Reward preferences in South Africa’s media industry

Abstract

Orientation: Employee remuneration is a key driver of employee engagement and thus organisational performance. A thorough understanding of employee needs is essential to enable management to develop an equitable mix in reward strategy.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine context-specific reward preferences in order to determine the overall reward preferences of employees in the media industry with the aim of improving existing reward strategies.Motivation for the study: The focus on reward preferences has emerged as a critical element in identifying what really motivates productive behaviour within the workplace. A better understanding of reward preferences is required to find ways to improve performance within the world of work.Research approach/design and method: The research was a quantitative, empirical and descriptive study of reward preferences in an industry-specific context. A self-administered survey was used as a measure and analysed using non-parametric tests to identify variances between dependent and independent groups, testing for internal consistency and non-parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA).Main findings: The following five reward preferences were rated as most important by participants: base pay or salary, merit increase that is linked to personal performance, incentives and bonus, safety and security at the workplace, and market-related salary. The results indicated that monthly salary (base pay) is the most preferred and/or significant reward category in attracting, retaining and motivating employees.Practical/managerial implications: Managers in South Africa’s media industry should investigate their organisations’ rewards through the perspective of the total rewards concept to assess and develop an equitable mix in reward strategy. A comprehensive analysis of reward preferences is required to ensure that all aspects that promote the attraction, retention and motivation of employees are taken into consideration. The importance of base pay should not be under-estimated as it represents the most significant reward preference for employees in the South African media industry.Contribution/value add: This study adds to the body of social science research, providing a deeper understanding of reward preferences, specifically in the context-specific setting.

Exploration of the reward preferences of generational groups in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation

“…The services of a university statistician were procured to assist with the data analysis. The data were analysed using a three-stage data analysis process (Bussin & Thabethe, 2018).…”

“…A quantitative survey research design was chosen in this study to reach a large portion of participants in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation within a set period. The design was cross-sectional to include a view of all generational cohorts at one point in time (Bussin & Van Rooy, 2014;Bussin & Thabethe, 2018;Moore & Bussin, 2012).…”

“…To establish how, whether and to what degree employees from different generational groups differed about preferences on total reward components, an electronic survey questionnaire was used, namely the Rewards Preference Questionnaire (Bussin & Thabethe, 2018;Nienaber & Bussin, 2009). The electronic survey questionnaire comprised the following sections (Bussin & Thabethe, 2018 A five-point Likert scale in Section 2 of the questionnaire was used to measure reward preferences on each reward item ranging from 1 (least important/totally disagree) to 5 (extremely important/ fully agree). The measuring instrument was piloted on a small group of 18 consenting respondents to determine the time taken for completing the survey and to identify any ambiguities or difficulties with the survey (Bussin & Van Rooy, 2014).…”

The relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution

“…According to Diseko (2015), the development of public servants can improve their efficiency in service delivery. Bussin and Thabethe (2018) found that employees aged between 19 and 29 years had a higher preference for learning and development of career paths compared to other groups. Barkhuizen (2013) found that those employees with a lower level of education, such as a Bachelor's degree experienced fewer talent development opportunities compared to those with postgraduate qualifications in government institutions.…”

The development and validation of the Rewards Desirability Inventory

“…Despite growing interest in reward preferences locally (e.g. Bussin & Thabethe, 2018;Fobian & Maloa, 2020;Nienaber, Bussin, & Henn, 2011;Snelgar, Renard, & Venter, 2013) and internationally (e.g. Acheampong, 2021;Adinew, 2020;French & Emerson, 2014), there are not only limited instruments available to measure such preferences, but also ease of access to psychometrically sound measures is further challenging (Hoole & Hotz, 2016;Victor & Hoole, 2017).…”