The Impact of the Reward Systems on employee motivation: The Case of a Department Store

The aim of this research is to study the impact of reward systems used within a city centre department store on employee motivation. At its core the research looks to discover whether intrinsic or extrinsic motivation is the strongest, uncover if pay is a motivator and how to enhance motivation through pay and reward management. According to the literature review previous studies suggest that organisations use reward systems and strategies to motivate their employees, increase individual performance and to improve business performance. The literature review analyses current practises used in the department store to analyse benefit and limitation factors. The research was undertaken via a single case study at a department store and adopted the use of quantitative data via a questionnaire and qualitative data via structured interviews. The research found that although extrinsic rewards were present, intrinsic remains the dominant motivating factor amongst individuals, and that even within this individuals had different intrinsic motivators