Your task for Week 5 is to prepare and hand in a proposal including the nature of the project, the
sources of information you plan to use, and the most important concepts and techniques to be applied.
You will receive feedback on the proposal from the Instructor in Week 6, which will give you time to make
adjustments.
For this project, you will research a well-known multinational company or a multinational organisation that
you know well and propose an appropriate reward and pay strategy that you believe would best motivate
employees to meet the overall organisational strategy and objectives.
Your Final Project will:
- Assess the organisation in terms of its organisational strategy, objectives, mission and values.
- Analyse the environment in which the organisation operates with regards to industry, business life
cycle, etc. - Evaluate the organisation�s current reward and pay strategies on two criteria: for meeting its overall
organisational strategy and for maintaining competitive advantage in the face of new challenges and
changing conditions. - Reach a reasoned and evidence-based conclusion about the level of success achieved by the
organisation in motivating employees to reach organisational objectives and propose a reward and pay
strategy that may better serve this purpose.
Naturally, a reference list of sources will be appended to the final analysis.
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Reward and Compensation System for Qatar Airways
Established on 22 November 1993, Qatar Airways serves a large region going to over a
hundred and forty four destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific region (Alan, 2014).
It has become a success in the region and continues to grow. Qatar Airways employs 31,000
people. Of these, 19,000 work directly for the airline. This means that the airline has a diverse
pool of employees whose areas of work are very different. For such a firm, having a strategic
reward and pay system that can try to capture the needs of each category of an employee is
important. For instance, the way a pilot is rewarded and compensated for his or her work may
not necessarily be the same way, an aircraft engineer is compensated. For each of the different
categories and areas of expertise of employees, they need a different reward and compensation
system in order to motivate them effectively.
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Currently, Qatar Airways does not have an employee reward system that is tailored to
meet its needs. The current reward system fails to consider the diversity of employees and how
each of the employees may need to be rewarded. This leaves the firm at a strategic disadvantage
with regard to its human resource management and how the firm is able to overcome other
challenges. With over 31,000 employees working in different departments and having different
roles, it is necessary to not only have reward system that is tailor made, but also one that is suited
to its different needs. According to Eaton (2001), the most successful firms are the ones that are
able to manage their HR in the most effective way. This idea is seconded by DuBrin (2008) who
looked at the same issue from an airline point of view and concluded that the airlines that have
the best reward systems have the best chance of succeeding even in the event of an economic
recession.
The other issue that makes Qatar Airways a good candidate for this study is that it
operates in a very competitive industry. The airline industry is very competitive. Competition
comes in two forms for any form in the airline industry such as Qatar Airways. First, it is the
compensation for talent. Every airline wants the best talent in terms of areas of expertise such as
aerospace engineering, pilots cabin crew and development. In this regard, of the fir does not have
the right employees reward system, it will be unable to attract the best talent, and this will lead to
overall failure. Qatar Airways needs a tailored employee’s reward system that best suits it not
only as a firm in the competitive airline industry but also a system that will look at its location,
that is, the Middle East. The second kind of competition that Qatar Airways faces is
compensation in the market. The firm faces competition from other airlines in the regions which
are as successful as itself, or even more successful. These airlines include Emirates and Etihad
Airlines. To be able to beat this compensation, it is necessary to have an employee reward
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system that will help the firm to be effective and strategically placed. As Boxall and Purcell
(2011) say, employees are a source of strategic advantage if they are managed well and this
involves having he most appropriate reward and compensation systems that suits the firms needs.
Reference List
Alan, D. (2014). Qatar Airways becomes state-owned: Air Transport World. Doha: Gulf
Publishers.
Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2011). Strategy and Human Resource Management: Third Edition.
London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
DuBrin, A. (2008). Essentials of Management. London, UK.: Cengage Learning.
Eaton. (2001). Globalization and Human Resource Management in the Airline Industry: Ashgate
studies in aviation economics and management. Los Angeles, CA: Ashgate Publishers.
