Compensation and Benefits Long Answer Flashcards
Identify 3 types of employee behaviour
Membership behaviour
Task behaviour
Organizational citizenship behaviour
Identify 3 categories of reward problems
1) failure to produce the desired behaviour
2) production of the desired behaviour but with undesirable consequences
3) production of reward dissatisfaction.
What is the definition of membership behaviour?
occurs when employees decide to join and remain with a firm.
What is the definition of task behaviour?
occurs when employees perform the specific tasks that have been assigned to them.
What is the definition of organizational citizenship behaviour?
occurs when employees voluntarily undertake special behaviours beneficial to the organization that go beyond simple membership and task behaviour, such as extra effort, high cooperation with others, high initiative, high innovativeness, extra customer service, and a general willingness to make sacrifices for the good of the organization. Organizational citizenship behaviour is sometimes known as “contextual performance” in contrast with “task performance.”2
What is the failure to produce the desired behaviour?
- reward system often has no impact on behaviour
- the behaviour the organization needs isn’t occurring, or it is occurring only among certain employees
- EX: Green Giant
What is the production of the desired behaviour but with undesirable consequences
- Too much focus on attain reward goals and lost focus on other company goals
- the reward system does generate the desired behaviours with no obvious negative consequences but also suppresses other desirable behaviours that are not measured or rewarded
- EX: CN Rails reward system reduced per-item purchasing costs, but it also discouraged any search for potentially more valuable approaches to cost savings
What is the production of reward dissatisfaction?
- When employees believe the rewards they receive are not consistent with the contributions they are making to the organization, or when they believe the reward system is unfair, they will experience reward dissatisfaction.
- Reward dissatisfaction can have a variety of negative consequences, such as poor work performance, high turnover, poor customer service, and even employee dishonesty.
What are the 4 compensation constraints?
- Labour
- Finanacial
- Product/service
- Leglislation
Provide examples of legislation constraints
Dealing with both the Fed. and prov. Legislation
ESA: min hours, min wage, OT, stats, max hours
Human Rights Acts: discrimination, pay equity
Trade union legislation: any changes to working conditions are negotiated
Corporate tax laws: encourage certain pay approaches and discourage others, employee vs IC
Provide examples of labour market constraints
the available pool of labour from which employers choose their employees
Supply & demand of labour; tight vs loose market
Pay leadingm lagging, or matching the market
Provide examples of product/service constraints
Constraints on compensation strategy caused by
the nature of the product or service market in which the firm operates.
Supply & demand of products
Labour intensive costs
volatility ; swings in demand, contingent workers
Provide examples of financial constraints
Financial performances of the organization
Companys stage of growth
Funding limitations
Escaping union constraints to get public funding
What are the steps managers can take concerning legislated constraints when formulating a compensation system?
Be compliant with legislation to remain legally defesible, fair, and maintain equity.
Make equity a priortty, comply with pay equity laws
Seek legal advice where necessary
Do your due dillgience
Follow trade union rules and cooperate with them, negotiate fairly while keeing organizational goals in mind
Comply with tax laws
Be clear whether worker is employee or contractor
What are the steps managers can take concerning labour constraints when formulating a compensation system?
Lead, lag, and match payment of positions approprattly to continue achieving organizational goals that align with strategy, while mainitning an equitable pay system to avoid potentia downfalls of choosing incorrectly: not attract the right employees, increas costs,
Decide to base pay system on regional or national labour markets rates to make sure pay remains fair and feasible to the company
What are the steps managers can take concerning product/service constraints when formulating a compensation system?
Be mindful of the companies product/service, and make sure that labour and production needs are aligning to balance costs and production.
Be mindful of potential swings in demand
What are the steps managers can take concerning financial constraints when formulating a compensation system?
Be aware of the companies financial situation, and what stage they are at in growing before creating a compensation strategy.
Be mindful of any funding limitations and restrictions, and budget accordingly
Dont make compensation strategy beyond the financial means of the company
List the methods for a job analysis?
1) observations
2) interviews
3) Questionnaires
4) functional job analysis
What is the definition of a job analysis?
The process of collecting information on which job descriptions are based.
What is the definition/elements of the observation method?
can be conducted only in organizations that already have examples of the jobs that need to be evaluated
Involves watching the employee as the job is performed and noting the kinds of activities performed, with whom they are performed, and with what tools or equipment.
Observation is mainly useful for jobs in which the activities can be easily observed and for which the work cycle is short
For most jobs, observation is useful only as a supplement to other methods.
What is the definition/elements of the interview method?
can be conducted only in organizations that already have examples of the jobs that need to be evaluated
can be conducted with a sample of employees, or their supervisors, or both.
Example: HR Manager Tayedra sits down with employee Sophie and interviews her about her perceptions of her job, what she does, her duties etc
What is the definition/elements of the questionnaire method?
can be conducted only in organizations that already have examples of the jobs that need to be evaluated
Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): focuses on the behaviours that make up a job and uses job elements to describe work activities.
It is not used to evaluate performance, but rather to relate the duties performed, decisions made, and the skills needed
Conduct when there are job to compare within the company
What is the definition/elements of the functional job analysis method?
Organizations that are just being created or that are introducing new jobs must depend on the functional job analysis.
an attempt to develop generic descriptions of jobs using a common set of job functions.
What is an example of the observation method?
Sophie, employee, is watched by her HR manager as she performs her typical job duties while she slices meat and makes sandwiches at the deli
What is an example of the interview method?
HR Manager Tayedra sits down with employee Sophie and interviews her about her perceptions of her job, what she does, her duties etc
What is an example of the questionnaire method?
HR Manager Sophie gives Tayedra a questionnaire to fill out regarding her job responsibilities
What is an example fo the fictional job analysis method?
New company, HR Director Tayedra has to come up with generic job descriptions for each positions by using a common set of job functions
What are the strengths of the observation method?
Analyst sees firsthand what the job involves
useful for blue-collar work
Simple to use
May verify data from other sources
What are the weaknesses of the observation method?
Observations may not cover all time periods in which job is performed
Time-consuming
Not useful for jobs involving cognitive tasks
Observation may bias performance
validity and reliability may be problematic
What are the strengths of the interview method?
Interviews with employees can generate valid information
Interviewing supervisors may produce more objective information
Job incumbents describe work
Information obtained from persons most familiar with the job
May provide unexpected information
What are the weaknesses of the interview method?
Cost and time for everyone involved
Interviewing only one or the other of these groups has drawbacks.
the employee perspective on the importance of various job duties may be different from that of the supervisor.
If employees know that the job analysis is being conducted for the purpose of job evaluation, it is in their interest to portray the job in a way that maximizes its value.
supervisors may not be as aware of the realities of the job as the employees.
Requires experienced interviewer
Requires well-designed questions and probes
provides qualitative data that may be difficult to
combine and analyze
Interviewees may distort information
What are the strengths of the questionnaire method?
Job incumbents describe work
Information obtained from persons most familiar with the job
Access information from large number of workers
Relatively inexpensive
What are the weaknesses of the questionnaire method?
the development of reliable and valid questionnaires is a complex process
Only a portion of workers may respond
Respondents may not answer honestly
Questions are fixed and do not allow flexibility
May not capture points that the worker believes are important
What are the strengths of the functional analysis method?
Managers can then analyze these statements to draw conclusions about the nature of the job, as well as the skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions associated with it.
provides task bank of standardized task statements
Identifies the level of involvement with people, data, and things
used to develop job descriptions
Helps to identify KSAOs related to task statements
produc
What are the weaknesses of the functional job analysis?
depending on the job, it may be difficult to draw conclusions about all these factors, such as working conditions or responsibility.
Only trained analysts may use the method
very costly for analyst training
very time consuming, laborious, and costly to collect task statements
How are employee job attitudes and behaviours are linked with reward systems?
The rewards systems impacts the employees attitudes and their levels of job satisfaction, organizational identification, and their motivation.
Each of these attitudes then, impacts the employees behaviour/performances based on the underlying rewards systems.
Therefore, it is essential to align the rewards system with the organizational needs to achieve the desired job performances to ensure that employees have a positive attitude and reaction to the rewards, and in turn, and performing adequately as a result.
What are the key aspects of the reinforcement theory?
Process Theory: Reinforcement Theory: A theory that states a behaviour will be repeated if valued outcomes flow from that behaviour, or if performing the behaviour reduces undesirable outcomes.
For reinforcement theory to work, the individual must perceive a link between the behaviour and the consequence.
the key to predicting a person’s future behaviour is to understand how that person and others around them were reinforced for various types of behaviour in the past
How should managers make sure the reinforcement theory is being used properly?
Desired behaviours for each employee need to be clearly specified. Then each time that behaviour occurs, it needs to be followed by a reward of significant value to the recipient. The closer in time the reward is to the behaviour, the better.
Make sure unwanted behaviurs arent inadvertently rewarded
Ensure behaviour is continually rewarded to maintain desired performances
What are the key aspects of expectancy theory?
Process Theory: Expectancy Theory: A theory stating that individuals are more likely to exert effort to perform a particular behaviour if they believe that behaviour will lead to valued consequences and if they expect they can perform the behaviour.
Valence: the net value of the consequences of that behaviour
Instrumentality: the perceived likelihood that the behaviour will actually lead to those consequences
Expectancy: the perceived likelihood of actually being able to accomplish those behaviours
How should managers make sure the expectancy theory is being used properly?
make sure that instrumentality is strong. Employees must clearly understand that performance of the desired behaviours leads to the specified rewards. Trust and credibility may be an important issue here.
make sure that the net valence for performing a behaviour is positive in the eyes of the person expected to perform the behaviour.
maximizing the person’s rewards while minimizing the costs of performing the behaviour.
need to understand the needs and personal values of the people you are attempting to motivate.
make sure that expectancy is strong—that employees have confidence in their ability to accomplish the desired behaviours.
