<![CDATA[Banks worldwide rely on quantitative sales and cross-selling targets, supported by financial and non-financial reward systems, to direct the effort of marketing and frontline employees. Evidence remains mixed on whether these instruments enhance performance or generate pressure, dissatisfaction, and dysfunctional behavior, and this evidence remains scattered across the human resource management, marketing, and banking literatures. This article reports a systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed research published between 2022 and 2026 that examines the relationship between target-setting practices, reward and incentive systems, and the performance of marketing and sales-oriented employees in banking and closely comparable financial-service settings. Following a transparent, artificial-intelligence-assisted review protocol, 31 journal articles indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and equivalent high-quality databases were retrieved, screened against explicit eligibility criteria, and thematically synthesized. Six recurring themes emerged from the corpus: target systems as performance drivers and sources of pressure; reward systems, incentives, and motivation; the interplay between targets, rewards, and job satisfaction; sales performance and marketing productivity in banking; the risks associated with excessive targets and poorly designed reward systems; and the strategic implications for banking human resource management and performance management. Well-calibrated, transparent, and equitable target-reward systems enhance motivation and productivity, while rigid or inequitable systems increase stress and turnover risk.]]>
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