Deciphering The Impact: Contextual Variables In Compensation Strategies

1.Using your own words, briefly outline the background – presentation in bullet form is acceptable. Explain the managerial strategy that you recommend be adopted by this organization and elaborate on each of the five contextual variables that influenced your recommendation.

2.Recommend how structural variables should be implemented into the organization to drive consistency with the managerial strategy that you recommended. One variable is the reward system. Elaborate on the different parts of the reward system you have recommended and discuss the pros and cons of each part.

3.Identify the employee behaviour that “Multi-Products Corporation” should seek and recommend how to generate this behaviour in the workforce.

4.Explain how base pay should be offered as one element of the compensation mix for production staff.  Support your recommendation with three reasons. 8 marks

5.Recommend an organizational performance pay plan for “Multi-Products Corporation”.  Describe two key elements of this plan.

6.Recommend one loyalty and one social reward for “Multi-Products Corporation”.  Support your recommendation with two reasons for each reward.

7.Using the five-step compensation strategy formulation process (Figure 6.1), Page 189, formulate a strategy.  Briefly describe your rational for each step. Identify the indirect pay plan that you would recommend for this organization.  Justify each of the benefit offerings.

Classical approach and motivation

• Last year, it acquired the ownership of new type of Golf Club, which was invented by a retired machinist
• The machinist produced only few sets of the clubs, although his glory spread across the globe
• The company has numerous divisions and departmental units, offering choice to the clients and the customers to select their preferred brands
• The Corporation plans to set up new branches for making the customers acquainted with the newly launched golf equipment
• The managers motivate and encourage the staffs, so that they can expose better performance. This reflects collaborative approach towards enhancing the productivity
• At the initial stage, marketing mix is to be conducted, which would enhance the awareness of the personnel about the target audience for the golf equipments (Noe et al., 2017). For this, market research would be a beneficial step in terms of gaining an insight into the prospective clients, who would contribute towards increasing the sales revenue and profit margin.

The managerial strategy for the Corporation involves the components of classical, human relations and contextual. Classical approach relates to the execution of the need analysis on the employees for identifying their disliking towards the allocated roles and responsibilities. Motivation is one of an effective aspects, which convinces the employees to execute the allocated roles in spite of unwillingness. According to the arguments of Wright, (2018), the strategy of human relations express the collaborative approach towards executing the activities. Understanding and cooperative approach helps in maintaining the stability in the parameter of public relations. On the contrary, high involvement strategy relates to the organizational structure, stressing on motivation, which helps in extracting the required labour from the employees. Within this, the variables of environment, corporate strategy, technology, organization size and nature of the workforce assume an important position. Technologies assist in conducting the product lifecycle of the golf equipment. This activity helps in predicting the shelf life of the equipment. According to Bratton and Gold, (2017), the strategy of human relations aggravate the complexity towards executing the operations in an efficient and effective manner.

The nature of workforce is crucial for the corporation in terms of determining the dynamics of the operations. Kuvaas et al., (2016) is of the view that using the technology for conducting the capability analysis and tests prove beneficial in terms of upgrading the standards and quality of the operations. Along with this, technology also adds automation into the operations.

The strategy of human relations can be proposed as this would enhance the stability in the relationship between the managers and the employees. For this, Fisch et al., (2018) opines that divisional organizational structure is needed for exposing collaborative approach. On the contrary, Laux, (2015) argues that infusion of modern software into the workplace would be helpful in terms of digitalizing the business operations.

Structural variables of an organization include reward systems, job design, coordination and departmentation, decision-making and leadership structure, communication and information structure and control structure. These variables possess separate variations and dimensions, which is assistance towards producing the behaviour, which is needed as per the organizational requirements. Assessing the organizational environment, before the implementation of the variables, is helpful in terms of implementing them in a proper manner. This assessment, in turn, is assistance towards preserving the stability amidst the workplace conditions.

• In case of the reward system, mention can be made of the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards relate to the recognition for morality of the employees towards helping others. This recognition is beneficial in terms of increasing the compatibility of the employees towards others. Along with this, this recognition is also helpful in terms of enhancing the cultural diversity within the workplace. On the other hand, careless approach from the managers can lead to conflicts and misunderstanding between the employees. This approach leads to conflicts, stalling the productivity. Moreover these conflicts also degrade the organizational culture of the corporation. (Shoaib & Mujtaba, 2018). In case of the extrinsic rewards include trophies and certificates for the exposure of better performance. These certificates boosts up the morale of the employees, indicating productive output. This type of output is beneficial at the time of completing the challenging and enduring projects within the stipulated time. If the personnel does not consider the capability of the employees, the individual sentiments of the employees can be affected. Sometimes, monetary rewards like increments assures the employees regarding proper valuation for the exposed efforts (Kuvaas et al., 2016).
• Job design- Creating job advertisements and evaluating it in the meetings would be beneficial in terms of enhancing the awareness about the vacant posts. Uploading the advertisements on the social networking sites and website would act assistance towards reaching to large number of clients at the same time. Clarity and transparency within the advertisements would address the doubts of the candidates regarding the recruitment and selection procedures (Lahlou & Navatte, 2017). Social contracts or joint planning helps the personnel to expose collaborative approach for completing the allocated tasks and the responsibilities. Subtasks prove beneficial for Multinational Product Corporation employees to gain deeper understanding of the benchmark levels, which they need to reach for exposing better performance.
• Coordination and departmentalization- Sending emails to the head of the departmental units would be fruitful for the corporation towards strengthening the stability. This cooperation acts assistance towards maintaining the balance between the processes and operations (Zacher et al., 2015). These are the mechanisms, which helps in assessing the individual efforts for judging the overall productivity. These mechanisms vary according to vertical or horizontal coordination.
• Decision making and leadership- Involving the stakeholders and shareholders in the decision making process would be beneficial for averting the misunderstanding and misutilization of the provided power.  Implementation of ethical code of conduct would enhance the leadership skills, abilities and competencies of the managers. This is in terms of gaining trust, loyalty and dependence from the clients and the customers (Howard et al., 2016). Judgmental decision making is preferred in terms of delving deeper into the mindset of the clients and the customers. In these components, utilizing the mechanisms properly helps in comparing the efforts of the leaders in terms of undertaking decisions for the betterment of the organizations like Multi-Product Corporation.
• Communication and information structure- Timely communication between the personnel of the corporation averts the delays within the supplies. Management of the information through social media marketing is effective for controlling the third party intervention into the business processes (Pepper & Gore, 2015). Informal approach in communication helps in gaining trust, loyalty and dependence from the clients and the customers.
• Control structure- Personal visits by the managers would be effective for detecting the drawbacks within the processes. Performance appraisals and reviews would be a wise step in terms of ensuring whether the exposed performance aligns with the identified and specified requirements. Conducting journey mapping would help in assessing the feasibility of the exposed performance (Lahlou & Navatte, 2017). Implementation of the Ethical Code of Conduct is assistance towards controlling the performance of the personnel.

The managers of the corporation would need task performers. This is in terms of executing the activities in an efficient and effective manner. Prior to this, need and capability analysis can be conducted for estimating the capability of the employees. Holston and Kleiner, (2017) is of the view that this would act assistance for assigning challenging and enduring projects to the employees. Along with this, goals would be set for the employees, which would align with the organizational goals and objectives. Apart from this, personality tests would be conducted by the corporation managers for assessing whether the employees are fit for carrying out the allocated roles and responsibilities (Kuvaas et al., 2016).

Human relations and collaboration

In case of the production staffs, the base pay is high and the incentives vary according to the nature of job. These employees are moderately paid, therefore, budget revision needs to be conducted for providing the minimum wage. The performance needs to be scored, which would enhance the awareness towards the capability of the employees. On the other hand, Howard et al., (2016) argues that adherence to Minimum Wage Act would be helpful in terms of averting the discrepancies. In case of discrepancies, provision of compensation would be beneficial in terms of averting turnover rates (Zacher et al., 2015).

For preparing performance pay plan, the managers of the corporation needs to think out of the box from the traditional entitlements. As per the arguments of Lahlou and Navatte, (2017), taking into consideration, variable payments would help in gaining an insight into the approaches of the employees. However, back up plans needs to be kept at hand for averting the conflicts. Conducting incentive pay programs can be beneficial in terms of briefing the employees about the pay packages. Hiring the experts and the governmental agencies would be productive in terms of legalizing the matters (Shoaib & Mujtaba, 2018).

The corporation can make plans for introducing loyalty bonuses for the employees, who fulfil the targets every month. This would boost up his morale, indicative of productive performance. According to the opinions of Laux, (2015), recognition of the performance through media coverage would act as a wise step in terms of ensuring better placement for the employee. This would enhance his professionalism as well as his personality (Fisch et al., 2018). For this, financial flexibility needs to be assessed for averting inadequacies. Assistance of the trade union can be beneficial in terms of averting the issues of inflation, high exchange rates and tax obligations. Budgets would enhance the awareness about the expenses behind each activity. This would be productive in terms of making plans for the incentives without straining the prepared budgets (Kuvaas et al., 2016).

Compensation strategies involves the components of vision, mission, values, vertical and horizontal fit (Kuvaas et al., 2016).

In case of Multi Product Corporation, the vision would be expanding the profit margin by 10%. This would be done through expanding into the foreign market through marketing mix and product differentiation. This approach would be crucial in terms of identifying the required behaviour. The mission would be to achieve large scale customer satisfaction by emerging as one of the largest manufacturer of golf equipment. Mapping these areas would enhance the awareness towards the scope and arena of the compensation. This mapping, is in turn assistance for determination of compensation mix. In this process, the personnel would adhere to the core values of honesty, integrity and transparency for attaining trust, loyalty and dependence of the customers. The vertical and horizontal organizational structure would be effective in terms of exposing collaborative approach towards enhancing the productivity. Insight into this structure is assistance towards determining the compensation level, which is needed by Multi-Product Corporation for reaching to the benchmark level of performance. As a final touch, evaluation is necessary for assessing the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of the proposed strategies.

Factors affecting high involvement strategy

Social media marketing can be beneficial in terms of reaching to the large number of audience. As per the assumptions of Bratton and Gold, (2017), uploading the incentive pay schemes on the social networking sites would enhance the opinions regarding the plans and schemes. Along with this, notifying the employees about the schemes on the websites would be beneficial in terms of averting the mistakes and errors in the payments. Apart from this, conducting lecture sessions on the pay plans and schemes would help in clarifying the doubts regarding the payments (Wright, 2018). Maintaining frequency in these lectures would help in reducing the error rates. Setting targets would seem a wise step in terms of reaching to the benchmark level of performance. Evaluation of the performance would act assistance in terms of bringing the drawbacks into the limelight (Noe et al., 2017). Moreover, if the employees are provided with health insurances, absenteeism rates would be reduced. Annual leaves revision and intimating the employees about its benefits in the social networking sites and the websites would be crucial in terms of maintaining the competitive pace with the contemporary brands.

References

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Fisch, J., Palia, D., & Solomon, S. D. (2018). Is Say on Pay All about Pay: The Impact of Firm Performance. Harv. Bus. L. Rev., 8, 101.

Holston, C., & Kleiner, B. (2017). Excellence In Reward Systems. Global Education Journal, 2017(1).

Howard, L. W., Turban, D. B., & Hurley, S. K. (2016). Cooperating teams and competing reward strategies: Incentives for team performance and firm productivity. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 3(3), 1054.

Kuvaas, B., Buch, R., Gagné, M., Dysvik, A., & Forest, J. (2016). Do you get what you pay for? Sales incentives and implications for motivation and changes in turnover intention and work effort. Motivation and Emotion, 40(5), 667-680.

Lahlou, I., & Navatte, P. (2017). Director compensation incentives and acquisition performance. International Review of Financial Analysis, 53, 1-11.

Laux, V. (2015). Executive Pay, Innovation, and Risk?Taking. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 24(2), 275-305.

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Pepper, A., & Gore, J. (2015). Behavioral agency theory: New foundations for theorizing about executive compensation. Journal of management, 41(4), 1045-1068.

Shoaib, S., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2018). Perverse Incentives and Peccable Behavior in Professionals-A Qualitative Study of the Faculty. Public Organization Review, 18(4), 441-459.

Wright, P. (2018). Fundamentals of human resource management. Management, 5, 27.

Zacher, H., Chan, F., Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2015). Selection, optimization, and compensation strategies: Interactive effects on daily work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 87, 101-107.