企业管理中的奖励机制thesis：Reward preference for managers

从管理科学的角度来看，组织提供给员工一定的奖励用以赞扬他们积极正确的行为，这样能够让员工继续保持这样的行为(阿玛比尔,2007)。类似于当下出现的各种范畴，包括法律、道德、奖励的迹象都是人类管理上的进步(Denyer &卢梭,2009)。然而对于个人来说，奖励是一种有效的激励措施，在群体里，工作人员可以获得足够的士气和满足感(古普塔&辛格尔,2003)。在商业中，奖励的定义十分的宽泛，他可以指为员工提供的工资和奖金,也可能是赞美，甚至可能是老板的一个微笑，或一个简单的评价：“干得不错！”(阿玛比尔,2007)。然而,设计和实施组织的奖励系统是很容易的,但要使奖励同时满足员工的有效需求将是非常困难的。随着社会日益复杂,员工需要的奖励也越来越难以捉摸,有研究者调查，现代企业采用的90%的奖励方式都是过时的，就像男爵&阿姆斯特朗(2007)提到的，应该创建新的奖励方法来提高员工的士气和工作效率，组织也必须使这些奖励以正确适当的方式，否则奖励就不会那么有效了。

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of Dissertation

From the view of the management science, reward is offered by the organisation to make the correct behaviour of employees praised, so that the employees could keep behaving like that (Amabile, 2007). Similar to the emergence of authorities, laws and ethics, reward is one of the signs for the humanity management system (Denyer & Rousseau, 2009). However, reward is an efficient incentive for the organisations or much smaller groups, through which the people working for the organisations or groups could acquire sufficient morale (Gupta & Singhal, 2003). Within the business, rewards could be defined with a very wide range, it could be the wages and bonus offered for the employees, it could be the praise for the good performers, or it could even be the smile from the CEO, or a simple “good work” from the direct supervisor (Amabile, 2007).

#p#分页标题#e#However, to design and implement a reward system in the organisation is easy, but to make the reward effective whilst satisfying for the employees’ needs would be very difficult. With the increasingly complicated society, employees’ needs for the rewards are also becoming more elusive, through which there are researchers mentioning the traditional rewards methods adopted by over 90% of the modern enterprises are outdated, just like mentioned by Baron & Armstrong (2007), they believe new methods of rewards should have been created to increase the morale and working efficiencies of the employees, also the organisations would have to make those rewards given to the correct person in an appropriate way, thus the rewards might not be effective at all.

1.3 Introduction and Rationale for Selecting Case Company

In order to make the research more targeted with a narrower range, the case study method would be adopted with the selection of a representative Chinese SOEs to make the research better conducted. Based on the condition of above, the Anhui Electric Power Corporation (Anhui Electric for short in the following) would be selected.

Anhui Electric is one of the wholly-owned subsidiaries of State Grid (one of the largest Chinese SOEs in Power and Energy sector), the company, as one of the national SOEs, is taking the responsibilities of supplying sufficient electricity for the society to satisfy the enterprises’ and individuals needs for power as well as rationalize the provincial energy resource allocation to make sure the manufacturing activities and other social activities could be maintained and supported. The company is currently working on the construction, production, operation, scientific research, designing, and training for electric grid, with 17 municipal power companies and 71 country power companies, with up to 70,000 all kinds of employees and customers of over 21 million families in Anhui Province of China. In the year of 2010, Anhui Electric had produced electricity for over 146 billion KWh (international standard measurement of electricity) with the growth of 10.14% comparing to the last-year amount. Thermal power is one of the major products of Anhui Electric whilst the company also produces hydropower as a support for supplies, the electricity produced by this company would be used to support the daily electricity consumption of Anhui Province as well as some southern areas such as Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and the city of Shanghai (Anhui Electric Power Corporation, 2011a). Besides of that, currently Anhui Electronic is working on the safety and smoothness of electricity transportation as well as the sufficiency of electricity supplies within the areas it is responsible of. Based on the aim of which, Anhui Electric had made the enterprises focused on building the world’s top grid and also constructing the world’s top enterprise with excellent management, also it would try to offer clean energy to the society with better services for the individual families and other electricity consumers, through which they could contribute for the stableness and harmoniousness of the society (Anhui Electric Power Corporation, 2011b). Because of the reason, Anhui Electric, recently, is developing fast both in terms of the enterprise size and in terms of the internal management strategies, it had improved continuously about its internal management towards employees, and rewards and incentives are somehow focused by the senior managers of this company in order to make the employees’ morale and creativity boomed.#p#分页标题#e#

Generally there are two reasons for the author to select Anhui Electric as the case company in this dissertation. Firstly, also the most importantly, Anhui Electric is currently working on a series of strategic changes in terms of its internal management, which had drawn many managerial scientists’ attention in China, and as one of the most critical part of its internal strategic adjustments, the reward practices would be somehow important for Anhui Electric and the research of which could be valuable for Anhui Electric and further to be valuable for all of the SOEs in China. Besides of that, the author’s father is one of the senior managers of Anhui Electric, the relationship could make the author’s research to either the employees of the company and the managers of the company easier and more convenient. Because of the above two reasons, the author had decided Anhui Electric as the case study company for this dissertation, through which the research aim and research objectives could be fulfilled.

1.4 Research Aim and Objectives

Based on the above analysis, this dissertation would adopt the case study method for the further research, and the research results of this dissertation would be used to analyse possible problems of the rewarding system of the case company – Anhui Electric, and then make recommendations to Anhui Electric as well as the other SOEs in China as general.

Therefore, the aim of research could be concluded briefly in the following:

#p#分页标题#e#To identify the gap between reward practices and reward preferences in Anhui Electronic

With the consideration of the above research aim, the research objectives could thus be stated as following:

l To observe and analyse the reward practices in Anhui Electric based on the current human resource management strategies of the organisation;

l To identify the reward preferences of both the employees and the managers of Anhui Electric;

l To conduct gap analysis of the practices and preferences of the organisation and anticipate the pressures upon the reward systems;

l To offer possible solutions or recommendations for strategic change of Anhui Electric’s rewarding systems.

1.5 Structure of Dissertation

In considering of the above-stated research aim and objectives, this dissertation would be structured as following:#p#分页标题#e#

l Chapter 1: Introduction – the first chapter of this dissertation would be the introduction, through which the author could state the background of research, the research aim and objectives, as well as the general structure of this dissertation, making preparation for the further analysis.

l Chapter 2: Literature Review – the second chapter of this dissertation would be the literature review, in the chapter of which the theoretical framework of the rewarding system, the reward preference of employees and managers.

l Chapter 3: Methodology – this chapter would about the detailed methods of the research to be taken, and in terms of which, both the quantitative and qualitative research methods would be discussed, besides of that, the data collection and data analysis methods would also be mentioned as well.

l Chapter 4: Empirical Findings – this chapter would describe briefly about the results acquired from the empirical research for the Anhui Electronic both from the quantitative research and the qualitative research.

l Chapter 5: Discussion – this chapter would, based on the former chapter, analyse the research findings and make the research findings combined to figure out valuable findings from the researches.

#p#分页标题#e#l Chapter 6: Conclusion and recommendation – this chapter would firstly summarize the general findings and contents covered in this dissertation, together with the appropriate recommendation to be offered to the case company. Besides of which, the research limitation as well as the future research direction would also be mentioned in this chapter as well.

2. Literature review

The literature review could offer theoretical knowledge to support as well as the relevant case studies to guide the further research in this dissertation, therefore it would be important for this literature review to review the recent literatures about the relevant theories of the rewarding system including the rewarding designing and reward preference of employees and managers, also the literature review would consist the case studies about the power companies about the rewarding system.

2.1 Rewarding Systems

2.1.1 Definition

Based on the definition given by Jenkins, et al. (1998), the employee rewarding system could be regarded as the “procedures, rules and standards associated with allocation of benefits and compensation to employees” (p.777), the definition given was focusing on the components of the reward offered by the enterprises, however, more importantly, the reward system could be considered as the organisation’s integrated policies, processes and practices for rewarding its employees in accordance with their contribution, skill, as well as competencies and their market worth (Michael, 1999).#p#分页标题#e#

Reward system, as mentioned by Guthrie (2001), as well as mentioned by Eisenberger & Cameron (2011) could contain many different aspects of contents in the organisational practices, those might be including the grading systems for employees, the wages and payments for the employees, the salary progression, benefits and etc.

2.1.2 Reasons for offering rewards

l There was wide range of concerns and relevant researches (Wright & McMahan, 2007; Martins & Terblanche, 2008; Lazear, 2010; Ruppel & Harrington, 2010; Stajkovic & Luthans, 2011; Zeng, 2011) focused on the reasons for giving rewards for the employees.

l However, basically the mainstream of the researches had assumed the organisations offer rewards for the employees for the improvement of the general organisational performance (Wright & McMahan, 2007; Martins & Terblanche, 2008; Lazear, 2010; Ruppel & Harrington, 2010; Stajkovic & Luthans, 2011; Zeng, 2011), but as for the detailed reasons, researchers were generally holding different aspects of opinions. To begin with, some researchers, considering from the organisational mechanism, believed that the organisations offered rewards for the employees for motivate the performance of employees and motivate the “good behaviours” for the employees among the others, through which an internal competition could be guided by the rewards so that the employees could know what they should do and how they could do it well for getting the rewards (Martins & Terblanche, 2008; Wright & McMahan, 2007); however, with the increasing concern of innovation and organisation’s core competencies, some researchers had put their focuses on the motivation of employees’ innovation as well as the so called “hidden capacities” of the employees, those researchers would rather believe the rewards offered to the employees for making them more innovative and the rewards can work like catalyst to stimulate the employees and make whom work better and continuously improve themselves (Lazear, 2010; Stajkovic & Luthans, 2011); however, such kind of view were rejected by other researchers recently with the emerging concern of the CSR (corporate social responsibilities) of the ethical bottom line of the enterprises, etc., through the thoughts of that the researchers believed organisations offer rewards for their employees because they take the employees as one of the most important stakeholders of the enterprises, and caring for the employees is one of the basic responsibilities of the enterprises, therefore, offering rewards should be seen as a normal mechanism or a way of fulfilling the responsibilities of the enterprises, but not the methods for promoting productivity or employee morale (Rupple & Harrington, 2010; Zeng, 2011).#p#分页标题#e#

l However, except for the third aspect of view, researchers supporting the former two views both agreed that the employees were given rewards based on their value that created for the organisation. Therefore, as mentioned by Zhou (2008), the organisation would usually prove the employees for their continuous improvements for themselves, for the team they are working in, or for the entire organisation; also Amabile et al. (2011) mentioned the organisation would offer rewards for employees as a way of improving its management of the qualities, or more directly, rewards can effectively reduce mistakes for the employees at work (Amabile et al., 2011).

2.1.3 Suitable rewards for employees

Nearly all the companies need a strategically designed rewarding system for the employees, which might be including the four areas – the compensations, benefits, recognition, as well as appreciation (Baer & Frese, 2008). However, in the process of developing suitable reward system for the employees, the organisation would usually make two mistakes, as mentioned in the research of Boselie et al. (2010), that are the organisations tend to either miss one or more elements mentioned in the above, or the elements that are included in the rewarding systems are not properly designed. Therefore, it would be valuable to discuss both the elements mentioned above as well as the preference of employees and managers for the rewards.

However, based on the research of Eisenberger et al. (2009), the “winning” company rewarding system should be focusing on two aspects of the employee activities – the employees’ performances (at work or on their own working areas such as sales targets for the sales person), as well as their behaviours (the obeying of organisational rules, collaboration with others, etc.). Also based on the research of Beugelsdijk (2008), the performance of the employees could be easily quantified and measured because it might be directly linked to certain targets, and the performance could be thereby measured by the achievements of those targets. As when it comes to the employees’ behaviours – Beugelsdijk (2008) considered, unless the employees are treated like prisoners with cameras on all corners of the organisation, the employees’ behaviours could not be easily measured. Just like highlighted by Edwards (2009), certain behaviours, such as the creativity of the employees shown the work, could be challenging for the company to reward them, because they were untraceable, and no clear measurable results could be seen in such behaviours, through which the company cannot make rewards specific and fair for the employees’ behaviours. Therefore, Hu and Bentler (2009) had mentioned two “self-asking questions” during their researches, that the employer should frequently ask themselves two questions including “what am I compensating my employees for?” as well as “what are the behaviours I want to reward?” (p.15), an example of the commuters as well as working time had been made by Hu and Bentler (2009) to further explain the thought, they mentioned that the employer should usually ask themselves about the question that, do I compensate employees for entering the door of his office earlier than the others whilst staying later than the others for hardworking, or do I compensate employees for the creative ideas offered at the monthly meeting that improved the entire businesses’ efficiencies? Under the above analysis, as mentioned by Lee et al.’s research (2009), in develop an effective reward system within the organisation, the managers need to identify the behaviours that are important or essential for the organisations, for example, for the customer-oriented companies, the employee behaviours of enhancing the relationships with customers could be more important for the company, whilst for the consulting firms, the employee behaviours of strengthening their professional knowledge are expected.#p#分页标题#e#

Besides of that, compensation could be referred as important as well in the company’s reward system (Marsden & Richardson, 2009; Pettigrew, 2010; Shalley, 2011). As mentioned by Marsden & Richardson (2009) when developing the reward system within the organisation, usually, and typically, it would be natural for the managers to think of the compensation strategies first. Marsden & Richardson (2009) referred the compensation as the “basic requirement” of employees, after all, no one would like, and be able to, work for free. But as mentioned by Shalley (2011), it would be more important for the HR managers to work out the compensation as an “incentive compensation plan” through which the compensation could be linked directly to the company goals or the benefits expected from the employees’ work. This point of view was supported by Pettigrew (2010) as well, who had mentioned the fact that if the HR managers do not take advantage of compensation in order of achieving the company goals, the compensation plan would not be suitable and acceptable for the employees, because other criteria might not be designed fairly and rationally in the eyes of the employees.

Benefits, on the other hand, could be considered as the other type of reward in a strategic reward system in the organisation, as mentioned by Cooper et al. (2009), benefits are usually concerned as important by employees, their decisions of being employed by the employer would be mostly decided on the “gap” between their expected benefits as well as the actual offered benefits by the organisation, Cooper et al. (2009) considered if the gap is small or even no gap between the two benefits, the employees would be expecting entering the organisation and work with a higher level of morale at the beginning, vice versa, if the gap is large, the employees might not be willing to enter the organisation or with lower morale and stableness. Also Dorenbosch et al. (2010) mentioned the fact that benefits, or the gap mentioned by Cooper et al. (2009), could also impact the turnover of the employees within the organisation, as in the organisations with higher level of benefits offered to the employees, the turnover would usually be smaller than the organisations who offer lower level of benefits, especially in the lower-level positions. On the other hand, Kaya’s research (2011) had involved the impact of competitors, who mentioned that the benefits offered by the organisation would be considered lower or worse by the employees when they are obvious lower than those of the competitors, and if this situation had occurred, the organisations would feel difficulties in attracting and retaining the employees, especially for those in the senior positions. After all, as concluded by Kaya (2011), it is the nature of human that they would find place that could offer them better treatments and more money to work.#p#分页标题#e#

In addition to the above mentioned compensation and benefits, the following two elements of rewards, the recognition as well as appreciation are considered easily neglected by the organisation during their practices (Baer & Frese, 2008; Boselie et al., 2010; Lepper et al., 2008; March, 2011; Preffer & Sutton, 2006). Recognition could be defined as the acknowledgement of the employees performances that is better than their peers in the specific job areas, activities, or attitudes that could be exemplified through the employees’ certain behaviours (Baer & Frese, 2008); whilst appreciation would focus more on the expression of gratitude by the employers to the employees who are working excellently well or have better loyalty, or some other behaviours that could be creating values for the organisation (ibid). Although there are more complicated ways for making recognition as well as appreciation among the employees, the simplest as well as most effective way would be direct expressions and statements for the employees’ performances and achievements that the organisations need their employees to work on harder (Boselie et al., 2010). For example, the senior managers could send a personal note or just stop by the employees’ desk to express their gratitude for the employees’ excellent performance or behaviours among the employees’ colleagues, and with making such judgements the other colleagues would know what kind of behaviours could be appraised and the employees being appraised could be positively motivated through the satisfaction of self-respect (Turner, 2008).

According to Lepper et al. (2008), organisation cannot diminish the importance of the recognition as well as appreciation as integral elements for a successful and effective strategic rewarding system within the organisation. Although not material, the two elements could enhance the employees performances from strengthening their relations with the employers and then raise the morale of employees at work (March, 2011). Although the two elements could rarely attract the employers’ attention in order of rewarding their employees, the actual costs for undertaking or adding the two elements of rewards for the company rewarding system were very low, this is because a basic concept – the employees do not know whether they are doing a good job and how good they have been achieved in their jobs, therefore they need their employers to tell them and make excellent performance appraised (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006).#p#分页标题#e#

Moreover, employee-centric point had been analyzed by different researchers, such as (Zeng, 2010), and Zhou (2008) within the Chinese enterprises. Through Zeng’s research (2010), the case companies in his research had been taken the rewards for employees as a way of motivating and retaining the employees, and also Zhou (2008) had considered that the Chinese enterprises are making rewards mostly monetary-based because they consider money shall be the best motivator among employees. However, from the employees’ aspect, as considered by Zhou (2008), more than the monetary rewards, psychological rewards shall be offered, so that the employees’ higher level of needs (based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) could be satisfied. Therefore, it could be concluded that it is the differences of opinions between the enterprises and the employees towards rewards that make the gap between reward performance and preference within the organisation.

2.2 Reward Preference

Based on the above mentioned background, identifying and making gap analysis based on the reward preference of employees as well as managers is also one of the objectives of the research, therefore it would be valuable for evaluating the recent literatures about the reward preference for the employees and for the managers.

There were actually heated arguments about whether the organisation should treat the employees and managers differently in terms of designing the rewarding and motivation strategies within the organisation, however, most of the scholars believed, based on the results of large amount of experiments, that the organisation should take the reward for employees and for managers differently (Aragon-Sanchez et al., 2008; Hennessey & Amabile, 2008; Corby et al., 2010; Guilford, 2010; Taylor, 2010; Yang et al., 2011). Among the recent literatures, there are either the researches about the rewards for employees in specific (Aragon-Sanchez et al., 2008; Corby et al., 2010; Taylor, 2010; Yang et al., 2011), or the researches about the rewards for the managers in specific (Kessler & Purcell, 2007; Laursen & Foss, 2008; Hennessey & Amabile, 2008; Guilford, 2010).#p#分页标题#e#

2.2.1 Reward preference for employees

The reward preference for employees, according to Taylor (2010) could be split into two different aspects – the employees working on repetitive and mechanic tasks, as well as the employees working on innovative tasks. Based on the research of Taylor (2010), the employees working on repetitive and mechanic tasks should be given rewards in a traditional way – with higher level of payments the employees could have higher level of productivities; for the innovative employees, in order to stimulate the employees’ innovation and creativity at work, they might need rewards not only from monetary, but also psychologically, such as the above mentioned appreciation. Also from the other perspective, employees doing different level of jobs might be expecting different rewards from the enterprises – employees are doing repetitive and mechanic tasks, such as the workers on the production line, might not expect higher than a fair income, but for the employees that are working on innovative tasks, such as the managers and engineers in the company, their expectation might be more because they believe they contributed more to the organisation.

What was considered by Yang et al. (2011) was similar to the Taylor’s consideration, and Yang et al. (2011) considered it is the most important thing for the organisation to offer different levels of rewards for employees with different work. Yang et al (2011) had made the example of the Wikipedia as well as Google Dictionary project. The two projects were started in nearly the same time with nearly the same idea – to create an online, editable, and professional encyclopaedia for the internet users. However, the differences of the two projects might be in the rewards for the employees – for Wikipedia, employees were working voluntarily and their rewards were mostly come from the head of Wikipedia project – according to the recall of the Wikipedia employees, the period of time they were working on constructing the Wikipedia was probably one of the most precious memories of them because from which they could feel continuous achievements, and improvements of themselves; for Google, the same as the other new product development team, there were large number of professional from various areas of academies, and they were given really higher-level of salaries for conducting and finishing the project, but after three years’ work, the project had to be halted temporarily because the senior managers considered it cost too much money without seeing good results . Through the example, Yang et al. (2011) had concluded that for the employees, money might be important but it was not always effective for promoting employees’ behaviours especially when in the case of employees’ innovation and creativities needed to be stimulated.#p#分页标题#e#

As mentioned by Aragon-Sanchez et al. (2008), employees who were working on easy jobs would be easily satisfied as well, because their performances were simply related to the level of their input, thus with monetary rewards they could just working harder for higher productivities and output. This could usually see among the employees who are doing entry-level and frontline jobs, such as customer service staffs, sales staffs, and etc. However, for the employees doing more difficult jobs, they might expect very different things, as considered by Corby et al. (2010), employees doing jobs requiring their specific skills and creativities might be expecting higher level of rewards when completing their tasks, and more importantly, they would not only expect a bonus but also the “mental compensation that could make them know their hardwork is valuable and noticeable” (Corby et al., 2010: p. 14).

Based on the above consideration, the employees’ preference on the rewards offered might be different based on their different jobs, for the employees that are working on simple, mechanic and repetitive jobs, they would tend to require monetary payments, whilst for the employees that are working on more difficult and creative jobs, they tend to need both monetary and mental rewards from the organisation, which could make their innovation boosts.

2.2.2 Reward preference for managers

Compared to the employees within the organisation, the rewards preference for managers might be simpler through the researches of them. According to Guildford (2010), in the present world, all the managers were given the tasks that need them to work creatively, flexibly, and responsively towards the external and internal changes. Therefore, the reward preference for the managers might be much more different with that of the employees.#p#分页标题#e#

Firstly, according to the research of Hennessey & Amabile (2008), the intrinsic incentives would be effective for the manager. In order of explaining their thoughts, Hennessey & Amabile (2008) adopted the famous “candle problem” to illustrate their findings. The candle problem (also called candle task) is a cognitive performance test through which the measurements for the “influences of functional fixedness on a participant’s problem solving capabilities” (Snow & Farr, 1987, p.118) could be undertaken. The test was, as illustrated from the following chart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle_problem), is presenting the tasks that need the participants to fix a candle on a wall in a way so the candle wax won’t drip onto the table below, and the tools available for the participants were a book of matches as well as a box of thumbtacks (Snow & Farr, 1987). The solution to the problem is to empty the box of thumbtacks, put the candle into the box, use the thumbtacks to nail the box to the wall and light the candle with the book of matches (ibid). Based on the reference of Hennessey & Amabile (2008), higher payment for the problem solvers cannot make the speed quicker for solving the problem – reversely the higher-paying participants were averagely working out the problem using less time than the lower-paying participants, and this experiment could actually prove the failure of traditional “payment-oriented” rewards for the managers, who are the problem solvers in the business world.

Based on the analysis of the above candle problem, Hennessey & Amabile (2008) believed that in order of rewarding the managers effectively, the companies would have to offer different things than the monetary payments and compensations; they deserve more for their creativity and quick responses towards the problems. Therefore, under the circumstance, Hennessey & Amabile (2008) had mentioned about some rewards that could be specifically offered to the managers – higher level of authorities, promotion and higher levels of management, as well as a small part of company equities for senior managers.

#p#分页标题#e#On the other hand, in considering of transparencies of the rewards offered to managers, Kessler & Purcell (2007) and Laursen & Foss (2008) were giving the different opinions. Kessler & Purcell (2007) had discussed about the manager’s preference on the rewards from their own conditions, and Kessler & Purcell (2007) believed that managers were positioned higher than the employees because of the unique and better managerial skills they owned, as well as more experiences than the subordinates. Therefore managers should be given a different treatment – Kessler & Purcell (2007) believe it is the inequity that makes the organisation moving forward, therefore by offering different privileges for the managers, such as better offices, better equipments, more annual paid vacations, etc., more importantly, those “unequal offers” would be transparent so that all the employees could see, and either admire or envy what their managers have, they would also want to be the managers on that occasion. Laursen & Foss (2008) were actually mentioning a different opinion from that of Kessler & Purcell (2007), who believed rewards offered for the managers should not be transparent, so that the managers could better protect their privacies and have better relations with the subordinates.

2.3 Relevant Researches on Chinese Power Company

In order of making the following research on Anhui Electronic more specified and targeted, it would also be necessary for researching the recent literatures about the case studies on Chinese power companies in terms of the employee rewarding system in the organisation.

2.3.1 General conditions

In China, due to the unique political environment, all the power companies were State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), thus it could be recognized that the entire industry was in a status of state monopoly (Liao & Chuang, 2009). Within such condition, according to Grossman (1986), within the industry there might be very small level of competition (barely any), and the industry would be surely important for the national economic status as well as the stableness of society, also the prices for the products and services sold by the state monopolised industries would be controlled strictly based on costs and market needs but not on competition. Also as mentioned by Liao & Chuang (2009), within the Chinese power companies, employee management would be largely affected by the central government policies as well as the union of labours – the policies would strictly regulate the rewards that the enterprises need to offer for the employees involving compensation and benefits, whilst the union of labours in China is a political department and controlled by the communists as well. Therefore, in terms of developing flexible rewarding systems within the organisation, it would be more difficult and complicated for the HR managers due to too many rules and regulations given.#p#分页标题#e#

On the other hand, as mentioned by Zhou & George’s case study to Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (2011), the SOEs in China seemed to start realizing the importance of flexible and effective rewarding systems, based on the condition of which the Chinese SOEs were currently experiencing a major strategic changes in terms of its HR practices, within the process of which the employees were getting better rewards from the enterprises with better morale compared to the past time.

2.3.2 Compensation and benefits

Based on the research of Liao & Chuang (2009), among all the employees in Chinese power companies, income is still attracting most of the employees and managers’ attentions, this might be owing to the increasing living pressures experienced by the Chinese residents due to the larger level of inflation. However, the empirical research of Zhou & Hong (2008) to one of the smaller Chinese power companies had shown that most of the employees were not giving expected benefits and compensations they need, and more importantly, they believe the increase of their benefits and compensations offered by the companies were slower than the average level; besides of that, Zhou & Hong (2008) also found there were approximately one third of the employees believing their incomes and their outputs were not equal, they believed their hard work did not deserve such amount of money. Liao & Chuang’s questionnaire (2009) also shown the income gap between employees and managers were overly large whilst the benefits and compensation offered for the employees were not motivating, were the two main problems the employees of Chinese power companies currently facing in terms of the compensation and benefits offered.

2.3.3 Recognition and appreciation#p#分页标题#e#

According to Han’s research on one of the Chinese power companies (2007), currently most of the Chinese power companies were still adopting a traditional rewarding system, except for the benefits and compensations offered for the employees fixedly, the enterprises would take the kinds of activities such as “employee of the month” or “employee of the year” as a main way of recognising and appreciating the employees. However, the dissatisfaction of the employees came from the fact that those kind of motivating activities were principally electing based on the positions and tenure of the employees, say, a line manager with 10-year tenure in the company would have much higher possibilities of winning “employee of the month” than an ordinary employee with 3-year tenure in the company. Based on the condition of which, according to Han (2007), basically the rewarding system offered by the Chinese power companies cannot work effectively for promoting the employees’ motivation and performance.

Also Zhou & George (2011) considered the current rewarding system is not suitable for the Chinese power companies, thereby the service qualities of most of the Chinese power companies were really low, and Zhou & George (2011) considered this situation was actually lowering the residents’ living qualities in China currently.

2.4 Summary of Literature Review

Based on the literature review, rewarding system is the procedures, rules and standards associated with allocation of benefits and compensation to employees, and reasons for offering rewards might be various such as improving general performance and the general innovativeness of the employees. However, suitable rewards for employees would be involving four areas – the compensations, benefits, recognition, as well as appreciation, and these four areas would also be undertaken as the segments that would be examined for the author to conduct the primary researches.#p#分页标题#e#

Besides of that, employees might have different preferences towards the rewards offered them, and usually employees dealing with more innovative and complex work might be wishing to acquire more and higher level of rewards from the organisation, which could actually cause the differences for the preference towards rewards between employees and managers of the company. When taking look into Chinese enterprises, the strategies undertaken by Chinese enterprises in terms of rewarding system might be somehow out-dated, through which the Chinese enterprises might need to improve their strategies based on the findings from the following researches.

3. Methodology

The methodology would discuss about the detailed methods for the following researches on the reward performance and reward preference for the selected case company. However, as could be identified from the above statement, both quantitative research and qualitative research would be adopted in this dissertation, through which the author would state and discuss the detailed ways in this dissertation.

3.1 Research Objective, Significance and Possible Limitation

Before stating the detailed methods to be deployed in this dissertation, it would also be important for the author to restate the research objectives of this dissertation, the significance and possible limitation of this research, through which the author could design the research methods more targeted and more rational.#p#分页标题#e#

3.1.1 Research objective

Based on the research aim of identifying the gap between reward practices and reward preferences in Anhui Electronic, as mentioned in the first chapter of this dissertation, the research objectives could thus be stated as following:

l To observe and analyse the reward practices in Anhui Electric based on the current human resource management strategies of the organisation;

l To identify the reward preferences of both the employees and the managers of Anhui Electric;

l To conduct gap analysis of the practices and preferences of the organisation and anticipate the pressures upon the reward systems;

l To offer possible solutions or recommendations for strategic change of Anhui Electric’s rewarding systems.

3.1.2 Research significance#p#分页标题#e#

Based on the above analysis, this research might be necessary in the current condition for the following reasons: first of all, as mentioned in the literature review, currently there was barely any relevant research on the Anhui Electronic, this had made it necessary to take a primary research on the case company in order to acquire sufficient information for the case company for further analysis; besides of that, the analysis of reward performance and reward preference for the employees and managers might make it necessary for a primary research to make the analysis more targeted and precise.

More importantly, the results of the research might be valuable for Anhui Electronic, because with the findings of the gap between reward performance and preference within the organisation of Anhui Electronic, it could be possible for the dissertation to offer rational and appropriate suggestions for the company and through the strategies suggested the Anhui Electronic could have higher level of employee morale as well as employee motivation, with which they could have higher level of overall performance. The results might be even valuable for the entire power industry in China because based on the literature review, all of the power companies are SOEs controlled by the central government of China, in terms of this situation, the suggestions for Anhui Electronic might also be valuable for the other power companies in China, through which the industrial condition of the employee treatment as well as employee relation could be enhanced with multiple benefits brought by the change.

3.1.3 Possible limitation of dissertation

Before taking the research it might be necessary to evaluate the possible limitation of the dissertation, through which the research could be designed more rationally with avoiding those limitations affecting the results of the research, besides of that, by realizing the possible limitation of the dissertation, the selection of research methods could be benefited because in using wrong methods could make the original limitation of the dissertation even enlarged, with the unavoidable consequence of the results being biased.#p#分页标题#e#

In terms of this, there might be the following several limitation of the dissertation the author should be aware of. To begin with, the lacking of researching experiences might be the source for mistakes and bias to be occurred in the research, without sufficient experiences in handling the research process, controlling the research quality and analysing and processing with the research results, it could be foreseen that the research quality could be lower than expected. Besides of that, the lacking of sufficient knowledge for the Anhui Electronic might be limiting the appropriateness of the research design for the author, without sufficient knowledge about the power company it might make the result lacking precision and less valuable for the company.

In order of avoiding the two aspects of potential limitation, the author had firstly viewed the related books about researches methods, process control, as well as data processing through which the author could have acquired sufficient knowledge about the researches; besides of that, in order of enhancing the knowledge about the Anhui Electronics, the author would firstly talk to my father, also the recommender of the qualitative and quantitative researches, for the company information, through which the author could know better about the company.

3.2 Methods of Quantitative Research

Quantitative research could do help to the development of better understandings about the detailed conditions from the various thoughts, opinions, feelings, ideas, and all other subjective feedbacks from the respondents towards certain topics (Aaker et al., 1997). Quantitative research could usually show the results with numerical ways, through which the result could be analysed with quantitative way and the summaries of the results could be undertaken statistically, more importantly, quantitative research could be conducted to relatively large group of people, through which the researchers could make use of them and them find the abstract disciplines of the phenomenon (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2005). Based on the above analysis, this research method would be deployed in the following research in this dissertation to better achieve the research aim and objectives.#p#分页标题#e#

Among all the research methods for quantitative research, questionnaire is the most frequently used method. Questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents, and this kind of research instrument is also widely used in the managerial, sociological, , and psychological researches (Aaker, et al., 1997). In this dissertation, questionnaire would also be cited as the research method for the quantitative research. Following are the discussion about the rationale, proposed size, designing, and possible deficits of the questionnaire:

3.2.1 Rationale for questionnaire

Questionnaire might be beneficial for the research results with several advantages of this method. To begin with, questionnaire is much cheaper than the other research methods, might not need too much investments on this research (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2005). This is suitable for the author’s condition, as a student doing the research project alone; being cheap would be important and necessary. Besides of that, questionnaire could be easily adopted by the author, under the circumstance that the author is lacking relative experiences on managerial researches, because with a good pre-designed questionnaire, the research quality might be easily controlled because the questionnaire would be highly standardized with fixed questions given to the respondents expecting their honest answers, and all the respondents had to do is to fill in the blanks and try to make their choices truly reflecting their internal thoughts (Aaker et al., 1997).

Considering the detailed condition of this research, the questionnaire might be suitable in spite of the above two advantages, as questionnaire could be easily adopted to large number of respondents without consuming too much time, therefore in order to find out the reward performance and preference of the employees in Anhui Electronic, the author could make face-to-face questionnaire to multiple hundreds of employees within a week, and a simple selection of the answered questionnaire could make the analysis smoothly taken.#p#分页标题#e#

Based on the above rationale analysis, the aim for the questionnaire would be:

l What might be the general attitudes holding by the employees towards their reward system?

l What might be the rewards received and perceived by the employees?

l What might be the rewards preferred by the employees?

3.2.2 Proposed size and rational choice for the size

Currently there were approximately 70,000 employees in Anhui Electronic and in headquarter of this company there were approximately 600 employees working in all types of positions. The author was given the permission as well as the invitation by the Anhui Electronic for making the questionnaire among the employees from the all six departments of the company in the headquarter, which were the up to 500 employees in:

l Financial department;#p#分页标题#e#

l Personnel department;

l Safety and security department;

l Technological department;

l Supply chain and procurement department;

l Equipment maintenance and repairing department.

The proposed size for the sample would be including 50% of the 500 employees, which means approximately 250 employees would be involved in the questionnaire and among them, 200 questionnaires would be selected based on their departments, positions, as well as answering of the final open questions.

3.2.3 Design and implementation of questionnaire

#p#分页标题#e#The expected time for each questionnaire would be 5 – 10 minutes including the former introduction and explanation of the questionnaire as well as the time for the respondent to take the questionnaire. Based on the above consideration, the questionnaire would be made as simple as possible containing 15-20 questions (and one or two open questions). Before that the pilot test would be undertaken among several of my classmates and friends, through which the author could know the time and possible reaction of the respondents, and with several adjustments the questionnaire could be made more reasonable. The implementation of the questionnaire would be expected to last for five working days, and in each day, employees in one or two departments would be questioned and their results would be collected and input into the computer after the research.

Besides of that, with the above considered aims for the questionnaire, the questions containing in the questionnaire would be including the following information:

l Respondents’ personalized information, including their department, age, monthly income, working time in the company, and etc., this type of questions could be made preparing for the further analysis for the empirical results;

l Respondents’ general attitudes towards the rewarding system in the company, including their attitudes towards the fairness, sufficiency, types towards the rewarding system as well as the general satisfaction towards the rewards given;

l Respondents’ actual perceived rewards by the Anhui Electronic, in terms of the benefits, compensation, recognition and appreciation;#p#分页标题#e#

l Respondents’ preferred rewards for the Anhui Electronic, in terms of the benefits, compensation, recognition and appreciation;

l Open questions about respondents’ attitudes towards possible changes or adjustments needed to be taken by Anhui Electronics in terms of the reward system.

3.2.4 Possible deficits of questionnaire

There are several possible deficits of the questionnaire during the research process. Firstly, the questionnaire might be biased due to the small range of sample selection (Aaker, et al., 1997). Based on the above analysis, there were altogether 70,000 employees in Anhui Electronics, and the questionnaire was taken only among 250 of them, all working in headquarter of this company. Also the questionnaire would only cover line manager and baseline employees, as for the senior managers of the company, the questionnaire cannot be reached and this could make the research results biased actually; furthermore, the questionnaire might not be able to identify the rationale for employees “wanting” or “prefer for” those rewards. In order of avoiding those deficits causing unexpected results for the research, the author would firstly have careful selection for the sample, picking up representative employees in different positions and departments, holding different attitudes towards the company rewards. Besides of that, in the following qualitative research the author would try to discover the information about rewards offered to senior managers and senior managers’ preferred rewards as a compensation for the deficit of this questionnaire.
#p#分页标题#e#
3.3 Methods of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research, different from the quantitative research, could be deployed for the author to have deeper and wider aspects of knowledge towards the case studied through multiple methods such as interview, ethnographic research, phenomenology, historical research, etc. (Joseph et al., 2003). In this qualitative research, the interview would be selected, which could be defined as the conversation between two people (also called the interviewer and the interviewee) through which the two sides of conversation would be discussing towards certain questions and the valuable and deeper information could be acquired for the further analysis of the research projects (Kinnear and Root, 1988). As for more detailed method, the semi-structured interview would be held in the research of this dissertation, which could be an open-ended, discovery-oriented method that could be suitable for the discussion of programme processes as well as outcomes from the perspective of the target audience or key stakeholders (Aaker et al., 1997). In the following, the rationale for semi-structured interview, proposed size and invitation of interviewee, designing and implementation of interview, as well as possible deficits would be discussed.

3.3.1 Rationale for semi-structured interview

Semi-structured interview could allow the researcher to discuss with the interviewees about certain issues deeply with a prepared discussion list, usually the semi-structured could make it possible for the interviewee to have better understanding and deeper knowledge about the topics discussed (Joseph et al., 2003), which is just needed by the researcher who had not sufficient knowledge about the company’s detailed reward system. More importantly, semi-structured interview could allow the researcher to acquire the information needed and not originally expected with talking about the interviewees’ personal experiences and thoughts, through which the research might be more targeted and more problems could be found out with the semi-structured interview (Kinnear and Root, 1988). This is actually needed by this research.#p#分页标题#e#

Because of the above advantages to be acquired with the semi-structured interview, the author could acquire both detailed information about the company’s rewarding system, and the other aspects of knowledge such as the senior manager’s preference of rewards to be offered, the effectiveness of current reward system to the senior managers and their subordinates, etc.

Based on the above discussion, the semi-structured interview should be aiming at the following aspects of contents:

l What are the detailed rewards system in the company?

l What are the rewards offered for senior managers?

l What are the preferred rewards by senior managers?

l What might be adjusted or changed in the original reward system in the company in order to better motivate the employees and managers?

3.3.2 Proposed size and invitation#p#分页标题#e#

In the current Anhui Electronics, there were approximately 15-20 senior managers, and it would not be possible for the author to interview all of the senior managers in the research with the limitation of the author’s time and the senior managers’ own willingness. Therefore, from the researcher’s father’s invitation, the qualitative research might be covering four to five senior managers in the company, which includes the senior manager of personnel department. The invitation would be made through the researcher’s father via either emails or face-to-face communication.

3.3.3 Designing and implementation of interview

Based on the above aim of this semi-structured interview, the topics to be discussed with the senior managers would be involving the following:

l The detailed rewards system in the company, including those regulated by the company policies (compensation and benefits) and those conducted by the senior managers as a company culture or routines (recognition and appreciation);

l The rewards offered for senior managers and the senior managers’ attitudes towards the rewards offered to them;

l The preference of senior managers in terms of the rewards;#p#分页标题#e#

l The possible aspects for the rewards to be changed or adjusted for the company.

The semi-structured interview would be undertaken for three to five days, and with the approval of the senior managers the interviewer would record the whole interview and make summarising records on computer after the interview had been undertaken. If the senior manager tends not to record the interview the author would take notes for the interview and based on notes and memories about the interview to record the detailed findings afterwards.

3.3.4 Possible deficits of semi-structured interview

The disadvantage of semi-structured interview could be obviously identified as the special condition of “interviewer effect”, this is when the interviewee response being affected by the presence of the interviewer due to the condition of the interviewer, such as gender, age, tenure, or etc. (Kinnear & Root, 1988). Based on the background of the interviewer, the interviewee might not be talking deeply with the interviewer about their real thought, and this could lower the value of the interviews.

Besides of that, the semi-structured interview could be very time consuming as the conversation could be undertaken deeply around certain topics (*Joseph et al., 2003). If without the recorder the result could be hardly fully recorded by the interviewer, therefore the recording of the research result might be difficult as well for the author.#p#分页标题#e#

3.4 Data Collection and Processing

3.4.1 Method and procedures of data collection

The data collected would be based on the questionnaires undertaken by the employees for the quantitative research as well as the records (by recorder or by handwriting) of the qualitative research. Both researches would undertaken through face-to-face methods, and in the implication of questionnaire, the researcher would take the face-to-face method, although with longer time, because there might be several concepts not understood by the respondents, and the researcher could have in-timely explanation where the questions occurred. This is also the reason for the questionnaire to be taken five working days for the author. Besides of that, by face-to-face interview with the senior managers, the author could acquire more information including the emotional changes of the interviewees, through which the author would have the chance to identify the general attitudes of the interviewees about certain topics.

3.4.2 Data processing method

As mentioned above, the data processing method could be divided into that for the questionnaire and for the semi-structured interview, which could be seen as following:

#p#分页标题#e#l For the questionnaire, the questionnaire would be made by handwriting of the respondents – the employees in Anhui Electronics. Data from the questionnaire would mainly be statistics about how many respondents are making the same choices on each questions asked and then compare that to the total number of respondents to see the general perception of respondents. The questionnaire would be then collected and recorded through Excel for recording the detailed feedback of the respondents, and after all 250 questionnaires had been collected, the author would select 200 of them based on the conditions of the respondents and then make analysis using the statistical software SPSS.

l For the semi-structured interview, the records of the discussion with the interviewees would be summarized by short reflective articles after the interview had been undertaken, and after all the interviews the results would be combined, compared and contrasted, afterwards the final summaries for the research findings could be undertaken within different topics involved in the interviews, and also thematic analysis would be adopted based on the interviewees’ responds acquired.

3.4.3 Issues of validity and reliability

Generally, the primary research of both the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews would be undertaken by the author herself, through which the reliability of the research results could be ensured, also, both the questionnaire questions and interview questions would be discussed with the father of the author, through the experience of whom the author could make the research validly and smoothly undertaken. Besides of that, there might be threats for reliability of the research, because the father of the author had been the senior manager of the company, and in terms of this, the respondents’ reactions might be biased if they know this relationship between the researcher and the senior manager of the company. In terms of this, the researcher would not announce such relationships among respondents. As for the interviewees, the threats of reliability could be diminished through the promise from the researcher that the research results would not be available for the father of the researcher, and then through a long-time conversation they could help the researcher to know more about the information the researcher needs to know.#p#分页标题#e#

3.5 Ethical and Cultural Considerations

Within the primary research, especially for those when the researchers would contact with different kinds of people talking about their personal thoughts, ideas, and opinions towards certain topics, the ethical concerns of the research might be occurred (Saunders et al., 2009). Within the research, the ethics might be challenged both for the individuals including the respondents of questionnaire and interviewees from semi-structured interviews and for the company of Anhui Electronics for the leak of confidential information. As mentioned by the research of Cooper and Schindler (2008), defined as the “norms or standards of behaviour that guide moral choices about our behaviour and our relationships with others”, the ethics must be concerned in the dissertation based on the above analysis. Therefore, based on the suggestion of Sauders et al. (2009), the research ethics could be maintained through a checklist for author:

l All researches should be based on the basis of voluntary, subjects should be free to enter and quit the researches at any time;

l Be well-behave and objective as researcher;

l Data received from any organizations should be used and stored confidentially (after all data being collected and stored in the computer, the records and questionnaires would be destroyed within three days);
#p#分页标题#e#
l It should be noted that information offered by participants could be fake to some extent;

l Prevent potential harm for participants including both physical and mental ones including discrimination, discomfort, embarrassment, and pain, etc.

l Protection of privacies for the research subjects.

4. Research Findings and discussions

Based on the above statement, the research had been developed through both quantitative and qualitative research methods, and in terms of which, the questionnaire and semi-structured researches had been adopted. Following are the statement and simple analysis of the research results found from the two researches.

4.1 Results from Questionnaire

Generally, among all 632 employees in the six departments of the company, there were 247 respondents had been taken part in the research through filling up questionnaires, among them, there were 200 questionnaires selected as the sample to be analysed in the following (200 was selected for the convenience for the following questionnaire analysis). As mentioned above, the questionnaire for the respondents includes five aspects of contents – the personalized information, the general attitude towards rewarding system, the perceived rewards by the company, the preferred rewards by the company, as well as the open questions asking the respondents’ suggestions for change. The following are the detailed analysis for the above five aspects of questions with description of findings and graph to show the general condition of them.#p#分页标题#e#

4.1.1 Personalized information

The personalized information was made to analyse the respondents’ information in terms of their departments, age, income, position, as well as working time in the company.

l Respondents’ department: among all the 200 respondents in the sample, largest part of the respondents in this survey came from the technological department (86 respondents with 43% of sample), besides, the respondents came from the safety and security department as well as those from the equipment maintenance and repairing departments were similar, with 38 and 34 respondents, respectively (contributing 19% and 17% to the sample); the rest respondents were coming from the supply chain and procurement department (22 respondents with 11% of the sample), as well as financial department and personnel department (both with 10 respondents with 5% of the sample). Following bar chart could show the actual condition of above statement:

Figure 2: Department of Respondents

l Respondents’ age: among all the 200 respondents in the sample, nearly half of the respondents in this survey were aged below 30 currently, which contained 47% of the sample (94 respondents), besides of that, there were 67 respondents aged between 31 and 45, which contributed approximately one third of the sample (33.5%), leaving the rest of the sample aged over 46 years old (39 respondents with 19.5% of the sample). Following pie chart could show the actual condition of above statement:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 3: Age of Respondents

l Respondents’ income: among all the 200 respondents in the sample, over two fifths of respondents in this survey were receiving a monthly income between 2,000 to 4,000 RMB, besides of that, the respondents received a monthly income below 2,000 RMB also contained 33.5% of the sample with 67 respondents; also the number of respondents receiving a monthly income between 4,000 and 6,000 had reached 34 with 17% of the sample, the rest 13 respondents were receiving the highest level of income with an over 6K monthly income (13 respondents with 6.5% of the sample). Following bar chart could show the actual condition of above statement:

Figure 4: Income of Respondents

l Respondents’ positions: among all the 200 respondents in the sample, most of them are working as staffs in the company, the number of respondents accounted to 140 with 70% of the sample, besides of that, there were also 48 supervisors or senior staffs, as well as 12 line managers among the 200 respondents, contributing 24% and 6% of the sample, respectively. Based on the average management span of 4-6 in Anhui Electronics, the selection of the sample might be reasonable in terms of their positions. Following bar chart could show the actual condition of above statement:

Figure 5: Position of Respondents
#p#分页标题#e#
l Respondents’ working time: among all the 200 respondents in the sample, nearly half of them had worked for Anhui Electronics for less than 2 years (95 respondents with 47.5% of sample), also there were 60 respondents worked for 2-5 years for the company, containing 30% of the sample, leaving the rest 45 respondents (22.5% of sample) worked for longer than 5 years for the company. Following bar chart could show the actual condition of above statement:

Figure 6: Working Time of Respondents

4.1.2 General attitude towards rewarding system in the company

In the order of clearly evaluating the respondents’ general attitudes towards the rewarding system in the company, the research had asked the respondents’ attitudes towards the fairness, sufficiency, diversification, as well as general satisfaction towards the rewarding system in Anhui Electronics:

l Fairness of rewards offered: for the statement of “I consider the rewards offered by the company are fair enough for all of the peer employees”, respondents average score was 3.18, showing a small tendency of agreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 1.000, the set of scores given by the respondents was largely diversified, and the negative skewness of -0.511 could show the set of number slightly skewed to the right. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were 42.5% of the sample selected either “agree” (75 respondents, 37.5% in sample) or “strongly agree” (10 respondents, 5% in sample) for the statement, also there were 70 respondents (35% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the rest 45 respondents selected “strongly disagree” (15 respondents, 7.5% in sample) or “disagree” (30 respondents, 15% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 7: Fairness of Rewards Offered

l Sufficiency of rewards offered: for the statement of “I consider the rewards offered by the company are equal to the efforts paid by me”, respondents average score was 1.54, showing a relatively strong tendency of disagreeing the statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.686, the set of scores given by the respondents was slightly diversified, and the positive skewness of 0.892 could show the set of number largely skewed to the left. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were approximately 9 in 10 respondents were showing their disagreement toward the statement, who were selecting either “disagree” (64 respondents, 32% in sample) or “strongly disagree” (114 respondents, 57% in sample) for the statement, leaving the rest 22 respondents (35% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, there were no respondents showing any level of agreement for this statement. Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:

Figure 8: Sufficiency of Rewards Offered

l Diversification of rewards offered: for the statement of “The rewards offered by the company are diversified with many types”, respondents average score was 1.22, showing a strong tendency of disagreeing with this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.490, the set of scores given by the respondents was relatively focused, and the positive skewness of 2.254 could show the set of number highly skewed to the left. As for details, among all 200 respondents, almost all of them were showing disagreement for the statement, within which there were 96.5% of the sample selected either “disagree” (29 respondents, 14.5% in sample) or “strongly disagree” (164 respondents, 82.0% in sample) for the statement, leaving the rest 7 respondents (3.5% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, similar to the above statement, there were no respondents showing agreement for the statement. Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 9: Diversification of Rewards Offered

l General satisfaction of rewards offered: for the statement of “Generally I am satisfied with the rewarding system in the company”, respondents average score was 2.75, showing a relatively small tendency of disagreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.735, the set of scores given by the respondents was relatively diversified, and the negative skewness of -0.719 could show the set of number relatively skewed to the right. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were 27.5% of the sample selected either “disagree” (40 respondents, 20% in sample) or “strongly disagree” (15 respondents, 7.5% in sample) for the statement, among the rest respondents, there were 125 of them (62.5% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement which was also the largest part of the sample, and the rest 20 respondents (10% of sample) were holding “agree” attitudes towards this statement. Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:

Figure 10: General Satisfaction of Rewards Offered

From the above research result it could be identified the fact that currently Anhui Electronic might not be offering satisfying rewards for the employees, although the employees could accept the fact that the rewards were offered fairly for them, the rewards might not be sufficient and diversified for the employees, which also dragged the general satisfaction for which lower than expected.

#p#分页标题#e#4.1.3 Perceived rewards from the company

The perceived rewards from the company would be discussed from the aspects of benefits, compensations, recognition as well as appreciation of the company towards their employees; the following would be the discussion of the four areas of findings from the respondents:

l Perceived benefits of respondents: for the statement of “I could receive reasonable benefits offered by Anhui Electronic following labor contracts”, respondents average score was 4.59, showing a strong tendency of agreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.809, the set of scores given by the respondents was largely diversified, and the negative skewness of -2.162 could show the set of number highly skewed to the right. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were 88.5% of the sample selected either “agree” (28 respondents, 14% in sample) or “strongly agree” (149 respondents, 74.5% in sample) for the statement, also there were 17 respondents (8.5% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the rest 6 respondents selected “strongly disagree” (2 respondents, 1% in sample) or “disagree” (4 respondents, 2% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:

Figure 11: Perceived Benefits of Respondent

l Perceived compensations of respondents: for the statement of “I could receive sufficient compensations for what I had contributed for the work”, respondents average score was 2.35, showing a weak tendency of disagreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.950, the set of scores given by the respondents was highly diversified, and the positive skewness of 0.278 could show the set of number slightly skewed to the left. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were only 8.5% of the sample selected either “agree” (13 respondents, 6.5% in sample) or “strongly agree” (4 respondents, 2% in sample) for the statement, also there were 74 respondents (37% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the rest half of the sample selected “strongly disagree” (42 respondents, 21% in sample) or “disagree” (67 respondents, 33.5% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 12: Perceived Compensations of Respondents

l Perceived recognition of individuals: for the statement of “My colleagues’ and my good performances could be recognized by the company effectively and fairly”, respondents average score was 1.34, showing a strong tendency of disagreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.644, the set of scores given by the respondents was slightly diversified, and the positive skewness of 2.061 could show the set of number highly skewed to the left. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were only 1.5% of the sample selected “agree” (3 respondents) for the statement, and there were 10 respondents (5% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the major part of the sample, namely, 93.5% of all respondents, selected “strongly disagree” (149 respondents, 74.5% in sample) or “disagree” (38 respondents, 19% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:

Figure 13: Perceived Recognition of Individuals

l Perceived recognition of departments: for the statement of “My departments’ performances could be recognized by the company effectively and fairly”, respondents average score was 4.62, showing a strong tendency of agreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 0.849, the set of scores given by the respondents was generally diversified, and the negative skewness of -2.457 could show the set of number highly skewed to the right. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were nearly 9 in 10 of them selected either “agree” (23 respondents with 11.5% of sample) or “strongly agree” (156 respondents with 78% in sample) for the statement, also there were 12 respondents (6% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the minority of sample, namely, 4.5% of all respondents, selected “strongly disagree” (3 respondents, 1.5% in sample) or “disagree” (6 respondents, 3% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 14: Perceived Recognition of Departments

l Perceived appreciation of individuals: for the statement of “All of my colleagues and my good behaviours could be appreciated fairly by the company”, respondents average score was 2.06, showing a relatively strong tendency of disagreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 1.030, the set of scores given by the respondents was highly diversified, and the positive skewness of 0.324 could show the set of number slightly skewed to the left. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were only 8% of the sample selected “agree” (16 respondents) for the statement, whilst there were 64 respondents (32% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the three thirds of the sample, namely, 60% of all respondents, selected “strongly disagree” (84 respondents, 42% in sample) or “disagree” (36 respondents, 18% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:

Figure 15: Perceived Appreciation of Individuals

l Perceived appreciation of departments: for the statement of “My departments’ good behaviours could be appreciated fairly by the company”, respondents average score was 4.54, showing a strong tendency of agreement towards this statement, besides of that, with a standard deviation of 1.041, the set of scores given by the respondents was highly diversified, and the negative skewness of -2.253 could show the set of number highly skewed to the right. As for details, among all 200 respondents, there were nearly 9 in 10 of them selected either “agree” (12 respondents with 6% of sample) or “strongly agree” (160 respondents with 80% in sample) for the statement, also there were 11 respondents (5.5% of the sample) selected “neither disagree nor agree” for the statement, leaving the minority of sample, namely, 8.5% of all respondents, selected “strongly disagree” (7 respondents, 3.5% in sample) or “disagree” (10 respondents, 5% in sample). Following graph could show the details of the choices of responds:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 16: Perceived Appreciation of Departments

The above findings of the quantitative research might be valuable for the final conclusion of the problems existing in Anhui Electronics’ rewarding system currently adopting, because except for the benefits acquired the respondents’ attitudes towards compensations, individual recognition and appreciation were generally lower rated, whilst the respondents had strongly believed the recognition and appreciation were generally offered for the department but not individuals.

4.1.4 Preferred rewards by the company

Based on the result of the questionnaire, respondents were asked to state their requirements for the rewards based no the current rewards offered by the company, and also they were asked to choose their preferred way of giving benefits, compensations, recognition, and appreciation by the company, therefore, the following findings would be listed for the results of the four areas of questions:

l In terms of the employee requirements for the rewards, among all seven choices, respondents’ choices were highly focused on three of the choices “higher monthly payments”, “higher level of end-of-year bonus”, as well as “more reasonable compensations”. Linking to the above findings of employees unsatisfactions towards the benefits and compensations offered, this result could be understandable. Besides, there were also 44% employees selected “more performance appreciation”, and 40.5% selected “Higher level of incentives”, which could also show the employees preference on the incentives and appreciation for the company. Following bar chart could show the detailed condition of this research content:#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 17: Perceived Appreciation of Departments

l Employee preferred benefits: generally, employees’ attitudes towards the preferred methods of company giving benefits were different. Among the benefits made based on tenure, position, performance, educational level as well as on others, among the choices, over three fifths of the sample selected “based on performance”, which showed their will of allocating benefits based on the employees performance. Also there was 43.5% of the sample (87 respondents) selected “based on tenure”, showing their willingness of getting benefits for their loyalty to the company. As for the supporters of “based on position” and “based on educational level”, there were only 10.5% and 6% of the sample respectively. Following bar chart could show the details of this research content:

Figure 18: Employee Preferred Benefits

l Employee preferred compensations: besides of the methods for benefits, the employees’ preferred methods of compensations from the company were also highly focused and clearly, with 77% of the sample (154 respondents) believed the compensation should be given “based on performance”, whilst 71% of the sample also considers they should be compensated “based on working time”. Besides of that, there were also 62% of the sample considered they should be compensated “based on special festivals”, which showed their willingness of acquire higher level of payments for working in special festivals (which was common for power company staffs). There was also 10.5% of all respondents believed compensation should be offered based on positions, which was similar to the above result.#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 19: Employee Preferred Compensations

l Employee preferred recognition: the respondents’ selection of their preferred methods for recognition was actually distracted, in terms of the recognition should be given “by department” or “by individuals”, over half of the sample, namely 56% of the sample had selected “by individuals” whilst only 33.5% selected “by department”, this could at least show that respondents might have higher tendency of receiving recognition from the company by individual but not by department. Besides of that, in selecting among “announced publicly” and “told privately” for the recognition, respondents choices were also clearly showing their collective thoughts – 72.5% of sample believed recognition should be told privately and 32.5% wish it could be announced publicly. Based on Chinese traditional culture of being neutral and not overly excel, this result is understandable. Following bar chart could show the details of this research content:

Figure 20: Employee Preferred Recognition

l Employee preferred appreciation: similar to the above employee preferred recognition, in research for the employee preferred methods of appreciation, two pairs of comparisons would be revealed. On the one hand, in terms of whether the appreciation should be given by department or by individuals, nearly three thirds of all respondents believed the appreciation should be offered “by individuals” (60.5% of the sample), whilst only 32.5% of the sample considered the appreciation should be given by department. One the other hand, in terms of whether the appreciation should be released publicly or privately, similar to the above findings, most of the respondents still considered it should be given privately (78% of the sample), and only 21% of the sample believed it should be released publicly.#p#分页标题#e#

Figure 21: Employee Preferred Appreciation

Based from the above research findings, it could be identified that firstly, respondents were showing their desire for more money offered by the company in terms of basic payments, bonus as well as incentives; also they highly demanded the company to offer more reasonable compensations and appreciation for them. Besides of that, giving benefits on performance and tenure seemed supported by the respondents, whilst giving compensations by performance, working time, and by special festivals were generally accepted among respondents. Moreover, majority of the sample considered the recognition and appreciation should be given individually and privately instead of being given by department and given publicly.

4.1.3 Correlative analysis

The correlative analysis could be made analysing the correlation between the personal information and the choices made by the respondents towards certain issues. However, among all the correlative analysis conducted for the respondents’ choices, the respondents’ position in the company would show close correlation with the general attitudes towards the rewarding system in the company (Q3 correlates with Q5, Q6, Q7, and Q8).

l Correlation – Position VS Fairness of rewards: Following chart could show that the higher positions the respondents are, the higher level of agreement would be shown by the respondents towards the statement. Generally, the average score given by the staffs for this statement was 3.14, and the average sore given by the supervisors was 3.21, and that of the line managers were 3.42.#p#分页标题#e#

Table 1: Correlation – Position VS Fairness of Rewards

l Correlation – Position VS Sufficiency of rewards: Following chart could show that the higher positions the respondents are, the higher level of agreement would be shown by the respondents towards the statement. Generally, the average score given by the staffs and supervisors for this statement was 1.51 and 1.54, and the average sore given by the line manager was 1.83, showing a much higher level of agreement (or smaller level of disagreement) towards this statement.

Table 2: Correlation – Position VS Sufficiency

l Correlation – Position VS Diversification of rewards: Following chart could show that the higher positions the respondents are, the higher level of agreement would be shown by the respondents towards the statement. Generally, the average score given by the staffs for this statement was 1.03, whilst the average sore given by the supervisors and line manager was 1.67 and 1.58, showing a much higher level of agreement (or smaller level of disagreement) towards this statement.

Table 3: Correlation – Position VS Diversification

l Correlation – Position VS General Satisfaction: Following chart could show that the positions might not have obvious impacts towards the general satisfaction towards the reward systems, and the average scores were also similar, with the scores being 2.76, 2.73 and 2.75 among the three levels of positions.#p#分页标题#e#

Table 4: Correlation – Position VS General Satisfaction

From the correlative analysis, it could be identified that although lower level of employees were considering their rewards given had lower fairness, sufficiency and diversification from the company, the general satisfaction towards the reward system was basically at the same level, with connection to the above literatures, this phenomenon could be reasonable that that lower level of employees tend to have lower requirements for the rewards given.

4.2 Results from Semi-Structured Interview

According to the methodology, the semi-structured interview was made in four separating topics, which were the detailed reward system in the company, the rewards offered for senior managers, the preferred rewards by senior managers, and the possible adjustment or changes to be taken.

4.2.1 Detailed reward system

The detailed reward system was mainly discussed with Ms. Huang, the senior personnel manager in Anhui Electronic, and Mr. Lu, the chairman of labour union in Anhui Electronic.#p#分页标题#e#

Firstly, based on the statement of Ms. Huang, the reward system was designed and finally implemented in the year of 2004, after which several small adjustments had been undertaken, all of those were changing the amount of money offered for employees (given the inflation and updates of relevant legal rules). Based on Ms. Huang’s statement, the reward system in Anhui Electronics could be divided into four aspects of contents:

l Legal benefits and compensations offered to employees: according to Ms. Huang, government had very strict policies and rules for the SOEs, “especially the energy and electronic companies”, for example, as mentioned by Ms. Huang, for a frontline staff in the maintenance department, every month the staff would receive 2,800 – 3,500 RMB as the basic wage based on the jobs achieved by the staff, also if in some situation the employees were made work over time, double wages would be paid in the working days (Monday to Friday), whilst triple would be paid in the national holidays (Saturday, Sunday, and other festival vacations).

l Benefits for loyalty and stableness: tenure was considered important by the company, as mentioned by Ms. Huang; therefore the company would wish to pay extra money for employees who were staying longer in the company. The tenure benefits were paid in three stages in Anhui Electronics, that when the employees had worked for over five years in this company, they would acquire an extra payment of 500 RMB each month, for those who were working over ten years, 1,000 RMB would be paid, and 1,500 RMB monthly additional payment would be paid for employees worked for longer than 15 years. Besides of that, Ms. Huang also mentioned the fact that the employees would be paid a large amount of money for working in the company for certain years. For example, in the month the employees had worked for over five years, they would receive a bonus of 1,000 RMB from the company, and ten-year employee would receive 2,000 RMB, 15-year employee would receive 3,000 RMB at once.
#p#分页标题#e#
l Appreciation for excellent performance: as mentioned by Ms. Huang, the employees would be given appreciation for excellent performance, which would be including the exceeding of targets or etc., and the appreciation would mainly be in the form of paying extra amount of money for the employees together with a publicly notice towards all the staffs in the company.

l Share options: senior managers would acquire share options, which would be discussed in the following section of the discussion of senior managers’ rewards.

Besides of that, according to Mr. Lu, the chairman of labour union in the company, employees could get several “extra rewards” from the labour union, which was also a specialized policy in China (he mentioned that labour union in Chinese SOEs was directly managed by the government, and their rewards offered to employees were partly contributed by the nation and partly by the company). Generally the rewards would include the extra compensations for employees in the overtime in festivals; besides of that, Mr. Lu also mentioned the labour union would send gifts for employees as rewards in some festivals, such as moon cakes in the mid-autumn festival, some fruits and gifts in the spring festival, and etc.

4.2.2 Rewards offered and preferred rewards by senior managers

In researching the rewards offered to the senior managers, the author had mainly discussed it with Ms. Huang, the senior personnel manager, and based on her statement, other than the ordinary rewards received mentioned above, share options were also important for the senior managers. Ms. Huang had mentioned that senior managers would acquire different proportions of common share of the company, and those shares would make them benefit from the dividends in the end of the fiscal year. Also as mentioned by Mr. Yu, the senior accounting manager, in Anhui Electronics, there were 23 senior managers in Anhui Electronic receiving approximately 20% of the common shares of the company, mostly with 0.5-0.8% of the shares. Every year, several millions RMB would be released as the dividends, and senior managers would thus acquire tens of thousands RMB as dividends. The detailed policy for the share options offered for the senior managers were kept confidential by the senior managers as Anhui Electronic was currently not a listed company in the stock market.#p#分页标题#e#

As for the preferred rewards by senior managers, there were several aspects of opinions:

l Ms. Huang had mentioned that as senior managers, they do not really need too much rewards from the company – all they need was to pay their efforts and as return they could receive higher level of dividends from the company with better financial performance;

l Two of the interviewees had mentioned that they were more willing to have their departments’ performance recognized and appreciated. Actually recognition and appreciation offered individually for the senior managers were considered non-necessary because they did not need those to raise the morale, what they might need was “a feeling of success” and “a self-actualization”, or a “sense of glory and honor” within the company. Therefore, they would be better motivated if their department as a whole was appreciated in the monthly meeting or appreciated publicly in the company.

From the comparison between the offering and preferring of the rewards given to the senior managers in the interview, Anhui Electronics might be doing OK in rewarding its senior managers, because senior managers were not showing dissatisfaction for the company rewarding system during the interview.

4.2.3 Possible adjustments or changes
#p#分页标题#e#
The senior managers’ reactions towards the possible adjustments or changes in the company in terms of rewards offered to all employees were similar – they all believe that senior managers were given sufficient rewards they deserve, and what the company might need contemporarily was to offer better and more suitable rewards to the employees.

Just as mentioned by Mr. Lu, as a chairman of labour union, he had received lots of anonymous complaints from employees talking about the unfair benefits & compensations offered them and the ignorance of their efforts and hard work by the company. Mr. Lu stated that just in the first half of 2011, the company was trying to make a major change of the employee rewarding system, starting from the early 2013, but Mr. Lu considered it would be too late, the company should start the change right now and slowly switch the company image among its employees.

According to Ms. Huang, there were actually several adjustments planned to be undertaken by the parent company – the State Grid of China – and by the end of 2012 the newly adjusted plan for the rewarding system of employees would be delivered to Anhui Electronics. However, before that, Ms. Huang was considering strengthening the recognition and appreciation system of the company, and she also believed it would be important to develop a more comprehensive employee survey within the company, based on the author’s research results.

The other two interviewees also expressed their opinions from their subordinates. They had mentioned that the employees were not actually satisfied with the rewards offered to them mainly because of the slow increase of monetary benefits offered to them (under such a high inflation economic environment of China), and most of their subordinates were not well compensated for the extra work or over time work they conducted. Therefore, this would be considered by the company in#p#分页标题#e#

5. Conclusion

5.1 Summary of Findings

This dissertation is about the analysis of the reward system of Anhui Electronic with mapping the gap between reward performance and reward preference among employees and managers in the company. Based on the aim of the dissertation, the primary research of questionnaire among hundreds of employees in the company and semi-structured interviews among senior managers of the company had bee undertaken, with the objectives being observing and analysing the reward practices, identifying reward preference and conducting gap analysis of practices and preference. Based on the findings the possible solutions and recommendations could be offered.

Generally, from the literature reviews, the author had identified theoretical knowledge towards rewards and rewarding system offered by the company. First of all, the definition of reward system could be concluded as the procedures, rules and standards associated with allocation of benefits and compensation to employees; as for the reasons for offering rewards, literatures were generally giving two areas of analysis, which were for the improvements of general performance from motivate employees’ “good behaviour” as well as motivating the innovation from the employees for the company, others were considered that the organisation offers rewards because it is the responsibilities of it, which also makes sense. Suitable rewards for employees could be divided into the compensations, benefits, recognition, and appreciation, the former two were more material or on monetary basis, whilst the later two, usually neglected by the company, were mental rewards offered for employees. Besides, as for the preference for reward, through the literatures it could identify that different level of employees, and employees who are doing different jobs, might have different level of reward preferences, and they might pay extra attention on different rewards from the organisation. As for the Chinese enterprises, currently the rewarding system adopted by them were generally considered to be outdated by the relevant researches, and through the research on SOEs in specific, the compensation and benefits were the areas that SOEs are doing OK, but recognition and appreciation are the areas need large level of improvements at the present time. The findings from the literature review had benefited the following primary researches undertaken among employees and senior managers of the case company in terms of offering research directions and theoretical supports for the researches.#p#分页标题#e#

Based on the statement of the interviewees, the rewards system towards employees of Anhui Electronics might be involving the legal benefits and compensations offered to all the employees, the benefits offering based on tenure and loyalty of employees, the appreciation for excellent performance of employees, as well as the share options for the senior managers in the company.

From the research, generally, it could be identified that employees were not satisfied with the rewards offered for them, although they could accept the fact that the rewards were offered fairly for them, the rewards might not be sufficient and diversified for the employees; as for details, employees’ attitudes towards the benefits were OK, whilst larger level of dissatisfaction could be seen in the compensations, individual recognition and appreciation among the employees, moreover, employees generally considered that recognition and appreciation should be offered individually but not by department.

As for the preferred rewards considered by the employees, the research findings could show that the employees would desire for more money offered by the company in terms of basic payments, bonus as well as incentives, and they would expect the company to offer more reasonable compensations and appreciation for them, showing their diversified needs both monetarily and psychologically. Moreover, giving benefits on performance and tenure, whilst giving compensations by performance, working time, and by special festivals had been preferred by majority of the employees during research; also the majority of employees would like the recognition and appreciation be given individually and privately instead of being released by department and given publicly.

The comparison between the performance and preference of rewards given to senior managers were showing a different result from that of the employees and line managers’. Actually the senior managers were satisfied with their rewards given, but what might be bothering them was the employees’ complaints about the unfair and inappropriate rewards offered to them, this could potentially make the company’s performance would be negatively influenced, which also means the loss of their own benefits due to the reduction of dividends received during the interview.#p#分页标题#e#

5.2 Recommendations

Based on the above findings, the problems of the current adopting reward system of Anhui Electronics could be identified in the following areas: 1) the insufficient benefits and compensations; 2) the inappropriate recognition and appreciation offered by the companies. In order to solve the above two problems to avoid them influencing the performance of the entire company, Anhui Electronics should consider making adjustments on their reward system for the employees, and the adjustments could be made as following:

Firstly, based on the national regulation for the employees’ benefits and compensations, the company should raise the money offered for employees in accordance with the inflation of the country. Employees were complaining about the insufficient benefits and compensations mostly because of the increased living pressures posed by the inflation (or, the increase of CPI) in China. Therefore, if the company wished to keep the employees working with higher level of safety and morale, the company would have to offer them more money, so that they could pay more attention on work, which could directly enhance the performance of them.

Besides of that, the company should pay more attention in recognising and appreciating the individual employees instead of do that by department. Based on the research, employees wished they could receive the recognition and appreciation from the company by individuals but not by department, this could actually show their needs for being recognized and appreciated by the company. Therefore, the HR department could make two adjustments on its reward system. Firstly, the job contents should be adjusted for the line and senior managers, they should be responsible for recognising and appreciating their employees and they also should be given authorities to give small amount of monetary incentives for the best performers in their departments. On the other hand, the personnel department should not only give appreciation for departments, more attention should be paid on the one that contributed to the department the most, and in order to enlarge the effect of motivation for the appreciation among the employees, with the permission of the excellent staff’s, the personnel department could tell all the other employees about the story of the excellent staff and tell the others the reasons why the staff could perform such excellence.#p#分页标题#e#

The above recommendations could actually make the employees’ satisfaction for the rewards offered to them raised and make the gap between reward performance and preference smaller. However, this is just a short-term strategy, what could make the effects maintained in the long-run would be a frequent employee survey, based on which the personnel department of the company could know the trends and changes of the employees needs for rewards, with the consideration of which the reward system could be made more appropriate and more effectively motivating the employees.

5.3 Research Limitations and Further Research

Due to many reasons, the research was limited in terms of the following factors:

Firstly, the author was actually a green hand for conducting research both in terms of the questionnaires and the semi-structured interview, therefore mistakes could be occurring in the process of both the information collection and the data analysis, which would cause the biases for the final results.

Besides of that, both the questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews might be having the problems of narrowly selected sample. For the questionnaire, the sample was only selected among the employees in headquarter, whilst the semi-structured interviews were conducted on only four senior managers but not the line and middle level managers in the company. The narrowly selected sample might also make the research findings biased.#p#分页标题#e#

Furthermore, in the semi-structured interview, the senior managers were not willing to tell the researcher about details of the company’s reward systems in terms of the number of money, the percentage of shares, as well as their preference for the rewards offered to senior managers, this would make the research results ineffective for analysing the gap of reward performance and preference among senior managers.

With the consideration of the above research limitation and the findings of this research, the further research might be developed in several directions, including:

1) The research for larger electronic companies in China to illustrate the general existing reward systematic problems for the electronic companies;

2) The deeper research for Anhui Electronics, with the broader choice of the sample to make the research findings strengthened.