前置奬勵對工作績效的影響及其機制

Abstract

Employees’ devotion to their job is the most precious asset of business organizations, and a source of competitive advantage. How to motivate employees to devote extra effort to in-role and extra-role behaviors has been a topic of research interest for academics and practitioners. Research has shown that employees’ trust in their supervisor is positively related to their job attitude, in-role and extra-role behaviors (for example, improving job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational citizenship behavior) (Colquitt, Scott, & LePine, 2007; Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). Since employees’ trust in their supervisor is so important, is it possible to improve it through motivation, and thus improve employees’ job performance? Answering this question is very important to improving employee motivation and thus improving their performance, but there has been very little research on this question.

A reward is a gift given for having done something good or well. According to this traditional definition, in the work context, reward is based on employees’ performance. In this process, if employees trust in their supervisor (e.g. believe in their supervisor’s promise), it is a passive trust (e.g. if a supervisor broke his/her promise, an employee could do nothing). The present study proposes a new reward: pre-reward, that is, a reward given to employees before they have performed well. In this situation, employees can trust in their supervisors completely, because their supervisors have already fulfilled their promise in advance. Based on interpersonal trust theory and self-determination theory, the present research investigates the effects of pre-reward on employees’ job performance and its mechanisms.

According to the integrative model of organizational trust (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995), trust in a trustee is a function of the trustee’s perceived ability, benevolence, and integrity and the trustor’s propensity to trust.

According to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000, 2004), when the environment meets the needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness, autonomy motivation is promoted. Based on interpersonal trust theory and self-determination theory, the present study proposes that pre-reward, in which employees are rewarded in advance, is a signal of supervisors’ trust in employees and can improve employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors, and thus in turn improves employees’ trust in their supervisors. Employees’ perception of being trusted and their own trust in their supervisors can meet three basic needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) and promote employees’ autonomy motivation, thus further improving their job performance.

The present study focuses on three components: (1) the relationship between pre-reward and employees’ job performance; (2) the relationship between pre-reward and employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors/trusting their supervisors; and (3) the relationships between employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors, trusting their supervisors, and further job performance.

Results obtained from experiment (study 1) and using experimental vignette methodology (EVM) (study 2) show that: (1) pre-reward is positively correlated with employees’ job performance; (2) pre-reward is positively correlated with employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors and employees’ trust in their supervisors; (3) both employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors and employees’ trust in their supervisors are positively correlated with employees’ autonomy motivation; (4) employees’ autonomy motivation is positively correlated with their job performance; and (5) pre-reward can improve employees’ autonomy motivation and lead to further job performance through improving employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors and employees’ trust in their supervisors.

The present study has important theoretical contributions and practical implications. The theoretical contributions include (1) the proposal of a new effective reward—pre-reward, which can improve employees’ autonomy motivation and job performance, which represents the development of a new research topic in the area of motivation; (2) based on interpersonal trust theory and self-determination theory, the role of employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors, and employees’ trust in their supervisors in motivating employees’ autonomy motivation, emphasizes the importance of trust research in the area of motivation.

The practical implications include: (1) the notion that reward can be given to employees before they have performed, rather than after performance; (2) the present research provides new suggestions to improve employees’ job performance, for example, supervisors should trust their employees, and thus improve employees’ perception of being trusted by their supervisors, which lead to employees’ trust in their supervisors, and higher autonomy motivation and better job performance.