Compensation Management as a Tool for Improving Organizational Performance in the Public Sector
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Specifically, the purposes of the study are as follows;
- To investigate the different compensation packages that exist in the public sector most especially in Nigeria.
- To assess the effect or impact of these compensation packages on employees’ performance.
- To identify the compensation packages that motivate employees to the highest degree of performance.
- The study seeks to determine the perceptions of employees concerning the compensation packages.
- To offer suggestions on how the public sector can provide effective compensation packages.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTORODUCTION
Literature review contains the review of related literature as carried out by different authors and experts. Their opinion will guide the course of this study and reveal the trend of research.
Human resources are the most vital resources for any organization. It is responsible for each and every decision taken, each and every work done and each and every result. Compensation is the remuneration received by an employee in return for his/her contribution to the organization. It is an organized practice that involves balancing the work-employee relation by providing monetary and non -monetary rewards to .employees. Compensation management is an integral part of human resources management which helps in motivating the employees and improving organizational effectiveness (Naukrihub 2009)
According to Bowman (2006), Compensation management can be defined as all the employers’ available tools that may be used to attract, retain, motivates and satisfy employees. This encompasses every single investment that an organization makes in its people and everything its employees value in the employment relationship.
Simplistically, the notion of compensation management just says that there is more’ to rewarding people than throwing money at them, or as Mulis and Watson in Armstrong (2008) puts it, “the monetary value in the compensation package still matter but they are not the only factor”. They also stress that compensation policies are based”building a much deeper understanding of the employee agenda across all elements of reward”. The compensation management process was summed up by work force (2008) as follows: Creating a fun, challenging empowering work environment in which individual are able to use their abilities to do meaningful jobs for which they are shown appreciation is likely to be a more certain way to enhance motivation and performance even though creating such an environment may be more difficult and take more time than merely turning the reward lever.
In the word of Brown as quoted by Armstrong (2008), compensation and reward process are flows of events that determine the level, forms and differentials of financial rewards, fringe, benefits and non-financial rewards received by each member of the organization. Typically found in this complex process are method of assessing competitive wage in external’ labour market, for job evaluation, for the establishment of wages, rates and salary ranges for different job categories and for decision making processes to establish salaries and wages according to differential performance. In recent years, the inclusion of non-financial measures has gained some popularity in compensation management while some scholars demonstrate positive effects of incorporating non- financial measures into the compensation management system empirically (world at work, 2008). Thus Dalton McFarland asserted that “among the various devices for eliciting the loyalty, corporation and effort of individuals are the various forms of economics reward both financial and non-financial”
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
A research method is simply a procedure for collecting data. The choice of research method reflects decisions about the type of instruments or techniques to be used. Richardson et al., (2009).
Research methodology includes sampling design, data collection, data analysis, and limitations or constraints that the research faced (Schindler, 1998). Choosing the right research methodology depends on several criteria, such as the aim of the study, the type of information needed, the character of respondents,
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The targeted population of this research work covers the entire staff of University of Jos, within Plateau State, numbering 2,450 staff and their various Departments.
According to Eguizoikpe (2003) Population “is the total number of individuals, objects or measurement, that the research study the characteristics with the aim of analyzing a research problem. The term “population” also is determined as the whole site of individual which forms one subject of study in a particular survey. It is also the totality of cases that conforms to some designated specifications. Therefore, the sum total of all the units or analysis is called the population.
CHAPTER FOUR:
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
There will be presentation and analysis of data collected through the questionnaires in this chapter.
CHAPTER FIVE:
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
NTRODUCTION
This chapter focuses on the summary of the study, it gives a precise and concise framework into the compensation management and employees performance in the public sector .it also include the conclusion drawn from the analysis and inference made, while recommendations are also put forward for policy decision.
Based on the result of critical presentation and analysis of data in this chapter, various facts as regard compensation management and its impacts on employees’ performance at the Nigeria Ports Authority have emerged.
Most of the respondents are of the opinion that the organization has a well-organized compensation management system in place which is applicable to all the employees but the input of individual employees is not necessarily equal to the reward they received and additional input does not get rewarded most time by the organization. Opinion of the respondent varies on whether the salary they receive meet their immediate needs and virtually all the respondents are of the opinion that promotion system affects the morale of the employees while majority of them believe that the reward system is somehow poorer than what is obtainable in other organizations.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The study was aimed at examining the impacts of compensation management practices on employees’ performance at the University of Jos.
Questionnaires were administered to selected staff of University of Jos. The entire population was estimated at 2,450 people comprising of senior and junior staff and out of this population a sample of 100 respondents were randomly selected for intensive study and analyzed.
The responses obtained from the questionnaire that was personally administered and the use of simple statistical method of analysis form the basis of the finding of this research survey. Some of the findings are,
- That the University of Jos has a well-organized and efficient compensation management system which is applicable to all the employees.
- That compensation management system has a great impact on employee’s efficiency and performance at the University of Jos.
- There is a relationship between compensation management policy and employee’s performance and that compensation management will lead to positive impact on employee’s performance.
- That employee’s performance can also be determined through the use of some factors which are not monetary inclined like motivation, leadership, communication, objective, control, sense of belonging and decision making in relation to compensation management practices.
- That despite the significant impact of compensation management system, performance of some employees is not up to the set standard of the organization.
CONCLUSION
In spite of the multiple benefits and advantages of compensation management and its impact on employee’s performance, it cannot still be said that having compensation management policy is a panacea for success
in appraising, and managing employee’s performance. It is therefore the duty of all managers to ensure that the use of compensating policy meets employee’s expectation in order to have good and effective performance.
The first basic requirement for effective and functional performance system is to have a common understanding of the standards of performance required from each job holder, performance required from each job holder and compensation management should be in relation with organizational goals and objectives.
One of the primary responsibilities of management is to make compensation policy a veritable tool for optimizing the potentials of employees and human resources manager or practitioners should be in the driving seat in ensuring that the system is run in line with the principles of fairness and equity.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the research findings, the study will be incomplete without the following recommendations and suggestions to management of University of Jos and other organizations that may find this research work relevant.
- Management should give compensation management policy the priority it deserves and be willing to carry it out with new ideas.
- For an organization that has never had a system in place, a lot of informative awareness campaign would have to be done to enable people see reasons and appreciate why compensation management system is necessary’ both for the individuals as well as the organization as a cooperate entity.
- Creating links between compensation management, performance, standards (standard of a job), organizational goals and bringing out the initial job elements arid criteria of a job will easily determine the difference between success and failure.
- Management should put in place other factors that are not monetary inclined which will enhance the performance of employees positively. Factors like employee’s sense of belonging, job safety, leadership, control and decision making.
- The administration of compensation policy should be objective rather than Subjective in order to enhance employee’s productivity and organizational goals.
- The system must be functional in order to define the relation between pay, performance and job satisfaction which will reflect in organizational productivity.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In carry out this research, some basic problems were encounter, which to an extent influence the adeptness of the research. Primary among this problems are:
- time constraint:this research was seriously affected by the time allows for extensive and detained investigation .unfortunately the period, between when final approval was gotten for the project and the date for it submission were too short given other academic work and examination, which encroached on the little time to trade.
- Insufficient funds:the researcher really faced some difficulty in finding of this research as it was funded from personal sources.
- Lack of statistical data:certain information sought for were either totally unavailable or were which cannot be released to the public.
Despite all the shortcomings much effort was indeed put in place to ensure that desirability need to carry out a sound research.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Ash, 1993: Human Resources Management: A critical Analysis, London, Macmillan Press.
- Armstrong, M, 2005, Human Resources management Practices, London, CIPD
- Asike, N. (2008). “Research Methodology in the Behavioural Science”. Business Statistics, 27 – 40.
- Rowman M. ET. A1, 2006: Human Resources Management in the Public service: Paradoxes, Processes and Problems, London, Saga Publications.
- Brown, D. 200: Reward Strategies: From intent to impact, London, CIPD.
- Brown, D. 2005: real Reward Strategies: What they are and how you get one, London, CIPD.
- Casio, F. 2006: Management Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work life and Profits, New York McGraw-Hill.
- Dalton Mcfarland, 1998: Human Capital Management, London, People Management.
- Folayan, O. 1997: Human Resource Management. Theory and Practice, Lagos, allied Emant Company.
