Performance Related Pay in TYLT Mobile - Essay Example

?5 Discussions In this section, the researcher will analyse and evaluate the various findings from the results of the field work conducted on Performance Related Pay in TYLT Mobile. This section will align the findings of the survey with the fundamental theories of motivation in order to interpret the results. The discussion will include some important findings and how they reflect general trends in the company. This section will set the framework for recommendations and conclusions which will come up in the next chapter of the dissertation. 5.1 Participants and Relevant Theories of Motivation The ultimate purpose of a Performance Related Pay system is to encourage employees to link their expectation with the organisation's goals and work hard to improve themselves on an incremental basis (Alberto, 2011). This implies that the PRP system of a business aims at identifying the improvement in employees and compensating them accordingly. This has an impact on the expectations, motivation and effort that employees will put into the organisation. A PRP system is affected strongly by the nature and expectations of employees (Hagan, 2006). The participants in the research were almost evenly split between male and females except a margin of about 6% in favour of males. As identified by Piercy, male respondents in surveys are mainly quantitative based whilst female respondents are often qualitative in outlook (2011). This therefore implies that there is a fair balance between the two different approaches to viewing results and biases are limited to a significant degree. Another feature of the participants in the survey include the fact that the overwhelming majority of them were aged between 23 and 32. This suggests that most of them were young people who had similar views of life and the improvement of their livelihoods. Huang identifies that China is a thriving economy where most young people in urban areas see a healthy blend between a modern life in a capitalist set up and the nationalistic feeling of building the country into a major global power (2010). As such, it is expected that most of the participants have a strong desire to settle down, marry, build modern families and/or improve their educations and careers. In an attempt to practicalise Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Professor John Callaghan identified that most people aged between the mid-20s and the mid 30s with graduate and postgraduate qualifications and employment in top companies in modern urban settings tend to belong to Level 3 of the Maslow scale: The Social Belongingness Stage. This is because most of such persons have access to the basic physiological needs because most of them are from privileged backgrounds and have a lot of options and do not see some of these basic needs as necessary (Callaghan, 2007). Also, such persons have their social security needs are settled because they possess good qualifications and with the advantage of being young and energetic, such persons have a lot of prospects and have fewer limitations. Their needs are to build social lives like marriage, joining a strong network of friends and building business links. So the best rewards for them include socio-economic rewards that would enable them to meet their needs. Also, since these young employees have many options, they need hygienic factors that would make them happy in a given workplace and not necessarily motivators. This is because they often tend to select the best work environment and not just a work environment that pays well. The expectancy theory also implies that the effort of these young people who dominate the R&D department of TYLT Mobile will want to blend their individual needs which include entrenching their social belongingness needs into their expectations. These expectations would reflect in their performance at work and it would affect the outcome of TYLT Mobile's output. As such, it is reciprocal for TYLT Mobile to find a way of recognizing continuous improvement and rewarding them appropriately. This forms a hygienic factor which when overlooked, would cause these young employees to find jobs elsewhere because it is likely that most of them would get better offers from other competing organisations. So if there is no system to increase salaries to enable these young people to acquire their heart desires, it is likely that a better offer with a promise of continuous increments would attract these TYLT Mobile employees. 5.2 Dominant Systems and Structures in TYLT Mobile From initial interviews conducted with top level managers of TYLT Mobile's Human Resource Management division, it was identified that the main goals of the TYLT Performance Related Pay system include: 1. The appraisal of current performance in relation to past performances and future goals and visions of the TYLT Mobile. 2. Ascertaining individual performances and how they improve their learning curves over time. 3. Measurement of pay differences and an attempt to promote equity and fairness in relation to internal and external conditions. 4. Identification of random and contingent events which come up around the year in relation to management decisions that are made from time to time and its effects on the performance of employees. Hence, they increase salaries based on skills improvements, which include the acquisition of new qualifications and/or new competencies. They also improve payments based on improvement in performance due to emerging events that come up all year round. The traditional methodology is to get supervisors to identify and record different changes. Also, workers are allowed to rate their fellow workers and peers that they have direct working relationships with. 5.3 The Role of PRP Systems in TYLT Over two-thirds of the respondents indicated that it is better to have a PRP system in place at TYLT Mobile. Another two-thirds stated that they support the existing PRP system that exists in TYLT Mobile. This therefore shows that there is a pervasive view that the PRP systems are the best ways of identifying the needs of these people to be recognized and rewarded on the basis of the contributions they make the TYLT Mobile. It is therefore conclusive that PRP is seen to the best way that these young people can blend their needs for social belongingness as young people in the Chinese society and career progression. It helps them to blend their efforts with the performance of TYLT Mobile. 5.4 Fairness of the PRP System at TYLT Although most of the participants support the existence of the PRP system in TYLT, a majority of the respondents said they had issues with the fairness of the system. From the responses given, there is a general discontention with the scales and systems used to evaluate employee performance. There are issues with the ratings of colleagues which many see to be quite unfair because it might reflect personal views and opinions which cannot be measured consistently across board. Secondly, many of the respondents identify that the supervisors have subjective views about their subordinates. This again bring the case of the lack of consistency and the possible inclusion of bias into the PRP system and structures. Also, most of the employees complain about the accuracy of the system to detect contingency and measure current and previous performance accurately. This could be attributed to the inherent limitation of the social sciences in measuring absolute figures. Again, there are some shortfalls in the identification and measurement of metrics that can be used to accurately measure individual, internal and external factors that are relevant. So it is apparent that there is the need to expand the scope of these measurement scales and systems. 5.5 PRP and Motivation From the survey, most of the respondents agreed that the PRP had a positive impact on motivation within TYLT Mobile. This suggests that they are able to blend their needs for social belongingness as young people in a dynamic organisation with their work progression. As such, there were minor issues with motivation and linking these employees with their personal and individual goals and/or aspirations. The common trends in the responses indicate that the influence of PRP in TYLT Mobile can be felt in three principal areas: 1. Support in working harder to attain business goals assigned to them. 2. Support in working harder to get rewards. 3. Support to improve the quality of work. This means that Vroom's E>P >O model is being met to a high degree. This is because, the individual expectation of these young people who dominate the dynamic mobile company is appropriately transposed to high performance through the fact that the PRP system gets them to attain business goals and seek results. In the long run, the motive for the performance is symbiotic and the outcome is both favourable to individual employees and the organisation. It can therefore be said that the PRP method is highly applicable and relevant to TYLT Mobile in keeping the employees motivated and happy. 5.6 Scope of the PRP Drive Traditionally, performance related pay were part of scientific management and the effort to share the prosperity of the organisation with the employees who made the prosperity occur (Glazerson, 2002). Due to this, performance related pay is often linked to the attainment of quantitative results rather than qualitative results (du Preez, 1999). Also, the inherent challenge of measuring qualitative improvements and additions made it difficult to use PRP as a tool for the improvement of qualitative work measures. However, in the 21st Century where the emphasis of work has shifted from just results to the quality of life of employees, there is the need for PRP to support qualitative development (Madison, 2009). The results from the survey indicate that the PRP of TYLT Mobile satisfactorily covers quantitative elements of motivation and rewards quantitative additions that an employee makes to the company. In other words, there are scientific measures that can bring out the tangible results in the employees. This indicates that the PRP system of TYLT is very robust and identifies the obvious and tangible issues. On the other hand, qualitative measures were important. This is because most of the respondents agreed that the PRPs recognizes their qualitative contributes and this motivates them to make qualitative improvements to their work habits. 5.7 Information Exchange in the PRP Exercises A sizeable number of the respondents had to have discussions with their supervisors about aspects of the exercise. This indicates that there were some communication lapses that had issues with participation. This suggests that there were issues with the dissemination of information and there is a likelihood that uniformity was not really attained across board. Also, the need to communicate with supervisors to find out what was going on indicates that most of the employees might have been nervous and hence not very comfortable with the appraisal systems. About a quarter of the interviewees did not get any feedback from the exercise. Only about a third got feedback and the rest of the participants did not answer that question. This probably indicate that most of the respondents were not given outcomes of the activities. This means that a fundamental element of informing and including some sections of the employees was compromised. This is because the purpose of a PRP exercise is to get employees to see how well they are doing. In this way, the employees would know where they are doing well and improve it and where they are not doing so well and correct their faults. This means that a fundamental purpose of the exercise and its motive is being lost due to the lack of communication. 5.8 PRP and Teamwork The ratings for PRP appraisals in TYLT is mainly on an individual level. People are rated on the basis of what they do in the groups but not as a team. Although a half of the respondents were of the view that the PRP enabled them to work harder as a team, a significant proportion state that they try to give their best as individuals because they are assessed as individuals. This means that individual appraisal seem to promote some degree of separation and selfishness. This is because everyone wants to do his best for himself and not for the team. Due to this, it can be inferred that TYLT Mobile is missing out in terms of synergism. Synergy refers to the collective result of a group (Dickson, 2005). This is popularly quoted as the fact that the collective contribution of groups of individuals give a business extra inputs than individuals. From the survey, about three quarters of the employees stated that they would prefer team level rating since that would boost the synergistic contribution and recognize what they actually give to the organisation. 5.9 Popular Views on PRP The final part of the study examined the popular views that employees hold on how PRP contributes to TYLT Mobile. The first view was that PRP enables managers to get a firm control of the organisation and this helps them to steer their business units in the right direction. China being a Communist country with strong power distances on the Hofstede Scale (Hofstede, 2009), most of these young employees expect their leaders to have firm grip and full control. This is because they have the power to dictate rewards and punishments. This tends to put the leaders in a transactional position rather than a transformational one. And to most of the respondents, this was a good thing. The second most popular view of the exercise was that it helps individuals to improve their individual capacity as employees. This is because they varied their positions at all times and made changes where possible. Also, most respondents believe that the PRP helps the employees and managers to examine the process of work and make changes were necessary. 5.10 Conclusions The department of TYLT Mobile studied was full of young people between ages 20 and 32. Their main position in terms of motivation revolves around the need for social belongingness. Due to this, they mainly expect hygienic factors to be in place since there are other job opportunities that are at their disposal. Hence, they expect a work environment where their improvements are linked to a progressive pay structure. The respondents indicated that the PRP system at TYLT Mobile was the best way of identifying their needs as they progress. However, there were widespread discontent about the scales and systems used for rating. The most unpopular included the fact that people rated colleagues, how contingency was measured and the assessment of performance against previous performance. There were significant issues with these metrics. Most of the people in the Mobile company indicated that the PRP system enabled them to support the attainment of goals, and work hard to attain rewards and improve the quality of contribution they make to TYLT Mobile. It was also found that the scope of TYLT's PROP system was broad enough to cover both qualitative and quantitative elements of the contributions the employees make. It was however discovered that there were significant lapses in communication which had participation problems. Also, significant members of the company did not get any feedback. Employees complained of the absence of team review. This led to a situation where synergy was not encouraged although most of the employees preferred a team review ahead of individual reviews. Finally, it was discovered that most people feel that PRP helps the managers to get full control and hence steer affairs better in TYLT Mobile. Others also believed that the PRP helps individuals to improve their capacity whilst others believe that it helps the employees and managers to review the process of work and make appropriate adjustments. 5.11 Limitations of Study There are some inherent shortfalls in the discussions carried out above. These shortfall give motivation for future research into the position of PRP in TYLT. First of all, the research does not really do a thorough critical analysis of the structures and systems for the evaluation of employee performance and rewards. It is apparent that there is widespread dissatisfaction about the grading scales and systems. However, this research does not do much about it. Secondly, there is a major question about the consistency of the PRP systems and structures. This is because there is a wide range of subjectivity issues that come up in such exercises. And if the range is major, it could affect these results since no effort was made to examine the nature of supervisors or how different their views appear to be in the research. References Alberto, C. (2011) Human Resource Management Mason OH: Cengage. Callaghan, J (2007) Application of the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs San Antonio: University of Texas Press. Dickson, B. (2005) Labour Relations and its Evolution London: Palgrave Macmillan. Du Preez, A. M. (1999) Motivation and Organizational Behaviour. Cape Town: Juta Publishing. Glazerson, H. (2002) Strategic Human Resource Management Little Rock, AK: Arkansas State University Press. Hagan, M. C. (2006) Appraisal Methods in Personnel Management London: Lighthouse Publishing. Hofstede, G. (2009) Software of the Mind New York: FT Press. Huang, J. N. (2010) Doing Business in China Three Oaks, CA: Global Business Press. Madison, W. (2009) Employee Motivation Indianapolis: Infinity Publishing. Piercy, N (2011) Strategic Marketing London: Butterworth-Heinemann Sloof R.& Praag C. Mirjam van, (2007), Performance measurement, expectancy and agency theory: An experimental study, New York: Free Press. Read More