Comparison of Reward Management Practices: Reference to the Epigraph of King Mahinda IV (1026-1042 AC) and Armstrong’s Reward Management Model

Reward management is a significant function in Human Resource Management since its success generates lot of progressive consequences to the organization and to employees. To date, research endeavors on reward management are confined to investigate existing practices and yet to be analyzed historical applications. In order to execute mysterious in the present business context it is required to explore ancient reward management practices which were successfully implemented during the ancient era in managing rewards of employees. Accordingly, this study strives to find reward management practices applied in human resources management of monasteries during 1026 –1042 AC in Sri Lanka. Further, the research objectives of this study are to find the defined way of reward management during 1026–1042 AC, to find ancient reward management practices, and to compare reward management practices then and now. The present study applied a qualitative approach, in particular a content analysis method. Data was collected through secondary sources and the main source was the Epigraph of King Mahinda IV (1026–1042 AC) which is located in Mihintale, Sri Lanka. Analysis indicates that there were effective reward management practices in ancient times. The comparison of contemporary reward management and ancient reward management practices highlighted the variances and similarities in managing rewards of employees of two contexts; monasteries and organization.