BUSI 342 Week 8 Discussion Board Forum 4 Replies Example

Discussion Board Forum 4 Replies: Variable Pay and Incentives

BUSI 342 Human Resource Management, Discussion Board Forum 4 Replies

Thread by [Student Name]

The forum prompt, the two classmates and their threads are composites; the textbook, research and Scripture cited are real.

Reply to Tyler

Tyler, your proposal to pay the print shop's production staff a bonus for every hundred jobs completed above a weekly baseline was clear and easy to administer. Mathis et al. (2017) describe piece-rate and production incentives as among the most direct forms of variable pay, and your plan follows their advice to tie the reward to something employees can control.

I think the plan will raise output, but I would add a safeguard. Jenkins et al. (1998) pooled dozens of incentive studies and found money reliably raised how much people produced, but showed no clear link to how well they did it. In a print shop, that difference matters. Staff paid per job might rush setup or skip proofing, and a misprinted run of brochures costs more than it earns.

One solution is a quality gate: only jobs that pass inspection and draw no customer reprint count toward the bonus. Another is to pay part of the bonus to the whole crew based on the shop's reprint rate, so everyone has a reason to catch errors before a job leaves the building.

Paul tells Timothy that the laborer deserves his wages (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, 1 Timothy 5:18). An incentive plan honors that principle when it pays for work that truly serves the customer, not just work that is fast. A quality condition protects both the shop and the workers' reputation for doing things well.

Do you know what the shop's reprint rate is now? It would be a useful baseline before the bonus starts, so you could tell whether quality changed.

Reply to Gabriela

Gabriela, your thread raised an important concern, that paying bonuses to the nonprofit's caseworkers might replace their sense of calling with a focus on money. Your description of caseworkers who chose the job because they care about families was moving, and Mathis et al. (2017) acknowledge that variable pay does not suit every job or culture.

The research suggests, though, that the choice may not be either-or. Cerasoli et al. (2014) analyzed forty years of studies and found that intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives both predicted performance. Intrinsic motivation was more strongly tied to the quality of work, while incentives were more strongly tied to its quantity. The authors also found that when incentives were directly tied to performance, intrinsic motivation mattered somewhat less, which is the effect you worried about, but it did not disappear.

For the caseworkers, that suggests a design: avoid paying per case closed, which could reward speed over families' wellbeing, and consider a modest team bonus tied to outcomes the caseworkers already care about, such as families keeping stable housing for a year. A team measure also avoids pitting caseworkers against one another for the easiest cases, which an individual bonus could quietly encourage.

The Preacher wrote that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil, and called this the gift of God (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Ecclesiastes 3:13). Pay and meaning both have a place, and a well-designed bonus can honor the work rather than cheapen it. Would the caseworkers themselves help choose the outcome measures?

References

Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 980-1008. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035661

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Jenkins, G. D., Jr., Mitra, A., Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. (1998). Are financial incentives related to performance? A meta-analytic review of empirical research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(5), 777-787. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.5.777

Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., Valentine, S. R., & Meglich, P. A. (2017). Human resource management (15th ed.). Cengage Learning.