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MONETARY INCENTIVES AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between monetary incentives and employee performance in Barclays Bank. The research objectives were; to establish the level of employee performance, to establish the relationship between the monetary incentives and employee performance and to establish the monetary incentives used in Barclays Bank. The above mentioned objectives were achieved using stratified sampling and simple random sampling to select respondents. A sample size of 75 respondents was taken basing on the proportion of 50% on each stratum depending on their respective samples. The appropriate design which was used to collect data was descriptive research design because it describes both qualitatively and quantitatively. From the study it was found that the Bank offers a number of incentives such as salaries, allowances, bonuses, air time and lunch allowances. Employee performance findings indicated that they had improved as evidenced by reports of achieved targets of 2008-2010. The relationship between monetary incentives and employee performance was strong-positively relationship of 0.99. The researcher made a number of recommendations that; pay should be increased to enable the workers meet their economic obligations and making employees being more committed to the Bank, employee development programs like training and promotions should be adequately implemented, working conditions should be improved upon for example the supervisors should be loosen of the harsh attitudes towards lower level workers and punishment should be proportional to errors committed, employees should be allowed to participate in decision making especially decisions that affect them and a two way communication should be encouraged in the organization. Complaints received from employees should be responded to.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Monetary incentives refer to the exchange prices for labour.(Markowitz 1980). They are the base payments which employers use to compensate time and effort spent by employees towards attaining organizational goals (Flippo 1984). Monetary incentives can be understood as payment packages that individual workers earn by virtue of their employment by the organization. Generally monetary incentives are economic benefits given to employees for the services they render to the organization. Performance is defined as the ability to meet the set targets in the organization. (Kayemba 1995).

Monetary incentives in Barclays Bank take forms of salaries, wages, allowances, bonuses. Salaries are a monthly pay to employees of the bank and they are fixed according to the employees experience, educational levels and position. Wages on other hand are calculated according to task given to a particular employee and sometimes the number of days that one works and this is usually payment made to casual labourers. Allowances in Barclays Bank include airtime, medical allowances, and even transport allowances. Bonuses are extra pays to the employees who have achieved the set targets in time and this is usually in addition to the salary of the employee.(Company magazine 2008). However, the monetary incentive system in Barclays is characterized by delays in paying employees their salaries, bonuses and allowances to the extent of paying them three months (Banks quarterly report 2007).

This has demotivated hard working employees as there is lack of extra pay for the more performing employees. This has also affected the performance as employees are no longer working according to expectations of the bank because employees report late for work, rampant absenteeism and labour turnovers. (Bank’s quarterly report 2007).

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Barclays bank has tried to create a motivating environment for its workers through putting up monetary incentives such as allowances, bonuses, payments of salaries and wages in order to motivate them work towards the set targets but the poor incentive system of the Bank like delays in payments has led to demotivated work force leading to the poor performance levels of employees hence the Bank not achieving most of its targets in time.

1.3   PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the study was to establish a relationship between the monetary incentives and employee performance.

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1) To establish the monetary incentives used by Barclays Bank.

2) To establish level of employee performance in Barclays Bank.

3) To establish the relationship between the monetary incentives and employee performance.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1) What are the monetary incentives used in Barclays Bank?

2) What is the level of employee performance in Barclays Bank?

3) What is the relationship between monetary incentives and the employee performance?

1.6       SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Geographical scope

The study was carried out at Barclays Bank head offices along Jinja road because it had the necessary data for the study.

Content scope

The study focused on monetary incentives as an independent variable and employee performance as the dependent variable.

Time Scope

The researcher considered records relating to the monetary incentives and the employee performance levels in Barclays Bank from the periods of 2008-2011.

1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study was of importance to the organizations in understanding the relationship between the monetary incentives and employee performance. The research was of useful to the future researchers on monetary incentives as a form of motivating factor to employee performance. The study was to provide the researcher with more research knowledge and skills in monetary incentives and employee performance in the Banks and how to conduct research.