Applied Performance Practices
Meaning of Money at Work
Money motivates, more than previously thought
Different meanings of money - symbol of achievement/status; motivator; performance indicator; anxiety source/avoider
Strong money ethic when money perceived as: (a) not evil, (b) achievement/power symbol , (c) budget carefully
Gender differences –more valued by men
Men -- money is a symbol of power/status
Women -- money is instrumental (exchanged)
Cultural differences - money importance increases with power distance
Membership/Seniority Based Rewards - Fixed wages, seniority increases
Advantages: Guaranteed wages may attract job applicants, seniority-based rewards reduce turnover
Disadvantages: don’t directly motivate job performance, discourages poor performers from leaving, and potential golden handcuffs (tie people to job)
Job Status-Based Rewards - Includes job evaluation and status perks
Advantages: job evaluation tries to maintain fairness, motivates competition for promotions
Disadvantages: encourages bureaucratic hierarchy, reinforces status vs egalitarian culture, and employees exaggerate duties, hoard resources
Competency-Based Rewards
Types
1. Broad competency-based pay bands - employees paid more within pay band as they demonstrate more competencies
2. Skill-based pay - employees paid more as they learn more skill modules
Advantages - multiskilled work force, better quality, creativity, adaptability
Disadvantages - potentially complex plans, subjective, expensive
Performance-based Rewards
Individual rewards - bonuses, commissions, piece rate
Team rewards - team bonuses, gainsharing
Organizational rewards - ESOPs, share options, profit-sharing
Evaluating organizational rewards
ESOPs and share options create “ownership culture”
Profit sharing adjusts pay with firm's prosperity
Problem: organizational rewards have weak P-to-O link
Improving Reward Effectiveness
Link rewards to performance
Ensure rewards are relevant
Team rewards for interdependent jobs
Ensure rewards are valued
Watch out for unintended consequences
Job Design
Assigning tasks to a job, including the interdependency of those tasks with other jobs
Organization's goal -- to create jobs that can be performed efficiently yet employees are motivated and engaged
Job Specialization and Scientific Management
Dividing work into separate jobs, each with a subset of tasks to complete the product/service
Scientific management: Frederick Winslow Taylor
Championed job specialization and standardization and popularized training, goal setting, work incentives
Advantages and disadvantages of job specialization
Job Characteristics Model
Other Job Characteristics
Social characteristics of the job
Required interaction with other people - clients, coworkers, etc.
Task interdependence -- job requires social interaction with coworkers
Feedback from others -- from coworkers, clients, etc.
Information processing demands
High task variability -- job has nonroutine work patterns;
High task analyzability -- use known procedures/rules
Job Rotation - moving from one job to another
Benefits
1. Minimizes repetitive strain injury
2. Multiskills the workforce
3. Potentially reduces job boredom
Job Enlargement - adding tasks to an existing job, ex. video journalist
Job Enrichment - giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating, and planning work
1. Natural grouping - stitching highly interdependent tasks into one job ex. video journalist, assembling entire product
2. Establishing client relationships - directly responsible for specific clients, communicate directly with those clients
Dimensions of Empowerment
Supporting Empowerment
Individual factors - possess required competencies, can perform the work, can handle decision making demands
Job design factors - autonomy, task identity, task significance, job feedback
Organizational factors - resources, learning orientation, trust
Self-Leadership
The process of influencing oneself to