Impact of employee participation in the development of pay incentive plans: A field experiment

Abstract

Ss were part-time workers who clean buildings in the evenings. 3 autonomous work groups with 10, 9, and 8 Ss developed their own pay incentive plans to reward good attendance on the job (Condition A). These plans were then imposed by the company on other work groups with 13 and 26 Ss (Condition B). Of 2 control groups, 1 (N = 17) talked with Es about job attendance problems but received no additional experimental treatment, and the other (N = 34) received no treatment. A significant increase in attendance followed only Condition A. Possible reasons cited: (a) participation caused Ss to be more committed to the plan, (b) Ss who participated in the development of their plan were more knowledgeable about it, and (c) participation increased Ss' trust of the good intentions of management with respect to the plan. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)