Matchmaking: the Influence of Monitoring Environments on the Effectiveness of Performance Pay Systems

This study uses cross-section and panel data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to explore contextual influences on the relationship between performance-related pay (PRP) and organizational performance. While it finds strong evidence that the use of PRP can enhance performance outcomes, it also determines that this relationship is qualified by the structure of workplace monitoring environments. In addition, it presents evidence that managers learn about optimum combinations of pay system and monitoring environment through a process of experimentation. Lastly, although there exists a robust positive association in these data between use of PRP and pay inequality, it appears that these higher levels of inequality carry no performance penalty.performance-related pay, incentives, performance measurement, organizational commitment

In brief: performance pay for teachers: is it working?.

The introduction of performance-related pay in England's schools has had a generally bad press. But David Marsden and Richard Belfield find that it is starting to have a positive impact both on school management and pupils' academic achievements.

Institutions and the Management of Human Resources: Incentive Pay Systems in France and Great Britain

Using data from large-scale establishment surveys in Britain and France, we show that incentive pay for non-managers is more widespread in France than in Britain. We explain this finding in terms of the 'beneficial constraint' arising from stronger employment protection in France, which provides an impulse to develop incentive pay; employer networking activities in France, which facilitate joint learning about its development and operation; and government fiscal incentives for profit-sharing, which reduces the cost of its operation.incentive systems, merit pay, profit-sharing, employer networks

Pay for Performance Where Output is Hard to Measure: the Case of Performance Pay for School Teachers

The introduction of performance-related pay with Performance Management in the state school sector of England and Wales represents a considerable change in the school management system. After 2000, all teachers were subject to annual goal setting performance reviews. Experienced teachers were offered an extended pay scale based on performance instead of seniority, and to gain access to the new upper pay scale, teachers had to go through a 'threshold assessment' based on their professional skills and performance. This paper reports the results of a panel survey of classroom and head teachers which started in 2000 just before implementation of the new system, and then after one and after four years of operation. We find that both classroom and head teacher views have changed considerably over time, from initial general skepticism and opposition towards a more positive view, especially among head teachers by 2004. We argue that the adoption of an integrative bargaining approach to performance reviews explains why a growing minority of schools have achieved improved goal setting, and improved pupil attainments as they have implemented performance management. Pay for performance has been one of the measures of organizational support that head teachers could bring to induce changes in teachers' classroom priorities. We argue that the teachers' case shows that a wider range of performance incentives than previously thought can be offered to employees in such occupations, provided that goal setting and performance measurement are approached as a form of negotiation instead of top-down.Education, teachers, performance related pay, public sector, compensation, industrial relations

Unions, Performance-Related Pay and Procedural Justice: the Case of Classroom Teachers

Performance-related pay (PRP) and performance management (PM) are now a part of the organizationallandscape that unions face in the UK's public services. While PRP and PM threaten the scope of traditionalunion bargaining activities, they simultaneously offer a new role to unions as providers of 'procedural justiceservices' to both union members and employers. We explore the case of the introduction of these systems forclassroom teachers in England and Wales as a means of testing this idea. Our survey evidence shows thatclassroom teachers experiencing the introduction of PRP have expressed a strong demand for such services fromthe teachers' unions. Further, analysis of the PRP implementation process for classroom teachers indicates thatthe teachers' unions have progressively assumed a 'procedural justice role' since its introduction. Union actionin this regard has led to substantial modification over time of classroom teachers' PRP and PM. These changeshave addressed many of the concerns of teachers, have created a new institutional role for the relevant unions,and may permit the systems to avoid the operational difficulties they have experienced elsewhere in the UK'spublic services.Unions, Procedural Justice, Performance-Related Pay, Teachers

Performance Pay for Teachers: Linking Individual and Organisational Level Targets

The introduction of performance-related pay and performance management schemes in the maintained, state, school sector represents a considerable change in the school management system. This paper combines the results of opinion surveys of classroom and head teachers with Department for Education and Skills school performance data to consider the operation and impact of the new system in England since 2000. We find that teachers' response to the new system closely resembles that of other groups of public service workers to similar schemes. In particular, teachers appear not to be greatly motivated by the financial-incentive element of the system. However, the goal-setting and appraisal aspect of the system is steadily establishing itself in schools, and seems to be giving rise to a better alignment of teacher and school objectives and with those of nationallevel policy objectives. We present tentative evidence that improvements in goal setting within schools are positively related to rising pupil academic performance.Education, teachers, performance related pay, public sector, compensation, industrial relations

Pay for performance where output is hard to measure : the case of performance pay for school teachers.

The introduction of performance-related pay with Performance Management in the state school sector of England and Wales represents a considerable change in the school management system. After 2000, all teachers were subject to annual goal setting performance reviews. Experienced teachers were offered an extended pay scale based on performance instead of seniority, and to gain access to the new upper pay scale, teachers had to go through a ‘threshold assessment’ based on their professional skills and performance. This paper reports the results of a panel survey of classroom and head teachers which started in 2000 just before implementation of the new system, and then after one and after four years of operation. We find that both classroom and head teacher views have changed considerably over time, from initial general skepticism and opposition towards a more positive view, especially among head teachers by 2004. We argue that the adoption of an integrative bargaining approach to performance reviews explains why a growing minority of schools have achieved improved goal setting, and improved pupil attainments as they have implemented performance management. Pay for performance has been one of the measures of organizational support that head teachers could bring to induce changes in teachers’ classroom priorities. We argue that the teachers’ case shows that a wider range of performance incentives than previously thought can be offered to employees in such occupations, provided that goal setting and performance measurement are approached as a form of negotiation instead of top-down.

Incentive Pay Systems and the Management of Human Resources in France and Great Britain

Incentive pay systems have undergone major changes in recent decades. This paper investigates use of incentive pay systems in British and French private sector establishments in 2004, focusing on payment-by-results, merit pay, and profit sharing, using British and French workplace surveys: WERS and Réponse. Despite the stereotypes of Britain as a deregulated economy and France as a more coordinated social-market economy, French firms make considerably greater use of incentive pay, and particularly, merit pay. The paper explores the organisational and institutional determinants of this. It finds that personnel economics and management theories explain a significant share of the within country variation in use of incentive pay systems.incentive systems, merit pay, profit-sharing, employer organisation

The "top-tier" growth of pay inequality in Britain: A comparative and longitudinal analysis.

This thesis examines the recent growth in pay inequality in Britain that can be traced to change at the top of the distribution. It takes a broad perspective on the subject that draws on insights generated across multiple branches of social science, and tests these insights against comparative data. It argues ultimately that top-tier growth in British pay inequality is strongly connected to rising demand for the skills of upper-and middle-managers created by the reshaping of production systems in British organizations. On the way to this conclusion, the thesis addresses three main research questions: 1. What lies behind the apparent 'top pay' bias in pay inequality growth in Britain since the 1990s. The thesis tests multiple explanations for the distributional bias observed in Britain in comparative perspective. It concludes that rising pay inequality at the top in Britain is connected to an apparent increase in relative demand for certain types of manager that is specific to that country. 2. Have organizational governance factors contributed to the rise in pay inequality at the top. It is tested whether the apparent rise in relative demand for managers in Britain is in fact a byproduct of shifting patterns of organizational governance. The empirical analysis finds little evidence that governance factors have contributed greatly to the rise in pay inequality at the top. 3. Have changes in production systems contributed to the apparent rise in relative demand for managers in Britain. The thesis tests the idea that recent changes in the typical approach to production have made certain types of manager relatively more valuable to British organizations. It finds firm evidence that this is the case, and that this trend has contributed to the rise in top-tier pay inequality

Microorganisms attached to the lumens and balloons of indwelling urinary catheters and correlation with symptoms, antibiotic use, and catheter specimen of urine results

Purpose: To quantify and identify microorganisms attached to the lumens and balloons of removed urethral urinary catheters and relate this to patient-specific information. Methodology: Indwelling urethral urinary catheters were collected from patients at a large teaching hospital in the UK. The balloon and lumen were separated, sonicated, and microorganisms were enumerated from the sonicate. Catheter specimen urine results were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Sixty-one catheters were analysed. The most commonly isolated organisms were Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis. 19.7% of patients received antibiotics while catheterised and 25% of those had a multi-drug resistant (MDR) organism attached to the lumen. Conversely, only 2.04% of catheters from patients not known to be receiving antibiotics had a MDR organism present. All lumens were colonised irrespective of antibiotic use. Symptom presentation did not correlate with numbers of colonising organisms or species. Despite heavy colonisation, only 8/61 patients were symptomatic. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that indwelling urinary catheters in place for 10 days or greater were universally colonised and there was no correlation of colonisation with symptom presentation. Symptomatic presentation remains for the most important factor for defining CAUTI