Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

Pay-For-Performance’S Effect On Future Employee Performance: Integrating Psychological And Economic Principles Toward A Contingency Perspective, Anthony J. Nyberg, Jenna R. Pieper, Charlie O. Trevor

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Although pay-for-performance’s potential effect on employee performance is a compelling issue, understanding this dynamic has been constrained by narrow approaches to pay-for-performance conceptualization, measurement, and surrounding conditions. In response, we take a more nuanced perspective by integrating fundamental principles of economics and psychology to identify and incorporate employee characteristics, job characteristics, pay system characteristics, and pay system experience into a contingency model of the pay-for-performance–future performance relationship. We test the role that these four key contextual factors play in pay-for-performance effectiveness using 11,939 employees over a 5-year period. We find that merit and bonus pay, as well as their multiyear …