| The literature review of contingent and non-contingent leader reward behavior indicates that the use of rewards by leaders in organizations is a common occurrence. The examination of leader contingent reward behavior and the development of the theory occurred using Veteran/Baby Boomer respondents. This study proposes to identify leader contingent and non-contingent reward behavior present at a large not-for-profit research organization located in the southwest part of the United States as captured by the Leader Reward and Punishment Questionnaire (LRPQ) (Podsakoff, Todor, Grover, & Huber, 1984). This leader behavior is examined with regard to how the behavior affects follower satisfaction with pay, promotion opportunities, satisfaction with supervision, and job in general as captured by the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969; Bowling Green State University, 1997 Revision). In addition, another objective of the study was to determine if the collected research data used to develop the contingent reward theory using Veteran/Baby Boomer generation respondents, still applies and is valid, with results obtained from generation "X" respondents of the present study. Two hundred forty-two Science and Engineering (S&E) employees were administered a 66-item mail questionnaire comprised of specific questions drawn from the LRPQ, JDI, and queries requesting general demographic type information. Controlling for other leader behaviors, contingent reward was found to significantly contribute to the variance explained in subordinates' performance and satisfaction with pay, promotion opportunities, supervision, and job in general. An analysis of returned survey responses indicated that generation "X" responses held true to the findings of the contingent reward theory develop with baby boomer/veteran respondents. |
