The supplemental effects of feedback on work performance under a monetary incentive system
| dc.contributor.author | Agnew, Judy Lynn | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Acker, Loren E. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-06-26T23:15:51Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-06-26T23:15:51Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 1991 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-06-26 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Psychology | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy Ph.D. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Individual monetary incentive systems usually include performance feedback as part of the intervention package. However, there is no experimental evidence to suggest that feedback has any functional effect on work performance above and beyond the effects of the incentive systems. It may be that incentive systems have such powerful effects on work behavior that the additional contingencies provided by a feedback system are unnecessary. The present laboratory study investigated the supplemental effects of feedback on work performance under a monetary incentive system. Four subjects were hired to work seven hours a day for four and a half weeks. The experimental work task was a simulation of a proof operator’s job at a bank and involved typing dollar values of “checks” into a computer. Subjects were paid a base salary per session plus incentive money for performance above a criterion. The main dependent variable was the number of correctly completed checks per session. The amount of time off task and rate of responding were also investigated. Subjects were exposed to an ABA experimental design involving; (A) the monetary incentive system without performance feedback, (B) the incentive system with performance feedback, and (A) return to the incentive system without performance feedback. The introduction of feedback resulted in small to moderate performance improvements in two of the four subjects. Possible reasons for the small and inconsistent effects were explored with special attention paid to the functional role of feedback and monetary incentives. It was proposed that small amounts of incentive money and performance feedback may not improve productivity in the absence of other stimulus events inherent in real organizational settings, such as the possibility for pay raises, promotions, and/or the threat of being fired. These variables may have function-altering effects on incentive money and performance feedback. Future laboratory simulations might experimentally manipulate these variables to further investigate the efficacy of monetary incentive systems. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/9518 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | Wages and labor productivity | en_US |
| dc.subject | Psychological aspects | en_US |
| dc.subject | Labor productivity | en_US |
| dc.subject | Employee competitive behavior | en_US |
| dc.subject | Incentives in industry | en_US |
| dc.subject | Incentive (Psychology) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Motivation (Psychology) | en_US |
| dc.title | The supplemental effects of feedback on work performance under a monetary incentive system | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |