Rewarding Excellence : Pay Strategies for the New Economy
Editorial Reviews
From The Industry Standard
During a recent dinner with a recruiter, I learned that small details in a compensation package can make or break a deal with a hot executive. One candidate wouldn't leave his comfy job for a startup because he would have had to itemize his own expense reports. It's the little things that count, right?
In a job market in which companies are falling over themselves to meet potential employees' demands, Edward Lawler asks the question of the moment: Is money really what motivates workers? The answer, he suggests in Rewarding Excellence, is no. He proposes alternative ways for companies to motivate their employees.
Lawler dismisses merit pay doled out on the basis of seniority and job ranking. In fact, he's skeptical about the whole relationship between worker performance and pay. "Research in this field suggests that pay for performance can cause people to stop finding intrinsic pleasure from doing work, and as a result, cause employees to do things only when they are paid for doing them," Lawler writes.
With charts and performance-matrix graphs, he quotes stats on the best ways to use money to inspire excellence. Merit pay may be necessary, Lawler admits, but it can do only so much, he maintains.
He says it's OK for companies to give raises and bonuses, but only if they're based on fair and accurate employee evaluations. That isn't easy to do, he concedes, since such tests require companies to apply their overall strategy to every employee's role. But Lawler lays out a method for grading performance, as well as an alternative reward system based on team rather than individual performance.
Anyone who needs to get up to speed on compensation trends will benefit from Lawler's real-world examples and clear instructions. But if you're looking for bottom-line salary figures, you won't find them here. No magic pay scale exists, he insists; he doesn't believe in one-size-fits-all numbers.
Lawler's argument is a paradox: He downplays the correlation between pay and performance, and then writes extensively about how to use money to motivate workers. But in the end he's realistic, acknowledging that in an overheated job market money talks - and underpaid workers walk.
Review
"Ed Lawler again expands our knowledge regarding a critical management challenge: how to align reward systems with the evolving organizational forms emerging in the new economy. In this new book, he provides CEOs and HR leaders with an easy-to-follow map for building organizational effectiveness through strategic reward system design."(Daryl D. David, vice president of human resources and strategic growth, Amazon.com, Inc.)
"Once again, Ed Lawler has written a book human resource professionals can use. Rewarding Excellence provides an excellent blueprint on how to design compensation systems that will attract and retain workers in today's knowledge economy."(Michael R. Losey, president and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management)
"Leadership capital is a vital corporate resource-perhaps the most critical of all in building for the future. As the 'war for talent' escalates, Ed Lawler's new book provides companies of all sizes with innovative ways to attract, retain, and motivate executives-and to maintain competitive advantage."(Richard M. Ferry, chairman, Korn/Ferry International)
"Worried about your business in the new millennium business economy? Ed Lawler provides cutting-edge concepts for building high-performance organizations!"(Steven L. Miller, chairman, president and CEO, Shell Oil Company)
Rewarding Excellence : Pay Strategies for the New Economy
Rewarding Excellence : Pay Strategies for the New Economy,Edward E. Lawler III,Jossey-Bass,0787950742,Business & Economics,Business / Economics / Finance,Business/Economics,Compensation And Benefits,Compensation management,Entrepreneurship,Human Resources & Personnel Management,Pay-for-knowledge systems,Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management,Personnel & human resources management
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