QC 20110215

Denna kvalitativa studie genomfördes för att undersöka vilken roll utvärdering av belöningssystem har i företag verksamma i Sverige. Studien utgår från teorin Evidence- Based Practice och dess underkategorier som specifikt behandlar belöningssystem. Dessa teorier applicerades på data inhämtad från intervjuer med personer ansvariga för belöningssystem på olika företag. I studien framkom, i likhet med de få tidigare studier som genomförts inom området, att utvärdering av belöningssystem inte har någon central roll hos de undersökta företagen. Anledningen till denna undanskymda roll anses dock inte vara en misstro mot behovet av det. Istället framkom att en starkt bidragande orsak till det restriktiva utförandet av utvärdering är att området anses komplext med stora problem relaterade till att identifiera lämpliga metoder för det praktiska utförandet.

Denna studie har syftat till att undersöka hur finansiella och icke-finansiella belöningar fungerar motiverande för medarbetarna på ett icke-vinstdrivande företag samt vad som får medarbetarna att känna sig uppskattade i sitt arbete. Syftet har besvarats genom följande frågeställningar; Hur resonerar medarbetarna såväl finansiella som icke-finansiella belöningar? Vad upplever medarbetarna motiverar dem i deras arbete? Hur önskar medarbetare att uppskattning visas för deras arbetsprestationer? Forskning visar att finansiella och icke-finansiella belöningar har olika påverkan på medarbetares motivation. Studien har genomförts med kvalitativa telefonintervjuer. Resultatet visar att medarbetarna upplever inre motivation till sina arbetsuppgifter men att de saknar icke-finansiella och finansiella belöningar från ledningen.

The topic of this thesis is reward management and its application in a small-sized IT enterprise. Its goals are to properly document and describe current reward system in the company, evaluate the system and recommend improvements for the system. The first two goals are reached via thorough research of the company through semi-structured interviews, employee satisfaction survey, participant observation and document examination and the last one by applying principles from the current literature and education to the results of the two previous goals. The findings are that the reward system, despite growing organically instead of designed, is relatively effective in some areas, but needs improvement in other areas. The main improvement areas are motivation by contingent pay, communication management and performance management. Relatively well working rewards are especially non-financial reward connected to the work environment and work itself.

Yes / The remarkable evolution in the twentieth century has been a result of a new perspective in understanding the importance of investing in individuals and organizational human resources, and the implementation of capacity building strategies in various organizations and in societies. This paper explores the case of ICO, an international consultancy organization, based in the Middle East, specialized in architecture, engineering, planning, environment and economics. This qualitative study, using thirteen selected semi-structured interviews, observations, and secondary data, has been conducted in the Beirut design office of the organization. The paper aims to examine major human resource related capacity building themes in ICO which include employee involvement and motivation, recruitment and selection, in addition to performance appraisal and reward management.

The thesis deals with the scientific problem of the link between the strategic management and the compensation system using the principle of internal equity. The work is based on two pillars, namely the qualitative research and own proposed solution. The first part of the thesis describes the qualitative research and the possibilities and the synergistic effects of linking business strategy and compensation system. The qualitative research is performed as a multi-case study and investigates the phenomenon in the practice of three companies from various markets (the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bosnia and Hercegovina) and industries (finance, IT/Telco and FMCG). The research tries to find answers to the four research questions: How does business strategy influence compensation process? How can compensation support the realization of a business strategy? How can business strategy be linked with a compensation system within the principle of internal equity? How can compensation reinforce the strategic function of the human resources management? The research is based on the study of theoretical sources as well as on practical fieldwork. The qualitative research itself uses qualitative research methods for data collection, such as observations, questionnaires, and document analysis. The population questioned was top managers, line managers and representatives of HR department. In total, 142 interviews were performed by a single person. The collected data were analyzed and the triangulation was applied. The findings were summarized and generalized into a final report that brings answers to the research questions above. The research brings valuable findings used in the second, design part of the thesis. The own proposed solution consists of two main models. The first one is a simplified scheme of the compensation system and the second one is a model of strategic segmentation of jobs. The first model could be used successfully in the business practice as well as in education. The second model of the strategic job segmentation brings answer to the question of synergistic linking of business strategy and the compensation system within the principle of internal equity. The model brings valuable findings and a foundation for further theoretical research and its further development. The model also brings practical solution to the design of related policies and processes in the strategic management of human resources. By the design of both proposed models the main objectives of the thesis were achieved.

Title: Green Human Resource Management in a Swedish Context Subtitle: An exploration into the translation of literature to practice in self-proclaimedsustainability-focused companies The purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation of green human resourcesmanagement practices within Swedish companies by applying a qualitative contentanalysis on a series of semi-structured interviews. The literature review gives a short introduction to the emerging research field of GHRM by presenting it in contrast with human resources management, highlighting the fiveareas mentioned in the research questions. The qualitative content analysis shows that the companies included in the study, with aself-proclaimed sustainability focus, do implement and utilize GHRM practices withinsome of the studied areas. The analysis concludes that the area of employee relations isheavily influenced by GHRM practices, whereas it only partly influences the area ofrecruitment and selection as well as the area of training and development. When itcomes to the areas of performance management and reward management the studyshows that, at this point, GHRM practices are negligible. The theoretical contributions very much coincides with the results of the analysis,whereas the practical contributions lie in the uncovering of actual practices regardingGHRM in Swedish companies. The research questions for the study are: How (if they do) Swedish organizations with a self-proclaimed sustainability focus,implement and utilize ‘green’ practices within the area of recruitment and selection? How (if they do) Swedish organizations with a self-proclaimed sustainability focus,implement and utilize ‘green’ practices within the area of performance management? How (if they do) Swedish organizations with a self-proclaimed sustainability focus,implement and utilize ‘green’ practices within the area of training and development? How (if they do) Swedish organizations with a self-proclaimed sustainability focus,implement and utilize ‘green’ practices within the area of reward management? How (if they do) do Swedish organizations with a self-proclaimed sustainability focus,implement and utilize ‘green’ practices within the area of employee relations?

In the following study you will be presented with the research that has been done to investigate how monetary rewards affect motivation and performance. The point of the research was to understand how monetary rewards affected employees motivation and performance. We chose to reach out to four companies within four different industries which all either have or have had monetary reward systems with either bonuses or commissions. To gather all the empirical data needed we chose semistructured interviews with a total of nine respondents. Four of the respondents have or have had monetary rewards and the other five respondents have or have had positions where they are able to affect or have insight in how the reward system works. The purpose of choosing the respondents we did was to get a broader understanding for how the monetary rewards affect employees within different industries so that we could find general conclusions that can be used within other branches and companies. The result of the research shows that monetary rewards increase the level of motivation on employees, but that it does not necessarily mean that it will have a big effect on the performance. We found that monetary rewards does affect performance in the way that it makes the employees extensively will do their best at work, but that the employees still would reach their goals at work without any monetary rewards. We also researched whether group or individually based rewards were more desired and why. Our conclusion was that most people prefer a mix of the two, but that individually based rewards was more preferred than group based. / I följande studie kommer du som läsare att få ta del av den forskning som genomförts för att undersöka finansiella belöningars påverkan på motivation och prestation. Syftet med studien var att kunna förstå hur finansiella belöningar i form av bonus och provision påverkar medarbetare. Vi valde att vända oss till fyra företag inom fyra olika branscher som alla har eller tidigare haft finansiell belöning i form av bonus eller provision. För insamling av empirisk data genomfördes nio semistrukturerade intervjuer. Fyra av respondenterna omfattas eller har omfattats av finansiell belöning och fem av respondenterna besitter positioner som har eller har haft en påverkan och insyn i hur de finansiella belöningssystemen fungerar. Syftet med det breda urvalet av respondenter var att kunna få en bredare uppfattning om hur finansiella belöningar påverkar medarbetare inom olika branscher och genom det kunna dra mer generella slutsater som kan användas även inom andra branscher och företag. Resultatet av studien visar på att finansiella belöningar är motiverande för medarbetare, men att det nödvändigtvis inte behöver ha en större påverkan på prestationen. Vi fann att finansiella belöningar ökar prestationer i den bemärkelsen att medarbetaren blir mer mån om att prestera sitt allra yttersta, men att medarbetarna även utan finansiella belöningar skulle genomföra sitt arbete och för att nå de mål som finns uppsatta. Vi undersökte också om grupp- eller individbaserad belöning föredras och varför. Slutsatsen blev att de flesta föredrar en blandning av grupp- och individbaserad belöning, men att medarbetarna föredrar individbaserad belöning före gruppbaserad.

The objective of this study was to examine the role that customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm can play as a strategic objective to increase sales at MB Silicon Systems. In order to address these two factors from a strategic perspective, elements from various concepts have been used to gain a new understanding of customer loyalty, employee enthusiasm and strategy. The final goal of the study was to use the knowledge gained throughout the report to propose a management framework which can be implemented to give MB Silicon Systems a competitive advantage in its competitive industry.The literature review suggested that a strategy of customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm will result in above average financial performance. Customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm cannot be separated from each other and they are linked by leadership, the vision and core values of the organisation. It is not possible to achieve customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm without the proper formulation and execution of a strategy. Such a strategy needs to utilize core management tools like the Balanced Scorecard which will bridge the vision of the organisation with goal setting mechanisms of motivation. The Balanced Scorecard will ensure that strategic objectives of the organisation will be mapped into the Balanced Scorecard while employees will be rewarded according to achieved targets of these objectives.Surveys which were conducted with customers and employees have shown that MB Silicon Systems performs below international standards with respect to customer loyalty and that the organisation is failing with its existing strategy. The surveys have also shown that employees are demotivated. This state of demotivation results in a lack of teamwork and mistrust between employees. The lack of teamwork and mistrust is only the symptoms of organisational problems which need to be resolved by organisational redesign, implementation of management principles and healthy corporate governance. The low base of loyal customers and the demotivated state of employees is resulting in below average financial performance.A management framework was recommended that will transform a strategy of customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm by using proven management tools. Implementation of the framework will ensure a competitive advantage to MB Silicon Systems which will result in above average financial performance.