| Publication type: | Doctoral thesis |
| Title: | The impact of variable pay for mixed performance on trust in the employer through the lens of fairness heuristics : a longitudinal mixed-method, field quasi-experiment |
| Authors: | Frau, Daniela |
| Advisors / Reviewers: | Weibel, Antoinette Möller, Klaus |
| Extent: | 461 |
| Issue Date: | 2023 |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | Difo-Druck |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | Bamberg |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | Conditional process analysis; Discretionary bonus; Fairness heuristic theory; Mixed-method design; Longitudinal field quasi-experiment; Organizational justice; Overall fairness; Fairness heuristic theory; Variable pay for performance; Monetary reward; Trust in the employer |
| Subject (DDC): | 331: Labor economics |
| Abstract: | Companies that foster openness and a cooperation to create added value have realized that traditionally established discretionary bonus systems promote uncertainty and vulnerability. Nevertheless, companies with a longstanding individual-oriented reward tradition are hesitant to change their monetary reward systems into strictly collective monetary rewards systems. Against this background, I conducted a mixed-method-study in a company that examined the change from a discretionary bonus system to a transparent, mixed individual and team variable PfP system. This dissertation makes a research contribution to the development of trust in the employer in collective mixed variable PfP systems from a fairness heuristic perspective. The research used an embedded sequential mixed-methods design consisting of an exploratory preliminary qualitative phase, a main quantitative phase with a field quasi-experiment and a final explanatory qualitative phase. Qualitative data were initially collected to identify contextual factors that might affect the outcome of the longitudinal field quasi-experiment in the main quantitative phase. In the treatment groups, the discretionary bonus system was replaced by a transparent mixed vPfP system in two variants: an individual-focus vPfP and a team-focused vPfP. The intervention was divided in two treatment parts in which the new vPfP system and its practice were made explicit to employees. Part 1 was the vPfP announcement and part 2 was the first vPfP payout. From a trust-building perspective, the basic hypothesis was that employees in the new vPfP system would activate overall positive fairness heuristics to reduce their uncertainty of being exploited or excluded. The increased transparency and the link between variable pay and performance demanded by employees would signal greater influence and accuracy in determining their variable pay compared to the traditional discretionary bonus system. Overall, the results did not indicate an activation of positive overall fairness heuristics to judge trust in the employer in the new vPfP context compared to the discretionary bonus context. The first part of the treatment, the vPfP announcement, had no conditional effect on the impact of overall fairness at time 0 on overall fairness at time 1 or on trust in the employer at time 1. Contrary significant conditional direct and indirect negative effects were found after the second part of the treatment at time 3. The vPfP payout had a significant conditional direct negative effect on the impact of overall fairness from time 2 to time 3 when comparing the vPfP condition to the discretionary bonus condition. Group members who were rewarded based on mixed individual and team performance perceived significantly lower overall fairness than group members who received a discretionary bonus. Only in the experimental team vPfP condition there was a significant conditional indirect negative effect of overall fairness over time on trust in the employer. In the experimental individual vPfP condition, the conditional indirect negative effect was not significant, indicating greater acceptance of the individual vPfP condition. The post-study supported the significant conditional negative effects. It indicated that the implemented mixed vPfP system was not yet mature because of its low accuracy. In particular, the inaccurate customer satisfaction ratings and the team focus contributed to the negative conditional indirect effects on trust in the employer in the team vPfP condition. Employees perceived their individual influence as limited. The qualitative results show that trust building is not the ideal theoretical perspective when an intended fair vPfP system is first implemented. In this initial implementation phase, maintaining trust in the employer would have been more realistic. This dissertation contributed to the fairness heuristic-trust in the employer link in a monetary rewards context from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. |
| URI: | https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/29179 |
| License (according to publishing contract): | Licence according to publishing contract |
| Departement: | School of Management and Law |
| Organisational Unit: | Institute for Organizational Viability (IOV) |
| Appears in collections: | Publikationen School of Management and Law |
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Frau, D. (2023). The impact of variable pay for mixed performance on trust in the employer through the lens of fairness heuristics : a longitudinal mixed-method, field quasi-experiment [Doctoral dissertation]. Difo-Druck.
Frau, D. (2023) The impact of variable pay for mixed performance on trust in the employer through the lens of fairness heuristics : a longitudinal mixed-method, field quasi-experiment. Doctoral dissertation. Difo-Druck.
D. Frau, “The impact of variable pay for mixed performance on trust in the employer through the lens of fairness heuristics : a longitudinal mixed-method, field quasi-experiment,” Doctoral dissertation, Difo-Druck, Bamberg, 2023.
FRAU, Daniela, 2023. The impact of variable pay for mixed performance on trust in the employer through the lens of fairness heuristics : a longitudinal mixed-method, field quasi-experiment. Doctoral dissertation. Bamberg: Difo-Druck
Frau, Daniela. 2023. “The Impact of Variable Pay for Mixed Performance on Trust in the Employer through the Lens of Fairness Heuristics : A Longitudinal Mixed-Method, Field Quasi-Experiment.” Doctoral dissertation, Bamberg: Difo-Druck.
Frau, Daniela. The Impact of Variable Pay for Mixed Performance on Trust in the Employer through the Lens of Fairness Heuristics : A Longitudinal Mixed-Method, Field Quasi-Experiment. Difo-Druck, 2023.
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