respected, encouraged and appreciated .These can be done with the help of rewards. In a good working environment with efficient working methods and equipments employees will exhibit a better work performance and in addition to that natural motivation to do a job for an appropriate reward will surely pave the way for improved productivity and high profitability.

For service sector employees are the most important factor, so implementation of new reward strategies and techniques are unavoidable for high quality performance of the employees, also to reduce the high turnover rate.

2.1.1 Impact of Changes on Employees

Change is an inevitable part of life especially in the fast changing world. Today's commercial climate is compelling companies to implement changes in order to survive and grow in the global market. Changes always uproot a person and alter his lifestyle. The organizations adopt changes in order to meet the current standards; its employees also have to undergo change and should accept the new circumstances. Due to the technological, social and economic changes employees face a lot of insecurity and it's the human nature to resist those changes without knowing about its real benefits.

It's the duty of the management to handle this delicate situation in a tactful manner. One of the effective ways is to motivate and encourage the employees to put their best effort under the changing circumstances so that the net result will be high profitability and ultimate success of the business. By creating a good working environment and high morale, employees won't be negatively affected by the new changes.

In order to cope up with the commercial changes companies need to be competitive and should attract employees to the job as well as should retain the employees. Employee compensation and benefit packages are the backing up factors for many potential employees who may face discomfort in their work environment due to the social, economical and technical changes without financially jeopardizing the success of the business.

Today it's a necessary fact that irrespective of the changes which companies are undergoing they should keep their employees motivated by providing them with rewards and recognition. So by communicating the change to the employees, by making them clearly understand about its impact on organization and its benefits, the company can encourage them to do the work in an efficient manner and in exchange employees will get the rewards for their expected performance.

2.1.2 Employee Management & Engagement

Employee management is the key to effective performance management and employee engagement. Employee engagement is the psychological commitment of employees towards their job.

As said by Charles Kettering "There is a great difference between knowing and understanding”. It holds true in the case of business and employees. Know your employees and make them understand about the goals to be accomplished. Understanding in business means the proper management of the employees and providing them with what they expect in return for their commitment and efficient work. Compensation can take the form of rewards, recognition, and reasonable benefits package.

The first and foremost need for the employee management is the right employee for the right job.

The keynote tip which helps to exercise a proper employee management are Structure establishment, which means that there should be a well defined structure for bringing out the desires performance from the employees such as setting of deadlines for a specific task etc. Another one is the value for employees. An organization's greatest asset are its employees so they should be motivated as well as their skills, knowledge and effort should be valued. Company should treat employees with respect by providing a positive work environment to the employees which will definitely boost their performance and to encourage them to meet the goals in an efficient manner. Listen to the employees and appreciate them for the effort they put to meet the goals and provide them ways to improve their potential, thereby creating belief that the company is taking care of them.

If the organization wants to capture great heights, all it need is an engaged workforce. It is connected to three forces in an organization - attrition, productivity and profitability. In order to reduce the attrition rate organizations should take care of the employees by incrementing their salaries, providing necessary incentives and bonus. Engaged workforce are always aware about the degree of expectation of work by the organization which yields high productivity. Thus they will result in an increase in the profitability of a concern which is the relative measure of success of a business.

2.2 Human Resource Management

The overall management process represent five basic functions for the managers to perform: planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. This research focuses on one of those functions - the staffing which is the personnel management or human resource management (HRM) function. Human Resource Management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising and compensating employees and of attending to their labour relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns (Dessler, 2008pg 2).

Heathfield, (2008) defined “Human Resource Management (HRM) as the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization”. This can be further explained as “Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training”(Heathfield, 2008).

HRM is vital to the organization. It is the function which focuses its direction towards the management of people working in an organization. Dessler and Chiat (2009) states that, ‘Without HRM, organizations may find themselves in different kinds of unwanted situations, such as hiring the wrong people, getting fined by government ministries for unsafe practices, finding out that people are not giving their best, or even over/under- paying their employees.'
The most valued asset of an organization is its employees because improved quality and productivity can be achieved through trained, motivated and committed employees. The function of HRM is nothing but to train, motivate and provide the employees with opportunities to be more productive and effective. Since each and every objective of business is achieved through its effective workforce, the needs of the employees should be satisfied.

2.2.1 HRM Models

HR systems and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is congruent with organizational strategy (hence the name ‘matching model') (Armstrong, 2006). They further explained that there is a human resource cycle, which consists of four generic processes or functions that are performed in all organizations (Armstrong, 2006 pg 10).

1. Selection - matching available human resources to jobs.

2. Appraisal - performance management

3. Rewards - the reward system is one of the most under-utilized and mishandled managerial tools for driving organizational performance; it must reward short as well as long-term achievements, bearing in mind that ‘business must perform in the present to succeed in the future.

4. Development - developing high quality employees.

2.2.2 Nature and Scope

The role of HRM has grown broader and more strategic over time. In the earliest firms “personnel” first took over hiring and firing from the supervisors, ran the payroll department, and administered benefit plans (Dessler, 2008pg 12). As technology in areas like testing and interviewing began to emerge, the personnel department began to play an expanded role in employee selection, training and promotion. Today globalization, technological and nature of work trends mean that human resource managers have taken on several new responsibilities (Dessler, 2008pg 12). Human resource management involves all management decisions and action that affect the nature of the relationship between the organization and its employees-its human resources (Armstrong, 2006).

Human Resource Management is pervasive in nature as it is present in all enterprises. Its focus is on results rather than on rules. HRM helps employees to develop their potential fully.HRM try to help employees develop their potential fully and to encourages employees to give their best to the organization. It is all about people at work, both as individuals and groups. It tries to put people on assigned jobs in order to produce good results. It helps an organization meet its goals in the future by providing for competent and well-motivated employees. It tries to build and maintain cordial relations between people working at various levels in the organization. It is a multidisciplinary activity, utilizing knowledge and inputs drawn from, for example psychology and economics.

The Human Resource Management activities extend from selection to layoff of an employee in an organization. This includes the fixation of remuneration, training, motivation and induction of employees. Thus it helps to develop other industrial relations for employees to acquire more skills and competencies (Aswathappa, 2008).The functional diagram of HRM is given in 2.2 which clearly defines the interrelation between various functions which enable the organization to achieve its objectives by providing guidance and support on all matters relating to its employees.

The scope of HRM can be limited to three aspects:

1. Personnel which mainly deals with the selection, recruitment, manpower planning, placement, promotion, training, development, remuneration, incentives, productivity, layoff and retrenchment. (web 02)

2. Welfare which is concerned with working conditions and amenities such as crèches, canteens, rest and lunch rooms, housing, transport, medical assistance, education, health and safety, recreation facilities. (web 02)

3. Industrial aspect that covers union-management relations, joint consultation, collective bargaining, grievance and disciplinary procedures, settlement of disputes, etc. (web 02)

Web 02- https://expertscolumn.com/content/human-resource-management-nature-scope-objectives-and-function

2.2.2 Objectives of HRM

The objectives of HRM are to help the organization to reach its goals, to ensure effective utilization and maximum development of human resources, to ensure respect for human being, to identify and satisfy the needs of individual, to ensure reconciliation of individual goals with those of the organization, to achieve and maintain high morale among employees, to provide the organization with well-trained and well-motivated employees, to increase the employee's job satisfaction and self-actualization to the fullest, to develop and maintain a quality work life, to be ethically and socially responsive to the needs of society, to develop overall personality of each employee in its multidimensional aspect, to enhance employee's capabilities to perform the present job, to equip the employees with precision and clarity in transaction of business and to inculcate the sense of team spirit, team work and inter-team collaboration.

The above mentioned aims can be summarized as “the overall aim of human resource management is to ensure that the organization is able to achieve success through people” (Armstrong, 2006 pg8)

2.2.3 HRM Functions

In order to achieve the above objectives, Human Resource Management undertakes some functions; some of them are Human resource or manpower planning, recruitment, selection and placement of personnel, training and development of employees, appraisal of performance of employees, taking corrective steps such as transfer from one job to another, remuneration of employees, social security and welfare of employees, setting general and specific management policy for organizational relationship, collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance handling, staffing the organization, aiding in the self-development of employees at all levels, developing and maintaining motivation for workers by providing incentives, reviewing and auditing manpower management in the organization, potential Appraisal, Feedback Counselling, role Analysis for job occupants, job rotation, quality Circle and the Organization development and Quality of Working Life

The above functions can be grouped area-wise and are given below:

Organizational effectiveness means a distinctive human resource practices shape the core competencies that determine how firms compete. HRM strategies aim to support programs for improving organizational effectiveness by developing policies in such areas as knowledge management, talent management and generally creating ‘a great place to work', (Armstrong, 2006).

Human capital management states the human capital of an organization consists of the people who work there and on whom the success of the business depends. HRM functions to ensure that the organization obtains and retains the skilled, committed and well-motivated work force it needs. HRM will take steps to assess and satisfy future people needs and to enhance and develop the inherent capacities of people-their contributions, potential and employability-by providing learning and continuous development opportunities, (Armstrong, 2006).

Knowledge management relates to HRM functions to support the development of firm-specific knowledge and skills that are the result of organizational learning processes, (Armstrong, 2006).

Reward management states to HRM functions to enhance motivation, job engagement and commitment by introducing policies and processes that ensure that people are valued and rewarded for what they do and achieve and for the levels of skill and competence they reach (Armstrong, 2006).

Employee relations comes under this area HRM concentrates to create a climate in which productive and harmonious relationships can be maintained through partnerships between management and employees and their trade unions (Armstrong, 2006).

2.3 Role of HRM in the Service sector

By mid-1998, the proportion of the UK employed population working in service sector jobs had grown to 75.7 per cent. The comparable in mid-1986 was 68.3 per cent. These s clearly demonstrate the size, the growth-rate and the ever-increasing economic importance of the service sector, (GBR: Routledge, 1999). One of the best examples for a service sector industry is the hotel industry. Service sectors always emphasise the importance of service quality enhancement. The role of HRM as an integrated supporting package to establish a strong relationship between HRM and organizational performance is inevitable for the service sectors.

Trade in services is now the fastest growing element of international trade, with 20 per cent of world trade and 30 per cent of US exports now being service based (Mathe and Perras, 1994). The key forces which is boosting this process are : cultural homogenization (which led to the development of key similarities in consumer preferences across nations), electronic point of sale (EPOS technology helps to capture the data to involve in international marketing practices), deregulation of markets (which led to a loosening or lifting of restrictions on foreign ownership) (GBR: Routledge, 1999) Hence the importance of HRM in service sectors is worth perceptible because it shed the greatest light on the present and future employment relationship.

2.4 Human Resource Management Strategies

For developing management strategies first the company should understand their business strategy. They should highlight the key forces which drive them like technology, distribution, competition and the markets. They should also care about what is the people contribution to the business performance. Company should develop a mission statement relating to the people side of the business through which they are able to show what they are looking forward to. The next step is to conduct a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis by considering the current skill and capability issues and to look forward to the impact they have on business performance .In swot analysis skill shortages and impact of new technology should be highlighted. After completing the swot analysis conduct a detailed human resource analysis by considering your current position and the position which u want to be in the future and by looking to the gap between the reality of your current position and where it should be in the future. Through conducting human resource analysis it is necessary to identify critical people issues and to address those issues which have a key impact on the delivery of your business strategy by prioritizing the critical people issues. After conducting the detailed human resource analysis next step is to develop consequences and solutions by highlighting the option for managerial actions. The last step is to implement and evaluate the action plans and the objectives set are mutually supportive so that the reward and payment systems are integrated with employees training and career development plans.

So by determining all these factors the strategies have been allotted. Every company have different strategies according to the factors which they took consideration of. So there should be different strategies regarding different business. So in this research as a result no specific strategies have been included.

2.3.1 Harvard Model of HRM Strategy

There are various models for the HRM strategy. Harvard model is one of the famous model which has been used widely in UK. This model was produced by Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills and Walton in 1984, and consists of six components. The six components are stakeholder's interests, situational factors, human resource management policy choices, human resource outcomes, long term consequences, and a feedback loop through which the outputs flow directly into the organization and to the stakeholders

2.4.1 Reward Management

Reward system usually means the financial reward on organization gives its employees in return for their labour.The term rewards system, not only includes material rewards, but also non-material rewards. The components of a reward system consist of financial rewards (basic and performance pay) and employee benefits, which together comprise total remuneration. They also include non-financial rewards (holiday trips, moving to large office, recognition, promotion, praise, achievement responsibility and personal growth) and in many case a system of performance management. Pay arrangements are central to the cultural initiative as they are the most tangible expression of the working relationship between employer and employee. Many papers examine the role of organizational culture that is, the demand for monitoring compensation. Such investigations conclude that organizational culture places a significant role in determining the level of economic demands. Recent researches on industrial unrest indicate that reward criteria of the organisations both financial and non-financial rewards have tremendous influence upon the employees and employers performance.

2.4.2 Reward and Reward systems

Reward is a broad construct that can include 'anything an employee may value and desire that an employer is able or willing to offer in exchange for employee contribution'. A conceptual distinction can be made between the three main constituents of reward type, system, and criterion.

Reward type refers to the nature of the reward itself (e.g., financial and non-financial; extrinsic and intrinsic). Financial rewards include direct (e.g., basic salary) and indirect (i.e., benefits and services) as well as incentive (e.g., variable pay) and non-incentive (e.g., fixed pay) categories. Non-financial rewards, on the other hand, do not benefit employees in a monetary sense and consist of both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic non-financial rewards are tangible rewards attached to the job and are given and controlled by a firm. Examples include employment security, promotion, status, relationships, and work conditions. By contrast, intrinsic rewards accrue from performing the task itself and are self-reinforcing. Job challenge, variety, and sense of achievement are good examples of this category.

Reward system represents the method or mechanism (e.g., seniority-based, performance-based) by which organizations determine employee reward outcomes (e.g., pay increases). Systems can be either performance or non-performance oriented. Where performance-oriented reward systems compensate employees based on how well they perform on the job, non-performance systems compensate employees based on a different set of criteria, such as seniority/years of service, and skills/competencies. Reward criterion then, refers to the basis of allocation (i.e., individual or group) used to determine the reward.

2.4.3 Aims of reward management

The aims of reward management are according to Armstrong (2005) are to reward people according to what the organization values and wants to pay for, to reward people for the value they create, to reward the right things to express the right message about what is important in terms of behaviors' and outcomes, to develop a performance culture, to motivate people and obtain their commitment and engagement, to help attracting/retaining the talented people the organization requires, to create a total reward process which identifies the value of both financial and nonfinancial rewards, to develop a positive employment relationship and psychological contract, to link the reward practices with both business goals and employee values, to operate in ways that are fair, equitable, consistent and transparent (Armstrong,2005).The most important aim is to align company goals with employee goals.

2.4.4 Why reward system is required???

Reward system has got its significance as it can take different shapes and forms. In today's world the lion's share of corporate value comes from the organization's human resource, their ideas, skills and high quality performance. So it is the responsibility of a company to find out what is important for the employees and thus aligning company goals and employee goals. The development of reward system had an enormous impact on the success of a company and will affect each workers performance positively. Reward system is mainly required to fulfill the aims and goals of an organization.

* Reward system improves organizational effectiveness; it helps to attain organizations goals and strategies and to maintain competitive advantage.

* Achieve integration - reward system helps to remain as an integrated part of the management process of the organization.

* Motivate employees - reward system helps to motivate employees to achieve high quality performance.

* Compete in the labour market - It helps to attract and retain highly skilled workers.

* Increased commitment - helps to boost the commitment of employees towards the organization by creating a strong belief in and accepting the goals of the organization, making employees to put maximum effort for the successful completion of job and also to retain the members of the organization.

* Fairness and equity - employees should be rewarded according to their contribution and effort to the organization.

* Improved skills and quality - reward system helps to raise competence, also encourage personal development, and helps to achieve high quality performance.

* Develop team working - improve cooperation and effective team working at all level.

* Manageable and controllable - helps to reduce administrative burdens of the personal department thus becomes easily manageable and controllable so that the policies can be implemented consistently

2.5 Motivation theories

According to Armstrong (2005), one of the most important concerns of reward management is how rewards can be used to motivate people to perform better. Therefore, it is important to understand what motivates people and how. Theories concerned with motivation explains why people at work behave in the way they do and provides guidance on how to develop effective reward systems (Armstrong, 2005).The term motivation derives from the word motive. Motive is something that initiates or sustains activity. It is an inner state that activates or moves and that directs or channels behavior towards goals. “Motivation is the core of the management”. It is an important function which every manager performs for enthusing people to work for the accomplishment of organizational objectives.

2.5.1 Content Theories

Some theories of motivation are focusing on human needs or desires. That is internalized and gives impetus to individual behaviour. Individuals have psychological and physiological needs that prompt behaviour perceived to fulfil those needs. Content theories therefore study forces within individuals as a way of understanding why patterns of behaviour prevail. A physiological need, such as hunger, may motivate individuals not only to find a job but to do distasteful work and be obedient to oppressive orders. A psychological need such as desire for self-esteem may motivate individuals to do exceptionally high quality work. Content theories include contribution of Maslow, Herzberg and Mc clelland.

2.5.2 Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Maslow classified human needs into five categories and placed it in a hierarchical order. As shown by 3.1, the basic idea is that the lower level needs must be fulfilled before the higher needs are achieved. Therefore it is of no use to speak to someone about a “meaningful job” if the persons most basis, biological needs are not fulfilled through what he or she earns by working (Kaufmann 2005)

In the diagram biological and physiological needs are the basic stage of the model. These are the biological drives. These are the fundamental for the individual's survival and ability to adapt. Examples of these are air, nutrition, water, roof above once head etc. In work life, this is the minimum wage required to meet these needs .The next level is the safety needs which come after physiological needs. These are surroundings that protect the individual from physical and psychological damage. Except for basic safety measures in the physical work environment, it is foremost the certainty about keeping the job which can be fundamental for satisfying this need. The next level above the safety needs are the love needs. It is about the need for social connections in the form of good friends and colleagues, a partner and a social environment that supply support and acceptance. Organisations can do much in order to facilitate the fulfilment of such needs by, for example, create good conditions for cooperation .Level 4 is the esteem needs which is the wish to perform, gain prestige, having success in life and receive others respect is needs on this level. According to Kaufmann, showing people elementary appreciation for the work they have performed is an easy, encouraging psychology, and in practice one can achieve much with modest means in such contexts. Ways of doing this includes small gatherings to show a co-worker who have performed well appreciation, diplomas, articles or notices in internal bulletins etc. Of special importance is to show visible gratitude for undertakings that have been performed outside the formal undertakings. The last level states the need for self actualisation. This need is to understand the world, acquiring wisdom, achieving independence developing creativity and individuality etc. In general, people perform their very best under such conditions which will gain both the individual and the organisation (Kaufmann, 2005). As shown in fig 2.3 the higher levels are attainable only after the lower ones are fulfilled. The needs that have not been fulfilled have a motivating effect and all these steps except for the highest one (Kressler, 2003).

2.5.3 Hertzberg's' two factor model

To better understand employee attitudes and motivation, Frederick Herzberg performed studies to determine which factors in an employee's work environment caused satisfaction or dissatisfaction. He published his findings in the 1959 book The Motivation to Work. After analysing the results, Hertzberg draw the conclusion that the factors that in most cases were given as the reason for satisfaction, were different from those that were regarded as the cause for dissatisfaction (Kaufmann, 2005). A common perception is that dissatisfaction is the opposite of satisfaction. Hertzberg's findings showed that these two concepts referred to two independent dimensions. With that, he found reason to differ between motivators which promote job satisfaction, and hygiene factors which have effect through the absence of negative work conditions. Hertzberg draw the general conclusions from the pattern he observed in relation to the two basic dimensions; satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors can create dissatisfaction when they are absent but they do not lead to satisfaction when they are present and motivators create satisfaction if they are present but they do not lead to dissatisfaction if they are absent (Kaufmann, 2005).

2.5.4 Hygiene factors

Among the most important hygiene factors we find physical and social working conditions, pay, status and work security. When these conditions are good the dissatisfaction disappears. Kaufmann points out that these factors are found in the lower part of Maslows pyramid (Kaufmann, 2005).

2.5.5Motivators

These include conditions that are connected to needs higher in Maslow's pyramid such as performance, appreciation, growth and development possibilities. When these factors are absent it leads to a neutral state but if favourable they have an active and promoting effect on job satisfaction and productivity (Kaufmann, 2005). The hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job and the motivators are intrinsic. Hertzberg noted that any satisfaction resulting from an increase in pay is likely to last considerably shorter than satisfaction resulting from work itself. According to Armstrong (2005), one of the key conclusions that can be drawn from Hertzberg's research is that pay is not a motivator except in the short term. It is therefore a hygiene factor which, if absent, might lead to demotivation (Armstrong, 2005). Kressler (2003) explains that here is a great difference between not being dissatisfied and being satisfied and that the intrinsic and extrinsic factors run on two different tracks where the extrinsic leads from dissatisfaction to not being dissatisfied and intrinsic from not satisfied to satisfaction (Kressler, 2003).

2.5.6 Process Theories

A process theory examines individual behaviour in terms of job satisfaction related to perceived rewards that instigate behaviour. While content theories emphasize the decision making dimension to work performance. Personal expectations of outcome associated with performance are critical for determining how individuals will be motivated to perform. Popular process theories include expectancy theory and equity theory.

2.5.7 Expectancy theory

This theory is a so called cognitive theory. It emphasizes that actions most often is a result of rational and conscious choices and that this is the most fundamental in the human behaviour. Expectancy theory points out that people are motivated to work when they expect to attain what it is that they aim to attain through their work. The expectation in this context is a conception regarding the effects of work on reward wishes and how much this rewards means to you. Reward in this context is used in a very broad sense; it could be external rewards such as pay or things of material value as well as internal such as work satisfaction. What is special about cognitive motivational theory is that the action is considered to be controlled by notions and rational calculations concerning personal goal fulfilment. (Kaufmann, 2005).

This concept was first formulated by Vroom in his VIE theory which stands for valency, instrumentality and expectancy. Valency means value and is an important personal goal. It indicates how desirable the result of an action or activity is (Kressler, 2003). Instrumentality means assistance or collaboration and is a milestone on the way to reaching the personal goal (Kressler, 2003). It is the belief that if we do something it will lead to another (Armstrong, 2005) Expectancy means expectation, prospect, hope and expresses how high the probability is that the milestone can be reached given the chosen action/activity (Kressler, 2003). Motivation is likely if all these three values are positive (Kressler, 2003). According to Armstrong2005, motivation is likely when there is a clear and usable relation between and when the outcome is seen as a means of satisfying needs. This would explain why some extrinsic financial motivation works only if the link between action and reward is understood and the reward is worth the effort. It might also be seen as an explanation as to why intrinsic motivation from the act of working can be more powerful. These are controlled to a larger extent by the individuals who can use past experience as a reference and judge to what degree advantageous results are likely to be obtained as an effect of their behaviour. (Armstrong, 2005)

The theory suggests that the magnitude of the effort depends on the value of a reward and the perceived probability that receiving a reward depends on effort. A shown in the 2.4 there are two more factors that affect performance: Abilities which refers to the individuals' characteristics, e.g. intelligence, manual skills & knowhow.

The various elements are: effort-it refers to the amount of energy exerted by a person on a job. Perceived- reward probability-it refers to the individual's perception of the probability that different rewards depend upon different degree of efforts. Performance - effort leads to performance. But both may not be equal. In fact performance is determined by the amount of effort and ability and role perception of the individual. Rewards - performance may lead to two kinds of rewards namely, intrinsic rewards such as a sense of self-actualization and extrinsic rewards such as working conditions and status. Satisfaction- The extent to which actual rewards fall short meets or exceed the individuals perceived level of equitable rewards determines the degree of satisfaction.

Role expectations which refer to what the individuals' want to do or think that they are required to do. They are good, from the organizations perspective, if the individual perception corresponds to the organizations (Armstrong 2005). According to Kressler (2003), it is Vroom's belief that people make their choice of action depending on the possibility of success.

2.5.8 Equity Theory

Equity theory was developed by Adams which in a systematic way illustrates equity as a motivational factor (Kaufmann, 2005). It argues that people that feel that they are being treated equitably are better motivated and vice versa that people that they are treated inequitably are less motivated (Armstrong, 2005). Equity is treated as a principal with predictable and strongly motivating and de-motivating effects on people's willingness to perform and general motivation in work life (Kaufmann, 2005). Whether or not they feel that they are treated equitable is relative and in theory there are four so called reference comparisons:

Self-internal is one in which compares the current work situation with experiences from a previous situation in the same organization. Self-external compares the current work situation with experiences from another work place. Other-internal compares oneself with another individual or profession in the same organization and Other-external compare oneself with another individual or profession outside the workplace (Kaufmann, 2005).

Three conditions are important for these comparisons: level of salary, level of education/training and period of service. People with a high salary and long education normally have broader information about his/her own workplace and often look chose references outside his/her own workplace. People with a lower pay grade and shorter education more often find objects of reference within the organization and are more sensitive for perceived differences on the internal level. Same goes for people with short period of service (Kaufmann,2005). Even though this theory finds support in research there are important exceptions, for example individual differences in how sensitive people are for equity. Much of this research has been connected to salaries but the theory also concern rewards other than monetary. For example, research have shown that a perceived situation of underpay can be compensated by higher status (Kaufmann, 2005). Equity is a comparative process which is concerned with feelings and perceptions. It is not the same as equality, treating everybody the same is not equitable if someone or everyone deserves to be treated differently (Armstrong, 2005).

2.5.9 Goal Theory

Goal theory was first presented by Edwin Locke but has been further developed together with Gary P. Latham. According to this theory, the intention to work towards a specific goal is a central motivational force. The goal tells us what we need to do and what effort is necessary to reach the goal. The most important principles in this context are that specific goals promotes performance more than general goals, difficult goals, if accepted, have a larger motivating effect than easy goals and feedback leads to better performance compared to the lack of feedback (Kaufmann, 2005).

Concrete feedback provides informative guidance in order to correct behaviour and is also necessary in order to learn new things (Kaufmann, 2005). An important debated question was whether or not the results improve when the individual participates in the goal setting process. In general, participants in this process increase the acceptance for the goal that has been set up. Acceptance as mentioned is a fundamental condition for a high goal to have a favourable motivating effect (Kaufmann, 2005).

In goal theory there are two conditions that balance the previously mentioned principles:

-It is important to ensure commitment of the coworkers, meaning that the individual feels obliged to follow the goal and not by its own change or abandon it.

-Another very important moderating factor is connected to the individual's self-efficiency. In other words, what the individual believes he or she can manage in relation to a certain task (Kaufmann, 2005).

2.5.10 Theory X

Mc Gregor, an American social psychologist, proposed his famous X-Y theory in his 1960 book 'The Human Side Of Enterprise' says that with respect to people, management is a process of directing their efforts, motivating them, controlling their actions, modifying their behaviour to fit the needs of the organization. Without this active intervention by management, people would be passive even resistant to organizational needs. They must therefore be persuaded, rewarded, punished, controlled their activities must be directed. This is management's task. Theory X or autocratic managers were presumed by Mc Gregor about their subordinates:

The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it, if he can. Because of the human characteristics of dislike of work, most people must be directed and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate efforts towards the achievement of organizational objectives. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition and wants security above all.

2.5.11 Theory Y

Mc Gregor in his 1960 book 'The Human Side Of Enterprise' propounded this theory which he said would better represent the human behaviour. The assumptions under this theory were that the expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest. The average human being does not inherently dislike work. Depending upon controllable conditions, work may be a source of satisfaction or a source of punishment. External control and threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about efforts towards organizational objectives. Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement. The most significant of such rewards -the satisfaction of ego and self-actualization needs can be direct product of efforts directed towards organizational objective. The average human being learns under proper conditions not only to accept but also to seek responsibility. Avoidance of responsibility, lack of ambition and emphasis on security are generally the consequences of experience, not inherent in human characteristics.

2.6 How to reward employee performance

In hrworld.com Dan Tynan have gone through several different ways which helps reward the employees. The first way is to give them flexible hours. Flexible work timings can go a long way to held trust and mature the relationship with key workers. Next way is to send a handwritten note to give them a personnel touch from the employer. By making work more fun, the productivity of the employees will go up. Helping them connect with the key suppliers, customers or someone in the senior management will help them to increase the productivity by increasing the relationship between them and make an employee's career. Working without shoes in the company will make them feel a homely atmosphere in the work place. If someone had done something really worth while, have other staff give them a standing ovation the very next morning or at the meeting. Setting aside a public space inside your firm and placing photos of the employees who have accomplished something truly special along with the details of what they have done will increase the productivity of other employees. Telecommunication programs can relieve stress and make workers feel more appreciated, as well as more productive.

2.7 Reward schemes in Marriott

There are different reward schemes for the associates and for the guest in Marriott. One of the prominent reward schemes is the ‘Spirit to Serve'. Employees are the most important asset of Marriott, that's an unshakable conviction as far as the company are concerned. An environment that supports associate growth and personal development are the key for the employees. Marriott is having a reputation for employing caring, dependable associates who are ethical and trustworthy. Marriott gives a home-like atmosphere and friendly workplace relationships. Spirit to serve is a performance-reward system that recognizes the important contributions of both hourly and management associates. This gives a pride in the Marriott name, accomplishments, and record of success. This focuses on growth managed and franchised properties, owners, and investors. This scheme lets the employees get their reward for the job they done. A public space inside the firm has been set aside to publish photos of employees who have accomplished something truly special along with the details of what they have done. This will increase the productivity of the employees.

2.8 Conclusion

Reward management plays a vital role in the business. To satisfy the employees the employers have to get the reward scheme done according to the needs of the employees and to satisfy their various motivation factors. Once all the motivation factors are succeed in their field then the employees are willing to stay with the organisation .The next chapter will take the research more through the introduction of Marriott International.

Marriott International

3.1 Introduction

Marriott International is a leading, worldwide, hospitality company and has more than 2,300 operating units located in the U.S. and 59 other countries and territories. It employs approximately 154,000 workers. Fortune magazine has recognized Marriott as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" (1997-2001), one of the "Top 80 Companies for Minorities" (2000), and one of "America's Most Admired Companies" overall (2001). In addition, Sales and Marketing Management magazine has named Marriott Sales as one of the top 25 sales forces in the U.S. (1997-2000).

Marriott is and always has been an equal opportunities employer in all aspects of employment. The company is fully committed to providing a good and harmonious working environment that offers equal treatment and equal opportunities for all its associates, and where every associate is treated with appropriate respect and dignity.

It is the company's policy that there should be no unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation of any associate, job applicant, customers, providers of service or member of public, whether in connection with recruitment, placement, training, benefits or promotion, either directly or indirectly, on grounds of race, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, marital or family status(Marriott handbook for employees 2009)

Marriott is committed to fair treatment of associates and to providing training and advancement opportunities to all. Marriott has an unshakeable conviction that there associates are the most important assets for them. Marriott always look forward to an environment which will always supports associates growth and development. Marriott is a reputation for employing caring, dependable associates who are ethical and trustworthy and is always keen to give a home like atmosphere and friendly workplace relationships. They always try to achieve a performance reward system that recognizes the important contributions of both hourly and management associates.

3.2 Emergence of Marriott Companies

Marriott was started by J.Williard Marriott in the name of Hot shoppers, Inc in 1929.In 1939 J.W. Marriott lands its first food service management contract with U.S.Treasury. Marriott opens its one star hotel, Twin Bridges Motor Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. In 1967 corporate name is changed from Hot shoppers, Inc, to Marriott corporation and J.W.Marriott, jr was named as the president for the corporation. In 1977 company celebrates its 50th anniversary and the sales top to $1 billion. In 1981 Marriott hotels opens its 100th hotel in Hawaii. In 1998 Marriott opens their 1500th hotel, sales reach $8 billion and acquire 98% of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and LLC.In (Limited liability company) 2000 Marriott opens its 2000th property in Tampa, Florida. And from that day onwards companies' goodwill and profits are rising in a good manner and are doing a good business.

3.3 Awards for excellence

Marriott Hotels in the UK have raised ten places to fourth place in the Sunday Times 20 Best Big Companies to Work For list, announced on Sunday 8th March 2009. The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For and its sister award the 20 Best Large Companies To Work For celebrate the best employers in Britain. This year almost 1000 companies entered the process, and the judges received questionnaire responses from 200,000 employees of these companies. Marriott achieved the highest overall positive score in the survey - with 76% of the company's associates saying they love their work. Marriott also achieved the highest scores for senior managers helping associates fulfill their potential and motivate them.

Investors In People Award, which unusually, was made to all 60 UK Marriott Hotels - the first time a company has had all of its sites recognized in one go. The assessors commented that “The Marriott culture that runs through the organization is impressively positive”. This award is a 3-year award, running until 2010.

The UK Government's Local Employment Partnership Awards: Marriott received the Employer Award for Best Practice in Career Progression 2008.

North East Local Employment Partnership Awards: Gosforth Park Marriott Hotel Associate Marc Thompson was runner up in the Getting back to work award, announced at the end of February 2009. Marc is an ex-offender who has turned his life around since joining the Marriott LEP programme.

The Springboard Hotel Industry Awards 2008

Springboard is the UK's largest charitable National body that promotes careers in the hotel and hospitality industry to young people, those returning to the workforce, the long term unemployed and disadvantaged people. Marriott were finalists in three awards:

Best Career Progression Award: First place awarded to Marriott's West hotel cluster team. This award was won for having a pool of trained mentors who work alongside department managers to develop, coach and nurture talent from within and develop a pipeline of talent. Success means that over 80% of the senior executive team have grown their careers from within the company in this region.

Diversity in employment Award: Runners up for this award were the Marriott Pennines cluster team for their Job Centre Plus partnership and the hotels Accommodating Disability programme.

The Education Award - Large Organization: Runners up: Marriott and Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott for their Community College partnership.

3.4 Conclusion

Marriot shows a consciousness when it comes to the well being of the employees in terms of not focusing on processes that the employees finds dissatisfying. Their ambition to create a “we” feeling rather than “we and them” is something that is highly motivating and creates a team feeling. Marriott has been awarded by ‘Employer award for best practice in career progression in the year 2008'. Marriott was also nominated for the North east local employment partnership awards. This chapter went through the history of Marriott, their emergence as in the name of hot shoppers, Inc in 1929, from the emergence itself Marriott is facing boom in its business. In this chapter researcher have gone through the awards which Marriott have been rewarded for the excellence which they showed in their field. Researcher have collected data from the staff working in the Marriott for the purpose of analysis regarding the reward management .The data which have been collected through the questionnaire have been analyzed and have been represented by graphs in the following chapter.

Research Methodologies

4.1 Introduction

The current market situation is volatile and ever changing .The current market demands date information about customers, competitors, dealers, suppliers and other external factors play a vital role in the company are relevant for the day by day activities of the company and require proper control for the well being of the company. For planning, decision making, and implementation of the plans managers need information which they collect through methods, such as being with the customers and observing them and also interacting with them directly. Income of an individual is the most powerful factor for a company .As income grows consumers become more powerful and selective in certain things .The organisation need better information about those customers who are selective in order to achieve competitive advantage.

This chapter explains the various research methods that have been undertaken in order to satisfy the objectives of the research. The chapter provides an overview of different research philosophies and designs its purpose, primary and secondary data and the methods of collecting that data. Justification is also given to the data collection for the purpose of this research work.

4.2 Quantitative Research

This research approach transforms observations, reports and recordings into numerical data and quantifiable numbers. Later the data can be analysed for making comparisons and correlations to get the results. When it comes into statistics it tends to be easier to control if we have large numbers. So the quantitative research comprises large scale research containing large numbers and quantities and its analysis to relate various factors each other (Bergström & Skärfstad. 2004). Quantitative research is used to measure how many people feel, think or act in a particular way. These surveys tend to include large samples - anything from 50 to any number of interviews. Structured questionnaires are usually used incorporating mainly closed questions - questions with set responses. There are various customs used for collecting quantitative information but the most common are on-street or telephone interviews. In this research quantitative method has been used in order to collect the data.

4.3 Qualitative Research

This approach concentrates on words as the main mode of analysis, and it tends to distinguish things “in context” and explain how things are linked together. This shows the increased involvement of the researcher in qualitative approach. (Denscombe,1998) The qualitative approach is often referred to analysis, aimed to receive detailed information for the current and future use. (Yin, 2003). Focus groups, in-depth interviews, content analysis, ethnography, evaluationand semiotics are among the many formal approaches that are used, but qualitative research also involves the analysis of any unstructured material, including customer feedback forms, reports or media clips.

4.4 Research Activities

The main objective of this research is to analyse the HRM strategies of the Marriott to find out whether the reward management policies plays a vital role in the employees behaviour toward the organisation. This research also proposes an appropriate measure for effective reward schemes for management of employees to satisfy their perspective of reward. This analysis is focused on Marriott International in UK. The relationship with long-term associates will increase the quality and productivity and will create good impression for the consumers. To satisfy the objectives questionnaire method has been adopted followed by analysis of current as well as previous employee reward schemes.

4.5 Data collection Methods

4.5.1 Primary Data:

This method is used when enough material for research purpose is readily available to gather information about relevant factors. This methods are mainly used through one to one interactions such as interview, surveys , filling up with questionnaires with the employees , higher officials of the organisation. In this research questionnaire method has been adopted for collecting information. It seems to be the most appropriate method to collect information as in this research it plays a vital role to know different employees mentality towards reward which they achieve.

Questionnaire: This is an interpretative short summary method used to gather relevant information easily and effectively. The most care should be given in the preparation of appropriate and effective questions with full continuity for the required information.

4.5.2 Secondary Data:

The first step in the research methodology was conducting the secondary research which refers to all the materials which has been used for some other purpose other than the current research .This data has been used as a background for the current investigation and was reviewing on a continuous basis. This information has been acted as a guideline during the remaining part of the research. This information was obtained from sources like journals, web pages, books, media publications as given below

Journals: Various databases such as Pro Quest, Digital library and Emerald were amongst the major sources that provided the materials which have been used as a secondary research. Most journals provided different views on certain issues and can be considered as a reliable source of information only to a limited extent .There were several disadvantages as the resources for the core matter was not available in the majority of them. Many of them just outlined issues of impact of HRM strategies to manage the employees and have not provided any relevant or detailed information about the issues.

Web pages: Without a doubt World Wide Web is a easy source to gather secondary information. Internet search engines as www.google.co.uk, www.dogpile.com and www.marriott.com was very useful in gathering information.

Books: Books always plays a vital role in collecting the secondary data. College library and British library was used to search for the secondary data which was relevant for the research.

Media publication: In addition to journals, web pages and books news paper articles helped through out the research to collect information from relevant authorities.

Secondary data limitations:

There was very little information that is relevant for the area for research. For some specific reasons secondary research data can be relied only to a certain extent.

Secondary data can be gathered quickly, but may involve serious drawbacks in terms of its relevance, accuracy and sufficiency. Even when secondary data is relevant and accurate it still may not be sufficient to meet all the information requirements for the research

Analysis and Findings

5.1 Analysis of secondary research and findings

Employers are not always interested in total to maintain all the employees in an organisation but they are always willing to try their best to retain employees who are the key people for their company. Key peoples are those who are talented and can contribute to the well being of the organisation. They are those who make difference to the customers, other employees, Managers & executive management and share holders and board of directors and other people (Thomas 2000).

Companies should develop proper strategies to give more reword to employees who develop the skills to achieve the goals of the company and to migrate the rest as they won't keep up with the company , they should try to employ energetic youth and retain skilled employees, who will make a difference and deliver the result you demand (Peppitt 2004)

5.1.1 Reasons for employee's to leave the organization

In the literature review the researcher identifies various reasons that drive the employee's to leave the organization. There are several reasons for an employee to take the decision of leaving the company; Herman give gives 5 main reasons as

Lack of recognition of employees

Loss of trust and believe

Lack of management / Organizational support

Lack of opportunity for advancement

Inadequate compensation (Herman 2008)

The employees prospective have been changed from old times, and they are expecting more from the work, than income. They are trying to achieve more knowledge which will help them to learn for their enhancement in the career and as individual. They want the employer to identify them and cherish them for the hard work which plays an important role in the organisation.

Reward management plays an important role in this and by giving the reward to the employees it will make them feel that they have been identified for what they have done for the company.

5.1.2 Reasons for employees to stay in the Organization

The researcher goes through different reasons which are considered as the factors that make employees to stay in the organization. Employees should be satisfied in all aspect of work in order to stay with the organization. Strong leadership is a key to gaining to increase employee commitment. The competitive salaries are also a key factor that motivate employees to stay, however compensation alone is insufficient to make the employees stay ( Haward , Et al,2008)

5.1.3 Impact of the reward management of employees

The literature review recognises that the impact of reward in employees plays a vital role for holding them to the organization. Employees have several primary factors which hold them to the organization such as good managers / boss, opportunities to accomplishment, recognition, grate leader ship and work place atmosphere. Secondary factors include benefits, compensation, flexible work condition, amount of vacation /annual leave.

By going through this we can find that if the reward management scheme is established in a well manner then the employees will stay in the organization which will help them to attain their goals

5.2 Primary Research

The employees are the key to the success of any organisation. The organisations are implementing strategies and policies for the well management of employees. There should be appropriate HRM strategies which plays vital role in motivating the employees to hold in the company. This research is focussed on the role which reward management plays in the employees needs and make them satisfied.

Researcher conducted a detailed survey to find out the current issues in the employee management issues related to HRM . This research has been conducted by employees working in this firm. Questionnaire consists of personnel information, information relating to the benefit and some details which they look for .The questionnaire and its analysis are given below.

5. 3 Analysis of questionnaire data

1) What is you gender

I have slected 50 employees from Marriott international as respondants and have distributed the questionnare to them by hand .I made sure that i have equal number of people in terms of gender as it was by hand and out of those 50 responses it maintain the balance between men and women .As this shows that percentage participation of male and female are equal. In the administration field Mariott is having more female participation than men but in all the other fields men is having more participation as fact that the females are more stable and retained in the same job for long periods compared to the males

2) What is your age group?

As per the survey in Marriott, more employees were in the age group of 26 -35 as this the age group is more productive in the hospitality field .This age groups occupies about 46% and 18-25 are standing next to the age group of 26-35 as they occupy the next major place in the age group. The responses show that the youngsters are joining the firm as a fresher and gaining experience and some of them are leaving the organization and some decide to stay. There are still employees who are in the age group between 36-45 and 46-55. This may be due to less exposure or are satisfied with their work environment. Hence employees reward management schemes should work out in first five years to make them stay with the organization.

3) How long have u been with the company?

This survey states that majority of the employee's who has undergone this survey are with the company for less than 5 year. This may be due to several reasons. The managers and supervisors said that they are working with the company for more than 3 years. Analysis states that the employees in the hospitality field are working in the company for less than 5 years as they get high position in other companies or are leaving for some other reasons. Reward may be one of the factor which let them move from companies to companies as individuals always look for more salary or reward what they do for. The company have to drill down the employee's turnover by satisfying their needs.

4) What is your income band

This analysis states that majority of the employees (74%) are in the salary grade between £1500-3000. This shows that majority of the employees are fulltime and are getting the salary between 1500 and 3000. There are employees who are doing part-time in the organization who are achieving less than £1500.Managers in several fields are getting more than £3000 as they are the head of several departments in a company. These analysis shows that majority of the employees are paid under 3000.

5) What is your position in the organization?

This analysis gives us an idea that the questionnaire has been distributed more among the employees as it was hard for the researcher to hand over the questionnaire to the managers as it was hard to find them and to get an appointment. 26% of the staff whom I handed over the questionnaire was supervisors and middle level managers.

6) Mode of work

Majority of the employees of the organization are doing their full time employment in the organization .But there are still employees who are doing their part-time employment as they are busy with some other things. There are still employees who are doing temporary job in Marriott as they are called through the agencies whenever they are in need of people to get the job done

7) Which industry do you associated with?

Employees in Marriott are not only from the hospitality field but several other fields as well. Majority of the employees are from the hospitality field which comprises of about 46% of the total employees interviewed. Next place goes to engineering and infrastructure which hold about 14%, Manufacturing and Healthcare are having equal number of employees in their field .Retailing and education also have a role in the life of employees of Marriott who are employed in this hospitality field .

8) What is the size of your company?

Marriott are having more than 300 employees in each of their hotels. There are about 10 to 12 departments in each hotel. The size of the company varies in busy times as they will be requiring more employees in those times than other days. Each department in the organization will be having more and more employees as they require them. The size of the company varies from time to time.

9) What factor motivates you to be a part of this organization? (Tick one or all relevant categories)

Majority of the employees are stating the reputation factor as the factor which motivates than the job security and the challenging environment. Marriott as an international firm has got more reputation as compared to the competitor. Job security and safety is having the second place as 11 employees are taking this as the factor which motivates them. 10 employees find the job interesting and challenging and they thinks that this motivates them to be a part of the organization. Good perks and opportunity for learning finds other 16 factor which motivates them.

10 and 11) Are you entitled to get any company bonus or receive any benefits from the company as free car, cell phone etc?

The survey shows that majority of the employees are entitled to get a bonus from the company but only some of them get the benefits like car and cell phone. All employees are entitled to get free lunch as long as they are in the hotel. Marriott also give discount to employees for having lunch from their other hotels. Some of the top managers are entitled for a free cell phone as they are very much in need to get the things done.

12) If you have receive any benefit from the company, please specify

About 40 employees who answered the questionnaires are having the benefit of free/ subsidized lunch and majority of them are having the benefit of health club. Some of them are having subsidized accommodation in the Marriott group of hotels. Managers have been allotted cell phones in order to go on with their day to day activities in Marriott.

13) Are you satisfied with your total earnings from the company? (Salary + bonus + benefits)

As the analysis shows majority of the people are satisfied to some extent but there are employees who are completely satisfied with the reward which they are allotted as they do what they have been asked to do for. Employees (46%) are satisfied to some extent. There are employees (18%) who don't have any opinion about the reward which they get.

14) Would you agree with the current Economic Growth and Talent competition in your organization?

Majority of the employees (56%) are not concerned about the economic growth and talent competition in the organization. This may be due to the lack of knowledge about the subject.

15) Do you think that reward management should have an important role in your organization?

90% of employees believe that reward plays a vital role in the organization. The employees are concerned about the reward management as they believe that they have still something more to achieve. But still there are employees who believe that reward management don't have that much role in the organization.

16) Are you satisfied with the Job Content that is assigned to you in your company?

Majority of the employees are satisfied to some extent with the job they are assigned. There are 30% of employees who are completely satisfied with the job what they have assigned.9% employees don't have any opinion whether they are satisfied or not but are moving on

17) Are you satisfied with the Recognition and support given by the organization/management to you as an employee?

24 employees have given the opinion that they are satisfied to some extent .In the 50 employees who answered the questionnaire 12 employees state that they are completely satisfied with the recognition and the support given by the org/management towards them. 22% employees are still in a neutral stage and none of the employees are completely dissatisfied.

18) Are you satisfied with the Training and Development Opportunities in your organization?

About 50 % of the employees are completely satisfied with the training and development opportunities in the organization. They believe that there is a chance of development for them through the opportunities which the companies allot them. About 20%employees are not aware of the training and developments which they can achieve through the opportunity which the organizations provide them. Some of the employees are not fully satisfied but are partially satisfied with the training and development opportunities in the organization.

19) Are you satisfied with working in this company?

About 80% of the employees whom researcher has interviewed is having the opinion that they are satisfied with the company. They believe that the company are rewarding them with whatever they are in need of. Only 10 employees are dissatisfied to some extent .They believe that they are still in need of something which is missing in their job environment. These are the employees who are in need of reward management. If reward scheme is modified to some extent then these employees could be motivated to do better in their field.

20) Do you intend to stay with this employer?

70% of the employees are willing to stay with the company. But in these 70% there are some employees who are looking forward to move if they are offered a better position in any other company .With better position, self individual values will also face a peak. There are employees who are looking forward to join the companies which offer jobs according to their field of knowledge. There are employees in Marriott who are staying in UK for studies. They are doing job as a part-time. They are willing to stay in the organisation but should go back to their home country after finishing their course.

21) What would make you think seriously to leave this company in order to join with competitor?

23 employees whom the researcher interviewed is willing to leave the company if they are offered a better position which will be helpful for their career. In the 50 employees 18 employees are willing to leave if they get a better pay in terms of the job they are doing. In those 50 employees their employees who are looking forward to more challenging tasks assigned and those who want more benefits

22) What have been the most effective interventions used by your company as a reward to you?

35 employees gave the opinion salary increase as the most effective interventions used by the company. 20 employees believe that career advancement is the best reward which the company can give them. About 17 employees stated it as the spirit to serve award. Spirit to serve is an award which is given to employees who do well in their own field.

5.4 Results from Data Analysis:-

The questionnaire was designed in a way through which the questions went through the employees personnel, demography and reward factors. The analysis has been carried out with 50 employees who are working in Marriott. Research has been conducted by giving no partiality as they are same in both genders. The majority (46%) are between the age of 26 and 35 and the average income band is between £1500 and 3000 which are the basic payment in the hospitality field.

The average length of their service is between 1-5 years. This states that the employees are only considering their job as a turning point of their career. The majority of the staff working is doing it as a full time employment, but there are still employees who are doing part-time and temporary employment. Majority of the employees working in Marriott are from the hospitality field but there are people from engineering, manufacturing, retailing, healthcare and education sector. Research analysis has identified various reasons that make employee thinks to leave the organisation. Majority of the employees are only satisfied to some extent with the total earnings they are getting from the organisation.

5.4.2 Motivation factors

The data analysis reveals that many factors motivate the employees to stay within the organisation. Through the analysis the researcher has found that there are several factors which motivate the employees. The factors have been prioritized according to the responses from the employees in Marriott. The motivation factors has been prioritized as reputation then comes job security and safety, interesting and challenging job, good perks and opportunity for learning & development. Flexibility in work, possibility for working abroad and scope of serving international customers are also factors which motivates the employees to work in Marriott. Beneath these motivation factors bonus also plays a vital role in holding the employees within the organisation. These factors are not the primary factors of motivation but still have a role in playing the retention of employees for the organisation. Some of the employees are entitled to get the benefit of cell phone as a benefit. Benefits include free/subsidized lunch, health club, and accommodation & travel allowance.

5.4.3 Steps to improve reward management

The research analysis identified various steps to improve the reward schemes to the employees. There should be reward schemes on the basis of the employee priorities as these schemes are aiming the well being of the employees and a good relationship between employees and employers. Benefits increase and well planned career development, providing management support and by allowing them to play a role in decision making will improve the reward management and will look forward to the retention of the employees in the firm.

5.5 Conclusion

This chapter has gone through the analysis and findings of the research which was conducted through the questionnaire method. The data has been presented through charts. The data from literature review and that from the findings has been compared and concluded that the reward management plays a vital role in the goodwill of the company and will increase the relationship between employer and the employee.

Questionnaire

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a postgraduate student at the University Of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK at their

London School of Commerce Centre. Currently I am on my final dissertation on MNCs using reward management to motivate their employees. Case of MARRIOTT in uk . This survey will be used to analyse the issues

and formulate findings to support the final dissertation of my MBA degree. I would

appreciate your help for filling up this survey by taking 15 minutes of your valuable time

Your responses will be kept in confidential. Your identity will not be linked to your

responses in any way. If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards

Mithun sreevallabhan

Questionnaire

1) What is your Gender?

a) Male………………………………..

b) Female……………………………..

2) What is your Age Group?

a) 18 - 25 yrs…………………………..

b) 26 - 35 yrs…………………………..

c) 36 -45 yrs……………………………

d) 46 -55 yrs……………………………

e) 56 -60 yrs…………………………...

f) Over 60 yrs………………………….

3) How long have you been with the company?

a) Less than a year ……………………

b) 1-5 years ……………………………

c) 6-10 years ………………………….

d) 11-15 years …………………………

e) 16-20 years …………………………

f) More than 20 years …………………

4) What is your income band per month?

a) Below £ 1500/………………………

b) £1501-2000/-……………………….

c) £2000-4000/-……………………….

d) £4000-6500/-……………………….

e) £6500 or above……………………..

5) What is your position in the organisation?

a) Operational Level Employee……………...............

b) Supervisor/Team Leader - Operational Level...….

c) Middle Level Manager ……………...……………

d) Top Level Manager (Strategic Level)……….……

e) Executive / Senior Director Level Staff………..…

6) Mode of Work

a) Full - Time …..

b) Part - Time …..

c) Temporary ……

7) Which industry do you associated with?

a) Manufacturing………………………………..

b) Engineering or Infrastructure…………………

c) Hospitality ……………………………………

d) Retailing………………………………………

e) Education Service…………………………….

f) Health Care……………………………………

g) Banking………………………………………

h) Others(please specify) ……………………….

8) What is the size of your company(number of employees)?

a) <100 …………..

b) 101 - 500 ……..

c) 501 - 1000 ……

d) 1001 - 5000 .....

e) 5001 - 10000…

f) >10000 ……….

9) What factor motivates you to be a part of this organisation?(tick one or all relevant categories)

a) Reputation of the company…………………….

b) Opportunity for learning and Development……

c) Good Perks ……………………………………

d) Flexibility in the work…………………………

e) Scope for serving international customers…….

f) Possibility of working abroad…………………

g) Interesting and challenging work …………….

h) Job Security and satisfaction………………….

i) Good Management support……………………

j) Others (please specify) ………………………...

10) Are you entitled to get company bonus payment?

a) Yes………………………………………………..

b) No………………………………………………...

11) Do you receive any benefit from the company such as free cell phone, free or

subsidized lunch, free car etc.?

a) Yes……………………………………………….

b) No………………………………………………..

12) If you have receive any benefit from the company, please specify

a) Free cell phone……………………..

b) Free or subsidized lunch……………

c) Free car…………………………….

d) Free or subsidized Health Club…….

e) Travel Allowance………………….

f) Free or subsidized Accommodation…

g) Others (…………………………..)…

13) Are you satisfied with your total earnings from the company? (Salary + bonus + benefits)

a) Completely Satisfied……………….

b) Satisfied to some extent……………

c) Neutral……………………………..

d) Dissatisfied to some extent………..

e) Completely Dissatisfied …………..

14) Would you agree with the current Economic Growth and Talent competition in your organisation?

a) Strongly agree …………..

b) Agree ……………………

c) Neutral…………………...

d) Disagree …………………

e) Strongly Disagree ……….

.

15) Do you think that reward management should have an important role in your organisation?

a) Yes ………………………………….

b) No …………………………………..

16) Are you satisfied with the Job Content that is assigned to you in your company?

a) Completely satisfied……………….

b) Satisfied to some extent…………...

c) Neutral……………………………..

d) Dissatisfied to some extent………..

e) Completely dissatisfied……………

17) Are you satisfied with the Recognition and support given by the organisation/management to you as an employee?

a) Completely Satisfied……………

b) Satisfied to some extent………..

c) Neutral………………………….

d) Dissatisfied to some extent…….

e) Completely Dissatisfied…………

18) Are you satisfied with the Training and Development Opportunities in your

organisation?

a) Completely Satisfied…………..

b) Satisfied to some extent………

c) Neutral…………………………

d) Dissatisfied to some extent……

e) Completely Dissatisfied……….

19) Are you satisfied with working in this company?

a) Completely Satisfied………….

b) Satisfied to some extent………

c) Neutral………………………..

d) Dissatisfied to some extent…..

e) Completely Dissatisfied………

20) Do you intend to stay with this employer?

a) YES, But for less than one year….

b) YES, But for less than three years…

c) YES, But for less than five years…

d) YES, for five years or more……..

21) What would make you to think seriously to leave this company in-order to join with a competitor?

a) More challenging task………………...

b) Better pay………………………………

c) Better benefits………………………….

d) Better work environment……………….

e) Better leadership………………………

f) Better career opportunities……………

g) Better training opportunities………….

h) More healthy work with family balance

22) What have been the most effective interventions used by your company as a reward to you ?

a) Salary increase……………………….

b) Career advancement…………………

c) Training and development…………..

d) Recognition………………………….

e) Participation in decision making…….

f) others(please specify)………………..

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