International Journal of Business and Management February, 2010 159 Impact of Reward and Recognition on Job Satisfaction and Motivation: An Empirical Study from Pakistan Rizwan Qaiser Danish Chairman, Department of Business Administration University of the Punjab, Gujranwala Campus, Pakistan E-mail: rdanish2000@yahoo.co.uk Ali Usman University of the Punjab, Gujranwala Campus, Pakistan E-mail: usamaz_07@hotmail.com Abstract Human resources are the most important among all the resources an organization owns. To retain efficient and experienced workforce in an organization is very crucial in overall performance of an organization. Motivated employees can help make an organization competitively more value added and profitable. The present study is an attempt to find out the major factors that motivate employees and it tells what is the relationship among reward, recognition and motivation while working within an organization. The data were collected from employees of diverse type of organizations to gain wide representation of sectoral composition. In all, 250 self administered questionnaires were distributed among the employees of different sectors and they returned 220 completed useable questionnaires for response rate of 88%. The participation in survey was voluntary and confidentiality of responses was ensured. The statistical analysis showed that different dimensions of work motivation and satisfaction are significantly correlated and reward and recognition have great impact on motivation of the employees. Implications of the study for managers and policy makers in the context of human resource practices have been discussed. Limitations and guidelines for future research are also provided. Keywords: Work motivation, Job satisfaction, Reward, Recognition 1. Introduction Motivation is such a factor that exerts a driving force on our actions and work. According to Baron (1983, p. 123), motivation is an accumulation of different processes which influence and direct our behavior to achieve some specific goal. It is such a dynamic in today’s environment that explicitly creates and encompasses a positive impact on job. Within an organization, the best performance is feasible with most committed employees that can only be achieved through employee motivation. Kreitner and Kinicki (2004) assume that motivation contains “those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed.” Motivation depends on certain intrinsic, as well as, extrinsic factors which in collaboration results in fully committed employees. According to Broad (2007), tangible incentives are effective in increasing performance for task not done before, to encourage “thinking smarter” and to support both quality and quantity to achieve goals. Incentives, rewards and recognitions are the prime factors that impact on employee motivation. As the employees engage in their working activities purposely for own’s sake then they will feel intrinsic motivation in their behaviours as their activities will essentially be enjoyable and satisfactory (Vansteenkiste, 2005, p. 22). The factors like incentives and rewards are the most preferred factors for employee motivation programs. This paper is an attempt that focuses on how incentives, rewards and recognitions impact employee motivation. 2. Literature Review Organizations in today’s environment seek to determine the reasonable balance between employee commitment and performance of the organization. The reward and recognition programs serve as the most contingent factor in keeping employees’ self esteem high and passionate. Oosthuizen (2001) stated that it is among the function of managers to motivate the employees successfully and influence their behavior to achieve greater organizational efficiency. La Motta (1995) is of the view that performance at job is the result of ability and motivation. Ability formulated through education, equipment, training, experience, ease in task and two types of capacities i.e. mental and physical. The performance evaluation and rewards are the factors that proved to be the bonding agents of the performance evaluation