Skyrocketing salaries, signing bonuses, and stock options have radically altered the landscape of compensation in today's organizations. At the same time, workforce shortages, reduced employee loyalty, and increased employee access to salary information have made compensation one of the hottest topics in business. This volume examines the most recent developments in compensation practice and serves up important findings concerning its most pertinent issues. Over a dozen leading I/O researchers and consultants tackle the questions at the core of compensation study. In the first part of the book they explore what is known—and not known—about how compensation is actually determined. They dissect the effects of pay on employee attraction, retention, attitudes, and performance. And in one chapter, they distill those insights into nine principles for constructing incentive systems that will boost employee satisfaction and effectiveness. In the second part of the book, the contributors focus on how recent changes in technology, business strategy, organizational structure, and job design have affected pay strategies. They discuss how new pay strategies have modified the psychological contracts between workers and employers. And they take a critical look at research in the areas of alternative work arrangements and risk in compensation systems. A concluding chapter summarizes the contributors' most important insights, points to areas that require additional study, and suggests concepts, methods, and questions from other disciplines that I/O psychologists might adopt in conducting compensation research. In today's competitive business environment, effective compensation is vital to every company's success. Compensation in Organizations takes stock of the current state of research into compensation and provides encouragement and direction for taking that research and practice forward.
About the Author
SARA L. RYNES is the John F. Murray Professor of Management andOrganizations at the University of Iowa.
BARRY GERHART is the Frances Hampton Currey Professor ofOrganization Studies and area coordinator at VanderbiltUniversity's Owen Graduate School of Management.
