Structural Conditions for Reward

Abstract

The terms ‘reward’, ‘remuneration’ and ‘pay’ are in essence very closely linked to what employees contribute, and what they get in return. They invoke different ideas for different people, however. For some they stand primarily for costs; others associate reward with motivation and recognition or, depending on an individual’s personal experience, with frustration and disappointment; others in turn see pay in the first instance in the context of decency and fairness; for some pay is vital for leisure time and recreation; many see the level of their pay as an expression of their success. In some cultures, for example in North America, the notion of ‘net worth’ is often used. This is measured by totalling individual property and personal income by using the popular parallel of the way in which the market or share value of a business is assessed; ‘net worth’ is seen to stand roughly shoulder to shoulder with moral worth and intellectual capacity in the human scale of values. There is no desire here to fall into a moralizing tone, but to accept that a term that might appear unambiguous can have a substantial number of meanings.