Hi Grad student,
Sure, Simple cash profit sharing works in many companies, Hayes Brake,
Worthington Steel, Greene Manufacturing. I these companies profit is
shared quarterly and paid in cash.
Other systems that are less direct work fairly well also as long as they
are free of change and manipulation by management.
Many of the others are too clever and work to cause behavior to narrow and
often not in the best interest of the company. Alfie Kohn has many
examples in his book about incentives working to cause behavior and many
where the behavior was not in the best interest of the company. His book
was trying to prove incentives were bad but read to see how incentives
caused behavior. Those that were direct and tied to profit were positive
for the company and those that had management judgement imposed generally
caused behavior that was bad for the company. That was not his purpose but
the data is in his book.
The complex systems such as pay for quality or productivity improvement
also cause behavior but I believe they will die and lose popularity
because management is not smart enough to keep them in the best interest
of the company.
Keep it simple do not tamper with it and tie it to profit. Then it will
endure build team work and be good for the company.
et
At 03:06 PM 3/17/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I am a grad student who is working on a project related to incentive
>programs for manufacturers. I am curious if anyone is aware of a
>particular incentive program that works exceptionaly well. The program
>could be profit sharing, pay for performance, or anything that has
>motivated employees. Of particular interest would be any program which
>involved employees at every level. Can anyone help?
>
>Judy Courtney <jpcourt@earthlink.net>
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
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