Organisational Culture and Employee Motivation in a Selected Telecommunications Firm in Botswana: The Moderating Effect of The Reward System

An organisation’s reward system is arguably one of the most critical elements of organisational culture with an enormous bearing on employee motivation. The resolve of this study was to debunk the nexus between the reward system and employee motivation in a selected organisation. A discussion of extant literature on the nexus between reward as a critical component of organisational culture and employee motivation was conducted. An empirical investigation of the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables was pursued using a positivist research paradigm whence a quantitative methodology was used to gather data through a structured self-administered questionnaire hence a survey research design. The results of the study confirmed the hypothesised relationship between the selected firm’s reward system and employee motivation. The inadequacies of the organisation’s reward structure against the requirements of effective employee motivation were exposed. For instance, the rewards offered by the organisation did not meet employee needs and expectations and were not proportionate to the quality of employee output. There was a preference for monetary compensation in place of non-monetary rewards thus promoting extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivation. This study unravelled the positive and negative effects of an organisation’s reward system on employee motivation. An organisational culture that is premised on an effective reward system is the panacea to effective human resources management. To enhance employee motivation through the reward system, management of the selected firm should facilitate the development of a well-articulated psycho-social contract that is agreed upon between top management and employees which should explicitly spell-out the expectations of both parties that must be fulfilled at all times.


INTRODUCTION
Any organisation is driven by its own kind of organisational culture which has a great effect on members' perceptions as well as behaviours and guides daily employees' activities to meet organisational goals (Amah, 2012). Organisational culture refers to the shared values and beliefs that determine how members of an organisation approach their work and how they interact with each other (Ozlen, 2013;Islam, Jasimuddin and Hasan, 2015;Margilaj and Bello, 2015;Ncoyini and Cilliers, 2016). Margilaj and Bello (2015) further opine that organisational culture is a set of norms and values that are widely shared and strongly held throughout the organisation and these norms and values determine how employees do their job in the organisation. It is expressed and manifested through the behaviours, customs and practices collectively displayed by the members of an organisation. A strong organisational culture is a tool for management to motivate employees and enhance their performance and hence retention (Nakano et al., 2013;Owoyemi and Ekwoaba, 2014).
It is important to note that one of the most important elements in organisations is the human resource (Langford et al., 2014) and this resource needs an appropriate organisational culture and work environment that motivates employees to perform effectively. According to Nakano et al. (2013), there is a connection between organisational culture and employee motivation. Since motivation is the foundation for positive performance, organisational management is buying commitment of employees by successfully implementing employee motivation policies and principles, which are the basis of organisational culture. In furtherance of the link between organisational culture and organisational performance, Albayrak and Albayrak (2014) concur that organisational culture has served as an important tool for sustainable performance in recent years as strong organisational culture is believed to have led to improvement in the performance and productivity of employees.
One of the critical elements of organisational culture that has a bearing on employee motivation is the organisation's reward system (Helou and Viitala, 2007;Uddin et al., 2012;Ashipaoloye, 2014). For example, poor remuneration of employees constitutes a mismatch between employee positions and their skills hence it is an enormous demotivating factor. Such a mismatch and demotivation prompt professional staff members to leave the organisation resulting in discontinuity and disruption of the organisational memory (Schilling and Kluge, 2009;Olatokun and Nwafor, 2012). It is therefore critical that an organisation that intends to motivate its employees and enhance sustainable productivity puts in place a rewards system that recognises employee qualifications and job knowledge and skills while promoting individual professional development and productivity, job growth and team performance thus leading to the attainment of organisational goals. This paper therefore sought to establish the effect of the reward system of a selected telecommunications firm in Botswana on the motivation of its employees.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The actions of an employee are determined by his/her motives based on what he/she regards as imperative in his/her life. The performance of that employee on any assigned task is dependent on his/her motivational state (Uddin et al., 2012;Ashipaoloye, 2014) and this becomes critical to a manager who wishes to stimulate employee productivity in an organisation. This view is reinforced by Ajila and Abiola (2004) who expound that should a manager in an organisation have a desire to upscale the output of the organisation, he/she needs to pay thoughtful consideration to the extent to which his/her staff are motivated. The same manager should push and influence staff to perform in the direction that results in the successful achievement of the aspirations of the organisation. For this to happen, there is a need for an understanding of people's motives and what their expectations from their employer are in terms of rewards and the extent to which these needs and expectations sway the effort of employees towards expending effort in their work leading to the attainment of organisational objectives.
An employee's motivation, work satisfaction and work effort all depend on whether rewards are fulfilled and to what extent they are fulfilled. Ashipaoloye (2014) provides an example stating that some individuals might deliberately decide to relinquish inherent satisfaction and social interactions in exchange for high monetary returns while others may be contented with receiving relatively lower monetary incentives in return for a job that has increased intrinsic motivation and/or communal relations. Uddin et al. (2012) suggest that the impulsion to expend additional effort in a designated assignment may be inspired by the notion of the psycho-social contract. The author asserts further that this form of contract implies a sequence of anticipations both workers and the organisation have from each other. Beardwell et al. (2004) reason that should such anticipations remain unmet, there will naturally be a negative spiral on the level of motivation which translates to reduced employee and organisational performance.
It is vital that organisations comprehend the marriage that subsists between incentives and inspiration so that they are capable of appropriately unmasking what makes their employees happy and want to work harder. The biggest confront is creating a situation which enables all the staff members to develop a sense of value that will push them to do their best and work towards attaining organisational goals (Werner and Ward, 2004;Uddin et al., 2012;Ashipaoloye, 2014). Previous studies in motivation have revealed the critical role played by different types of incentives on motivating employees and the extent that these rewards enhance employee productivity hence organisational success (Werner and Ward, 2004;Kerr and Slocum, 2005;Boyne and Hood, 2010).
The above view is bolstered by Brickley et al. (2002) who suggest that currently, it is extensively acknowledged that the motivation and active engagement of employees is dependent on the perception that the same employees have of the fairness or otherwise of their rewards against one's skill level, job knowledge and overall contribution to the organisation compared to colleagues at the equivalent level. The above authors further contend that since firms have varying objectives and their approaches to the use of rewards are a reflection of their culture, there is a need to ensure that such rewards are adapted to the company's business objectives. The major aim of an incentive system remains not only to attract and sustain the appropriate quality of personnel but rather to invigorate the employees to embark on and sustain superior performance, ensure their retention and boost the productivity of the business (Armstrong and Stephen, 2005;Boyne and Hood, 2010). Boyne and Hood (2010) further suggest that the traits of an effective incentive system should not only be one that inspires employee performance but is obliged to complement the organisation's effort to retain productive employees and enhance their turnover. To reach the preferred consequence, Jacobsen and Thorsvik (2002) suggest that the reward system should consist of three elements namely the recipients of rewards, the nature of these rewards and what is rewarded, and these must be modelled in a manner that constitutes the best organisational outcome. Armstrong and Stephens (2005) argue that where it can happen, rewards must be operationalised at the individual level instead of the group level to culminate in the highest motivation outcome. Such an arrangement will ensure that the most deserving employee is given a full reward while the one who is less deserving gets what he/she is worth thus paying for his/her own lack of achievement (Armstrong and Stephens, 2005;Boyne and Hood, 2010). However, rewards that are premised on group attainment may also facilitate cooperation and create loyalty and inspire a sense of responsibility if properly managed (Armstrong and Stephens, 2005;Markova and Ford, 2011). Pink (2011) insinuates that when dealing with the dissimilar kinds of incentives, it is encouraged that they are categorised into intrinsic and extrinsic rewards so that it becomes clear as to who they appeal to. Several studies reveal that extrinsic incentives in the form of financial compensation reduce employee creativity and excitement at work hence job performance (Eisenberger and Shanock, 2003;Markova and Ford, 2011;Pink, 2011). This view is buttressed by Pink (2011) who further opines that extrinsic rewards also reduce one's motivation hence intrinsic forms of motivation are preferable.
On the contrary, Pink (2011) suggests that higher levels of non-monetary rewards result in enhanced creativity among employees hence better work output and productivity. This is supported by Malik et al. (2015) who assert that intrinsic rewards enhance the individual's motivation and subsequently facilitate creative performance.
Authors like Taylor, cited in DeNisi and Griffins (2008), argue, however, that giving employees high wages for their work can be the most effective and productive method of motivating them. Beardwell et al. (2004) concur positing that the utilisation of cash as an employee motivator, when associated with different objectives, may proffer the most suitable way to motivate employees for higher performance. Thus, in Taylor's viewpoint, money can be regarded as the primary motivating factor. Clegg and Birch (2002) argue that when an employer pays peanuts, he/she will get monkeys as employees and in addition to that, the authors believe that when an organisation shows that it values its employees by paying a reasonable wage, the employees appreciate that by expending more effort in their job responsibilities culminating in the achievement of organisational goals.
Linking rewards and knowledge sharing in organisations, which is a critical element of a positive organisational culture, Cheng and Liu (2018) posit that rewarding knowledge contributors is crucial to motivate them to engage in future knowledge sharing. This view is buttressed by Kharabsheh et al. (2016) who postulate that when available forms of rewards are adequately administered and properly monitored, the experienced employees will not horde knowledge but will share it with colleagues. Failure to reward knowledge sharing properly and effectively may change intrinsic motivation to extrinsic and then to no motivation over time (De Almeida et al., 2016).
Most of the current studies have demonstrated that extrinsic enticements are outdated, and more contemporary forms of compensation need to be identified and adopted (Bhattacharya and Mukherjee, 2009;Kohn, 2009;Pink, 2011). Pink (2011) further supposes that there is a just cause to shift emphasis from extrinsic rewards and concentrate more on intrinsic ones that may lead to higher quality performance thus yielding higher levels of employee job satisfaction and motivation in the organisation. Hennessey (2003) and Malik et al. (2015) reinforce this argument contending that the wish to complete a given responsibility and, in the process, attaining individual personal development are intrinsic aspects that honestly enhance work satisfaction and employee output. The authors posit that simple recognition is often enough to motivate employees. Kohn (2009) opines that extrinsic payments do not build any loyalty and dedication to duty and does not add much to organisational value and performance.
It is believed that, to a large extent, if leaders come to know about those drivers of high intrinsic motivation and output, such a development might benefit businesses in terms of higher performance (Pink, 2011). The author avers that intrinsic motivation plays a significant part in convincing workers to remain in the organisation for a longer timean act that offers such employees an opportunity to develop further career-wise and hence share even more knowledge with their colleagues in the firm as such employees develop into knowledge reservoirs and sources of organisational memory. That endeavour allows such employees to establish further their knowledge and skill base and gaining more relevant experiences that ultimately benefit the entire organisation (Perez et al., 2009).
Since the underpinning need for a reward system remains as motivation of employees to induce them to perform superbly (Jacobsen and Thorsvik, 2002), the Expectancy Theory of Motivation (ETM) whose thrust is employee readiness to work harder and successfully complete given tasks becomes a crucial framework to understand employee motivation. According to this theory, if the concerned employee perceives the envisaged reward as beneficial to him/her, allocated tasks will be performed to the employee's highest level of capability. On the contrary, should the offered rewards be deemed demotivating, then performance will be subordinate (Alvesson and Sveningsson, 2008).
The above argument is strengthened by Jacobsen and Thorsvik (2002) who assent that the ETM emphasises that if the level of employee motivation is inferior, the performance that ensues will likely be low as well. Consequently, an organisation's reward system needs to be custom-made to employee needs and what leads to stimulating performance. This usually happens through offering appropriate rewards and the system should be structured in a way that enables employees to evidently realise the linkage that exists between rewards and motivation. This paper therefore sought to establish whether the reward system of a selected telecommunications firm in Botswana positively influenced employee motivation leading to higher productivity and staff retention.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The choice of this research design was motivated by the need to gain insight into employees' subjective understandings and perceptions in order to fully address the purpose of the study which was to determine the role of the reward system of the selected telecommunications firm on employee motivation. The method was chosen due to its quantitative nature to isolate and group the responses into predetermined choices thus providing statistically inferable data. Through the survey design, data were collected and analysed from a representative group of the entire population using a hand-delivered structured questionnaire. This was after the attainment of ethical clearance. No respondents were coerced to participate in the study, and they were free to withdraw at any time they selected to do so.
The survey method was chosen due to its quantitative nature to isolate and group the responses into predetermined choices thus providing statistically inferable data. The adopted design follows a research approach proposed by Saunders et al. (2003) whereby the research process is depicted as a layered onion as depicted in Figure  1 below.
The research was a deductive survey and a crosssectional study. Due to the time and resource constraints involved, conducting longitudinal research would not be feasible.
The questionnaire used for the study was validated by education and industrial research experts for content validity. The suggestions of the experts included blending open-ended questions with closed-ended ones. In addition, the experts recommended using the Likert scale to be able to ascertain the weight of the opinions and perceptions of respondents. All suggestions were evaluated, and useful ones were retained in the questionnaire.
The research questionnaire was also pilot tested to enhance the reliability of the study by ensuring consistency throughout the parts of the questionnaire. The coefficient correlation was determined to ensure that the variables under study were related and if so, to establish the magnitude and direction of that relationship. The strength of the relationship is indicated by the correlation coefficient (r) which varies in magnitude between +1 and -1. The larger the absolute value of the correlation coefficient, the stronger the relationship (Salkind and Rainwater, 2003;Simon and Goes, 2011).
A five-point Likert scale was adopted for this study for analysing data. The grouped items were tested for reliability to determine the validity of the questions used to measure the variables in the study. The reliability test was conducted using the Cronbach's Alpha scale suggested by Mugenda and Mugenda (2003) as shown in Table 1 below. According to the table, Cronbach's alpha values of less than 0.5 are not acceptable, while those between 0.5 but less than 0.6 are considered to be poor. Acceptable Cronbach's alpha values start from 0.6 upwards.
The validity of the scale items on the questionnaire was tested using factor analysis, the Kaiser-Meyer Olkin (KMO) and the Average Variance Extraction (AVE). The minimum acceptable value for these three statistical measures of validity is 0.5 which offers tolerable levels of discriminant and nomological validity (Jaiyeoba, 2013;Taber, 2016).
The population of the study comprised 145 employees of Orange Botswana from which a sample of 106 was adopted guided by the Research Advisors (2006) sample size table. Elements of the study were selected through convenience sampling, a haphazard or accidental sampling based on nonprobability sampling where members of the target population are chosen because they are easily accessible and available for the study and it is believed to be the best for survey and case study research (Saunders et al., 2003). A total of 106 questionnaires were distributed and 64 were successfully completed and returned culminating in a 60% response rate which is good in survey research (Mugenda and Mugenda, 2003).
After the questionnaires were collected and sorted, they were cleaned to eliminate those with errors and the incomplete ones and grouped into various categories to facilitate analysis using descriptive statistics. Frequency distribution tables were used to summarise the data from the respondents. The data that was collected through the questionnaire were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v25 software. This was done to explore the relationship between the dependent variable (employee motivation) and the independent variable (reward system).
To ascertain whether a relationship existed between the variables under study and if so, to establish the magnitude and direction of that relationship, a correlation analysis was conducted. According to Simon and Goes (2011), the strength of the relationship is indicated by the correlation coefficient (r), which varies in magnitude between +1 and -1. The larger the absolute value of the correlation coefficient, the stronger the relationship (Salkind and Rainwater, 2003) as can be seen in Table 2 below.  Regression analysis was used to test the strength of the relationship between the dependent variable (employee motivation) and the independent variable (reward system) as exemplified by the following hypothesis that was tested in this study: H0: There is a significant and positive relationship between the firm's reward system and employee motivation.
According to Ajila and Abiola (2004), if r is positive, it means that the relationship between the independent and dependent variables is also positive and vice versa. The higher the r-value, the stronger the relationship.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The purpose of this study was to establish the effects of the selected telecommunications firm's reward system on employee motivation. In order to address the significance of the questions used in the questionnaire for this section and the reliability of the construct, Cronbach's alpha (α) test was conducted and the result indicated an alpha value of 0.760 which is good (Mugenda and Mugenda, 2003) (see Table 1). This means that the scale items that were used to measure this variable were reliable.
The validity of the study and the mean responses to the individual scale items are shown in Table 3 below using factor loadings, the KMO, AVE and the mean and Standard Deviation (SD). My organisation fairly rewards employees for skills, contribution, and commitment to the organisation. 0.677 3.05 1.09 Table 3 above presents ten-factor loadings and only 1 is below 0.5. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy is 0.730 which is higher than the cut-off value of 0.5. This offers tolerable levels of discriminant and nomological validity (Jaiyeoba, 2013;Taber, 2016). Therefore, the construct reward system's questionnaire items were therefore significant for factor analysis as they displayed good reliability and good validity.
The results in display the individual responses to the questionnaire items based on the mean (M) and the SD. Table 3 results reveal that the rewards that were offered by the organisation that was covered in this study influenced the behaviour and performance of its employees (motivation) as demonstrated by the mean of 3.74. This implies that if the rewards were to be increased, the effect on employee motivation and organisational performance would be enhanced. This finding is supported by extant literature. Mullins (1999) suggests that an employee's motivation, work satisfaction and work effort all depend on whether rewards are fulfilled and to what extent they are fulfilled.
A significant number of the respondents did not believe that their employer cared about the financial stability of the employees as represented by a mean of 2.88 which is below 3. The authenticity of this view is buttressed by the responses to the item 'Rewards offered by my organisation meet my needs and expectations' which recorded a mean of 2.71 which is low and implied that the respondents believed that the rewards offered by the organisation did not adequately meet the needs and expectations of the employees. Again, the rewards that were being offered to the employees were not in proportion to the level of employee job performance as indicated by a mean of 2.65 which means that the rewards may not have been performance-related but arbitrary. The responses to these three items may mean that, while the organisation covered in this study offered rewards to employees to motivate them, the nature of the rewards may not have been appropriate since the rewards did not make the employees financially stable, did not meet their needs and were not in proportion to the level of employee job performance. Therefore, it can be deduced from the results that the psycho-social contract between the organisation and the employees may not have been met (Beardwell et al., 2004;Uddin et al., 2012).
The above findings are supported by the literature that has been reviewed in this paper. Uddin et al. (2012) suggest that the push to put extra work effort may be influenced by the notion of the psychosocial contract. The authors assert further that this form of contract implies a sequence of anticipations both workers and the institution have from each other. According to Beardwell et al. (2004), should such anticipations remain unmet, there will naturally be a negative spiral on the level of motivation which translates to reduced performances. Table 3 disclose that the firm covered in this study preferred individual rewards ahead of group rewards in motivating its employees (mean of 4.16) and that the same firm favoured monetary compensation instead of non-monetary compensation to motivate employees. The latter view is corroborated by the responses to the questionnaire item 'My organisation focuses more on monetary rewards (salary, bonus, 13 th cheque etc) than non-monetary rewards (recognition, time off, flexible working arrangements etc) to motivate employees' which recorded a high mean value of 4.01. These findings contrast with the experts' views on the link between appropriateness of rewards and employee motivation. Although individual incentives provide full rewards to deserving individual employees, rewards that are hinged on group attainment are believed to facilitate cooperation and create loyalty and inspire a sense of responsibility if properly managed which is quite critical for organisational growth and sustainability (Armstrong and Stephens, 2005;Markova and Ford, 2011).

The findings in
The relationship between rewards and employee motivation is demonstrated by the responses to the questionnaire item 'In my organisation, employees who are not adequately rewarded end up leaving the organisation' which recorded the highest mean of 4.26. This means that the organisation covered in this study may have been bedevilled by a high staff turnover especially among the skilled employees who may have left the organisation due to disgruntlement over an inappropriate and unsystematic reward system. This position is supported by extant literature. Armstrong and Stephen (2005) believe that the goal of an incentive system should be to attract and sustain the appropriate quality of personnel and to stimulate them to embark on and sustain better performance, ensure their retention and boost the productivity of the business.
To determine if there was really an association between the relevant variables under investigation, a correlation analysis was carried out between the independent variable -reward system -and dependent variable -employee motivation. The results are depicted in Table 4 below.  (2-tailed) .000 N 64 64 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The results in Table 4 above show that there was a strong positive association between the reward system of the firm that was being studied and employee motivation (r = 0.836, p < 0.01) hence the hypothesis tested in this study is supported. These findings are supported by Ajila and Abiola (2004) who posit that an employee's needs and expectations in the form of rewards influence behaviour and performance in the workplace. The strong correlation between rewards and employee 105 motivation is also echoed by Mullins (1999) who concur that job satisfaction will depend on the degree to which rewards are fulfilled.
The strength of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable was carried out as part of a multivariate regression analysis and the results are indicated in Table 5 In Table 5 below, the standardized coefficient (β = 0.262, t = 11.282, p<0.01). The results confirm that rewards (RSTT) were significantly and positively related to employee motivation (EMT) at the firm under investigation. The hypothesis H0: There is a significant and positive relationship between the firm's reward system and employee motivation' Hypothesis 2 is therefore confirmed and supported in this study .

CONCLUSION
This paper sought to explicate the nexus between an organisation's reward system, a critical element of organisational culture, and employee motivation in a selected organisation in Botswana. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the organisation covered in this study lacked an appropriate reward system that is recognised for the promotion of employee motivation. The observation that there was a mismatch between employee rewards and employee job performance may have meant that higher-performing employees were not adequately recognised and rewarded which may have meant that they were working in perpetual disgruntlement and disillusionment thus negating their commitment to the organisation. Such disillusionment may have contributed to high staff turnover that was alluded to by some respondents in this study which may have led to discontinuity and disruption of the organisational memory meaning that the firm would not benefit from the lessons learned from its past.
It was also observed that the organisation's reward system was individualised meaning that there may not have been a salary structure that placed employees with similar qualifications, skills and experience in the same category which would provide them with a more or less similar package. A haphazard remuneration system results in allegations of favouritism, nepotism and other labour malpractices by employees leading to reduced motivation and employee turnover. It appears from the responses that whatever rewards the organisation packaged did not appear to satisfy the motives of the employees yet a successful and productive reward system is one that matches employee motives and expectations resulting in employees exerting more effort towards the achievement of organisational objectives.
It is critical that the top management of the selected organisation devises a more appropriate and transparent reward system that considers employee qualifications, skills, work experience and performance. A well-articulated psycho-social contract must be developed, agreed between top management and employees, and signed by representatives of both parties. This contract should clearly outline the expectations of both parties which must be accepted by both parties and adhered to which may enhance employee satisfaction and motivation.
This study provides a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge on the nexus between an organisation's reward system and the motivation of employees. It provides an impetus to management of organisations by identifying aspects of a reward system that need attention if an organisation is to successfully motivate its employees using an appropriate reward structure leading to the achievement of organisational goals. This has implications for policy and practice. Organisations will use the findings of this study to identify gaps in their own reward systems and their deficiencies in motivating employees and use this information to institute more effective reward policies and practices that may have a long-term bearing on employee motivation and organisational productivity.
The results of the study form a basis for further study. This study focused on one major mobile telecommunications firm in Botswana. Future researchers may want to pursue similar studies focusing on the other telecommunications firms as well as other service organisations. The study utilised a quantitative methodology which constitutes a methodological limitation. Future studies can be conducted using other research paradigms such as interpretivism or a combination of positivism and interpretivism and explore the role of other organisational culture variables on employee motivation such as trust and people.