Rewards and employee performance: a case of Caritas Gulu Archdiocese, Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the employee satisfaction with their reward, examine employee performance and examine the relationship between employee performance in Caritas Gulu Archdiocese, Uganda. Using cross-sectional research design, 60 employees of Caritas Gulu Archdiocese were targeted. Purposive sampling technique was used to draw 52 respondents from Gulu, Kitgum and Pader Caritas branches for the study. Questionnaire-based survey and interview methods were used for collecting data from the respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data presentations. The findings of this study reveal that employees of Caritas Gulu Archdiocese are satisfied with rewards system and are not very much satisfied with monetary rewards. Findings also indicate that there is moderate positive relationship between non-monetary rewards and performance, very low positive relationship between monetary rewards and performance. Regression analyses indicate that non-monetary reward is the largest and significant predictor of employee performance and monetary reward appear not to significantly predict employee performance. The findings of this study offer valuable insights to nongovernmental organization(NGOs), policy makers in general and Caritas Gulu Archdiocese in particular on the significance of non-monetary and monetary rewards on employees’ performance. This study recommends among others, considering rewards and continued improvement on its application by tailoring the rewards to the needs of the employees. Management should also develop appropriate reward program which include other monetary incentives apart from salaries.The limitation of this study is that though the study was carried out in different Caritas branches under the umbrella of Caritas Gulu Archdiocese may not be a good representative of other Caritas and other non-for-profit organizations in Uganda. Future study should consider studying and making comparison between different NGOs to examine how rewards influence performance of employees.