The Use of Merit Pay and Incentives
The Use of Merit Pay and Incentives
The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of Merit Pay and Incentives as motivators for increased productivity. The key focus is the system at
Richmond Memorial Hospital. To do so, one must begin at the beginning .. The use of financial incentives (financial rewards) paid to workers whose production exceeds some predetermined standard was popularized by Frederick
Taylor in the late 1800s. As a supervisory employee of the Midvale Steel
Company, he had become concerned with what he called "systematic soldiering".
This was the tendency of employees to work at the slowest pace possible and the fact that some of these same workers still had the energy to run home and work on their cabins, even after a hard 12-hour day. Taylor knew that if he could find some way to harness this energy during the workday, huge productivity gains would be achieved (REFERENCE?). Thus was born the concept of motivational and incentive systems. What is "motivation?" The root word is "move" which would mean that anyone who is moved to do something is motivated. Therefore, sitting on a tack, or at least the pain associated with it is a motivator. For those of us in Graduate
School, we are aware that without a "B" average we will be eliminated from the program. Maintaining that average is our motivator. Attaining the certificate of graduation is our incentive. In psychology, at its most basic, a motivator is that which impels or compels an individual to act toward meeting a need. On a physiological level, thirst, hunger and sex are motivators or drives. They are basic needs which must be met. Relating this to a hospital environment, it is not base compensation which drives the employee, but what the base compensation can satisfy in a higher level of needs. Money can 't buy love, but it can buy some security such as insurance benefits. After basic and security needs are met, compensation is not the motivator, but
The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of Merit Pay and Incentives as motivators for increased productivity. The key focus is the system at
Richmond Memorial Hospital. To do so, one must begin at the beginning .. The use of financial incentives (financial rewards) paid to workers whose production exceeds some predetermined standard was popularized by Frederick
Taylor in the late 1800s. As a supervisory employee of the Midvale Steel
Company, he had become concerned with what he called "systematic soldiering".
This was the tendency of employees to work at the slowest pace possible and the fact that some of these same workers still had the energy to run home and work on their cabins, even after a hard 12-hour day. Taylor knew that if he could find some way to harness this energy during the workday, huge productivity gains would be achieved (REFERENCE?). Thus was born the concept of motivational and incentive systems. What is "motivation?" The root word is "move" which would mean that anyone who is moved to do something is motivated. Therefore, sitting on a tack, or at least the pain associated with it is a motivator. For those of us in Graduate
School, we are aware that without a "B" average we will be eliminated from the program. Maintaining that average is our motivator. Attaining the certificate of graduation is our incentive. In psychology, at its most basic, a motivator is that which impels or compels an individual to act toward meeting a need. On a physiological level, thirst, hunger and sex are motivators or drives. They are basic needs which must be met. Relating this to a hospital environment, it is not base compensation which drives the employee, but what the base compensation can satisfy in a higher level of needs. Money can 't buy love, but it can buy some security such as insurance benefits. After basic and security needs are met, compensation is not the motivator, but
References: ). Dressler (1994) also discusses the following types (ONLY ONE TYPE LISTED FOLLOWED BY