Abstract
In today’s volatile and competitive business environments, organisations are faced with heightening challenges to retain their most talented employees. As indicative of high turnover rates and poor economic conditions, employees are increasingly leaving their positions for a number of reasons; one of them being a perceived lack of adequate reward practices. As a result, an increasing number of workers have experienced declining levels of confidence in the employee-employer relationship which has furthermore had an impact on employee engagement. As significant behavioural-related concepts, this study sought to explore if rewards influence trust and engagement in the workplace for the purpose of improving current talent management and retention practices. The overall purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between the three constructs and whether rewards are able to predict trust and engagement within the employment context. Scales from the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), Psychological Meaningfulness Scale (PMS), Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale (BPNWS), Workplace Trust Survey (WTS) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were administered to a sample of employees (N = 251) in various South African sectors and industries within the Gauteng region. The results indicated that there is a moderate to strong positive relationship between the three constructs and that rewards are able to predict trust and engagement. These findings are significant in that they provide insight into the relationship between rewards, trust and engagement which can be used to inform behavioural practitioners about how to improve on talent management and retention strategies in the workplace.
M.Com. (Industrial Psychology)