The role of fairness, transparency, and feedback in driving motivation and performance among employees in incentive-based roles

Pay transparency legislation and heightened employee expectations have made fair, transparent reward systems a strategic priority. Guided by Equity Theory and Expectancy Theory, this study examined how perceived pay fairness, reward transparency, and feedback quality explained self-determined work motivation among incentive-based employees, and whether relationships varied by career stage. Data were collected from two independent samples in incentive-based roles: an internet-based pool (N = 295) and employees from a large southeastern U.S. manufacturing organization (N = 91). Hierarchical multiple regression and moderation analyses revealed perceived pay fairness was a significant positive predictor of motivation in both samples. Reward transparency predicted motivation in Sample 1 but did not replicate in Sample 2. Feedback quality functioned as a direct predictor rather than a moderator. Professional experience did not moderate any compensation-motivation relationships. Findings underscore the importance of fair, transparent, feedback-rich reward systems and suggest motivational effects generalize across career stages.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Gibbs, Wesley C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cunningham, Christopher J. L.
• O'Leary, Brian J.; Guo, Feng
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Employee morale
• Employee motivation
• Incentive awards

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/1059

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2252