In many countries, the pay gap between senior management and employees is on the rise, as is the research interest in this topic. A study of Chinese publicly traded companies examined whether a pay gap serves to motivate employees to increase their performance or whether effort is reduced due to aversion to inequity. The results of the study indicate that there is an inverted-U relationship between a company’s pay gap and their productivity, meaning that depending on a company’s proximity to the optimal pay gap level a pay gap can have positive or negative company performance implications.
Key Topics: Executive compensation; Pay gap; Employee performance; China Will Employees Be Satisfied With More Flexible Benefits? It Could Depend On Their Personality1/5/2017
Companies are increasingly moving to more flexible employee benefits systems and giving employees more control over their benefits, based on the assumption that this will result in greater employee satisfaction with benefits. But is this assumption unfounded? A study of Spanish employees examined the role of personality traits in the relationship between benefits flexibility and benefits satisfaction. The results indicated that personality traits, particularly self-efficacy and internal locus of control, moderated the relationship between benefit flexibility and benefit satisfaction.
Key Topics: Flexible benefits; Benefit satisfaction; Personality traits; Self-efficacy; Internal locus of control
Company boards are often faced with the task of determining CEO compensation based on incomplete information regarding their performance and competency. A study of US S&P 500 companies over a 7-year period examined the relationship between CEOs’ use of language that signals their competency and CEO compensation. The findings of this study indicated that the use of such language by CEOs was related to higher levels for CEO compensation, and this relationship was stronger when CEOs were under threat from shareholder activism.
Key Topics: CEO compensation; CEO performance; Symbolic language; Shareholder letters, Shareholder value principle
With companies now having increasingly diverse workforces, a critical question that many face is how to most effectively reward their diverse workforce in order attract, motivate, and retain top talent. A South African study examined the reward preferences of various demographic groups based on characteristics such race, gender, and age. The study results indicated that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to reward management is not effective as employee reward preferences were found to differ across demographic groups.
Key Topics: Total rewards; Demographics; Reward preferences
Companies often use incentive programs, such as cash, points, and gift cards, to provide nominal recognition to employees for good performance, although determining the most efficient method of recognition can be challenging. A French study examined differences in cash, point, and gift card recipient behaviors and found recipients of points and cash based rewards were more satisfied with their reward, while recipients of points and gift cards were more likely to tell others about their rewards.
Key Topics: Incentive programs; Cash rewards; Points rewards; Gift cards; Reward satisfaction |
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