THE NEXUS BETWEEN REWARD MANAGEMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. A KENYA COMMERCIAL BANK’S PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The foundation of reward management is the idea that people run organizations; they are the ones that generate value by utilizing company resources to provide goods and services that customers want, and they must be paid for their labour. However, as commercial banks compete for the same talent pool and the expenses are high, reward management is becoming a concern in the banking industry in the twenty-first century. Talent scarcity has existed since globalization allowed talented workers to advertise their skills internationally. Experts are worried about the potential for fierce global talent rivalry, which raises questions about how talent is acquired and kept. This study aimed to examine how the Kenya Commercial Bank’s competitive advantage was affected by reward management. The Equity theory of motivation served as the study’s theoretical cornerstone. The study’s target group was 108 senior and mid-level executives at the KCB headquarters. It was conducted using a case study methodology. Census data were used because the population was not very large. A questionnaire was used to gather the information. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics for frequency and percentages, Pearson correlation analysis, and simple and multiple linear regression. The study found that reward management significantly boosted commercial banks’ competitive advantage (r= 0.786, p-value = 0.000). The simple linear regression analysis, used to test the null hypothesis, resulted in its rejection because the t-values were higher than the critical t-values. The majority of respondents maintained that KCB’s competitive advantage was influenced by incentive management. Therefore, the study recommended that commercial banks should use suitable reward management to increase their competitive advantage. Keywords: reward management, talent management, competitive advantage, banking industry.