Motivation: Reward system and the role of compensation

Group and organizationwide pay plans. Organisational effectiveness depends on employee co-operation in most instances. An organisation may elect to tie pay, or at least some portion of pay, indirectly to individual performance. Seeking to foster team-work, a company may tie an incentive to some measure of group performance, or it may offer some type of profits or productivity-sharing plan for the whole plant or company.

Gains-sharing plans have been used for years in many varieties. The real power of a gains-sharing plan comes when it is supported by a climate of participation. Various structures, systems, and processes involve employees in decisions that improve the organisation’s performance and result in a bonus throughout the organisation.

Russian management’s approach to motivation.

Nowadays, top managers at Russian companies don’t pay much attention to the employee motivation. Not only is it the result of the long communist background of the country, but it also is somewhat affected by the national traditions, customs and mentality.

Many of the recently «commercialised» enterprises believe that employees are to be satisfied with their salary only, and a pay-for-performance system is, therefore, of no need. However, the failure to observe the different motivation factors, such as money, respect, promotion and others, can lead to a worsening performance and, as a result, to a lower efficiency organizationwide.

On the other hand, money is not considered to be the most influencing motivation factor by the employees themselves. Though it may be a more vital need of most Russian workers in comparison with their Western colleagues, at the same time they put more value on the co-operative atmosphere in the organisation, rather than on the money side. And, thus, it is reasonable for the management to base the performance incentive system on some other factors, such as work security, pension etc. It’s hard to predict the situation in the long-run, however one can expect that the value put on money as a performance motivation factor will rise.

Bibliography

Searle, John G., Manage People, Not Personnel, A Harvard Business review book, 1990