Paper details
INSTRUCTIONS
Targeting Incentives
In your text, you read about a number of incentive plans for individuals and groups or teams. The goal of
this assignment is for you to think like an HR director who is responding to a work situation with a pay
solution. Exhibit 10.14 (Types of Variable-Pay Plans: Advantages and Disadvantages) provides a summary
chart of the types of pay plans along with their advantages and disadvantages. Start by thoroughly
reviewing this table.
Select one individual plan, one team plan, and one long-term incentive plan. Describe a situation in which
these plans would be most appropriate. In your answers, include the type of company and type of work as
well as the position or positions that would be affected by your plan.
For example, if you selected a team-based plan, you may describe a department in a retail store that has a
history of employees not covering for each other during the holiday rush period. You may use actual
examples and reference a company as you have witnessed it or you may describe a generic situation. Inyour answer, include how you think your chosen incentive plan will affect behavior and achieve intended
results.
Your answer should be no longer than two pages.
Drafting a table that compares and contrasts the scenarios as a summary is appropriate, but also requires
a narrative describing the situations.
In addition to reviewing the assignment instructions, please review the Scoring Guide for this assignment,
located under Resources, to familiarize yourself with the required criteria for this assignment.
RESOURCES
Readings
Use your text to complete the following:
-Read Chapter 9, “Pay-for-Performance: Theory and Evidence,” in your text to review the theories of
motivating behavior in work environments. You will learn how companies have evolved to consider the
broader issues of organizational strategy and employee behavior, and how both of these factors link to a
total compensation strategy—especially one with incentive plans.
-Read Chapter 10, “Pay-for-Performance: Types of Plans,” in your text for definitions of pay plans in the
market. In this chapter, study the options for creating incentive plans. One of this course’s goals is for you
to become familiar with their existence and how they can target specific rewards to the actual quality of
work being performed. In most cases, the individual mechanics of any plan will be determined by the
companies, their goals, and their economic capability to pay. However, as a student of human resources
management, it is important to understand that options are available for designing a plan and to begin
imagining the future of incentive plans.