Performance incentives in education has frequently been presented in purely rational choice economic terms, looking to see if the input of an incentive produced the desired output of student achievement. Such research has continually failed to produce significant effects. This dissertation attempts to recast incentives in terms of human capital theory and human behavioral economics, looking at the impact of social capital and support structures on teacher response to incentives. This study examines a major performance pay program in Texas using a concurrent-nested, mixed methods design. It finds that an external motivator like incentives is only effective in the presence of factors of internal motivation and that social capital positively affects the impact of a performance incentive. / text

In 2003, the Florida legislature appropriated funds to finance pilot programs (1012.231, Florida Statutes) to prepare for the 2004-2005 school year in which pay for performance initiatives were to be implemented in each district. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine and describe the planning, processes, and implications of a pilot career ladder program that was implemented into a large Florida school district in the spring of 2004. During data collection, the program was terminated therefore creating a second purpose that sought to describe residual implications of a program when it is discontinued. Data collected for this study were used to respond to six specific research questions. The first inquired about the planning process prior to implementation. Archival documents were used to determine whether research-based strategies were involved. The second through the fifth questions rely heavily on survey and structured interview data collected by the district and the primary researcher respectively and seek to determine critical perspectives from teachers and administrators regarding the career ladder including knowledge, fairness, and implications for school and district. The sixth question asks whether residual effects remain in place after an initiative has been terminated. Particularly, as a major finding, time for implementation was a theme throughout the study as most respondents were concerned about the short timeline this program had to develop fully. Stakeholder buy-in and understanding of program roles emerged from the data. However, the notion of a mentor that was given the time and resources was frequently mentioned as a benefit to new teachers and the school overall. Furthermore, respondents saw the potential long-term benefit of staff development that would allow highly trained master teachers to coach new and struggling teachers during the day in a clinical setting. There was evidence that this program did have an initial negative impact on the culture of the schools in the district. One unplanned aspect of this case study was the fact that the program was terminated at the state level. This had implications for all stakeholders and could be a strong factor in later implementations; therefore, this would require further study.

Prior research from the U.S. and abroad reveals a sizable lesbian earnings advantage over otherwise-similar heterosexual women. Using data from the 2000 U.S. Census and 2005-2010 American Community Surveys, we estimate traditional earnings equations and find robust evidence of a lesbian premium, corroborating the findings of previous studies. Using within-sample maternity incidence as an estimate of employers' forward-looking expectations, we then examine whether differences in the perceived likelihood of an employee requiring maternity leave, here-labelled 'maternity risk', contribute to the lesbian pay gap. Results from a direct assessment suggest that maternity risk adversely affects income, and that accounting for near-term differences in maternity risk reduces the lesbian premium by approximately ten to fifteen percent. Further analyses, using proxy variables for differential maternity risk, yield similar results. As such, the persistent finding of a lesbian earnings advantage in previous studies can be attributed, at least in part, to employers' aversion to maternity risk and its associated costs. These findings are also of critical importance to the general labour-market discrimination literature. Given the adverse earnings effect of maternity risk, our analysis suggests that estimates of the well-established gender earnings disparity are likely to be considerably smaller when incorporating maternity risk into the analysis. Absent the ability to adequately control for maternity risk, strict attention should be paid to potential upward bias in estimated earnings differentials. Moreover, policymakers should consider the broader implications of maternity-leave policy on the labour-market outcomes of females. In this respect, maternity-leave policy may influence the hiring and promotion decisions of employers, thereby indirectly affecting sexual-orientation and gender equality in the labour market. However, further research in this area is still required, given the limitations inherent in the direct and indirect analyses.

Thesis (MTech (Public Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology. / Since the merger, changes occurred within CPUT and within its salary structure as a whole. Measures had to be taken in order to harmonise the two salary structures to produce a single in order to eliminate disparities and as to ensures equity among the different categories of employees and their respective levels of appointment. When the researcher discovered that there were disparities within our merged systems, the researcher decided to do a researcher concerning disparities with the new merged salary structure. When most of the employees also discovered that some of their counterparts in other campuses were on a higher salary grade than them, they felt disgruntled. This was understandable as the two campuses had different salary structures inherent from the previous technikons. The researcher was done as employees’ salaries might affect productivity and their tenure with the organisation. When there are disparities it must not be taken for granted as it is the desire need to be fairly treated by the organisation, making development in the salary programme as it is very important for the human resource department.

A força de vendas ocupa papel importante no desempenho das organizações, e em especial naquelas do mercado industrial. As decisões que envolvem a gestão da força de vendas, principalmente as referentes à remuneração, revestem-se de importância, dado seu potencial impacto no desempenho desses profissionais. Esta dissertação, embasada na teoria da contingência, pressupõe que não há um sistema de remuneração ?ótimo ou ideal? e, sim, aquele que melhor se ajusta ao contexto e objetivos organizacionais. Deste modo, a efetividade da estratégia de remuneração depende da existência de ajuste a certos fatores contingenciais aos quais a organização está sujeita com potencial de afetar o sistema. O construto de estratégia de remuneração foi operacionalizado através do repertório de escolhas a disposição dos gestores que têm impacto no desempenho da organização e no uso efetivo de seus recursos humanos. Especificamente quanto à estratégia de remuneração de vendas, a composição da remuneração é uma das escolhas relevantes, por se tratar de escolha na qual reside grande variabilidade entre as empresas, eventualmente de mesmo setor, o que sugere ser fortemente influenciada por fatores contingenciais. Esta dissertação objetiva então, expandir o conhecimento acerca do sistema de remuneração da força de vendas, suas especificidades, escolhas estratégicas envolvidas e fatores contingenciais. Para responder ao problema de pesquisa, optou-se pela realização de estudo exploratório e pelo método qualitativo, mais especificamente pelo estudo de caso, para ampliar o conhecimento sobre o fenômeno estudado, com uso de entrevistas em profundidade semi-estruturadas para levantamento das informações. Sumariamente, as contingências culturais e relacionadas ao macro-ambiente e ao ambiente de negócios se mostraram relevantes nas escolhas corporativas de remuneração nos casos estudados, corroborando os pressupostos teóricos da teoria da contingência e da nova economia institucional. De outro lado, as contingências que afetam as decisões relativas à composição de remuneração são de todos os planos ? do macro-ambiente, do ambiente de negócios, do processo de vendas, papel e, provavelmente, do indivíduo. Alguns fatores se destacaram nas organizações pesquisadas: o grau de incerteza do mercado e do ambiente; a competitividade e estabilidade do mercado; à estratégia competitiva; o ciclo de vida da organização e a cultura organizacional; características do ciclo de vendas, autonomia e supervisão recebida. Pode-se concluir que as decisões relativas à composição devem partir de análise cuidadosa dos ambientes externo e interno, procurando-se observar o seu impacto na reconfiguração do papel da força de vendas. Os resultados apontam para possíveis pontos de atenção na tomada de decisão acerca de sistemas de remuneração de profissionais de vendas, tendo em vista a sua efetividade. / Sales force management presents an important strategic decision to many firms. It has been widely acknowledged that the compensation of the sales force may be used to enhance sales, control sales force activities and improve customer relationships.Despite the ackowledged importance of sales compensation, the literature on the topic is rather limited and esparse. Based on contingency theory, it is proposed that the effectiveness of the type of compensation cannot be adequately assessed without consideration of these factors. It is hypothesized that the effectiveness at realizing intended pay strategies depends significantly on the existence of a match between compensation strategies, organization and the environment. To date, vey little work has been done in development a contngency theory that ties the pay system to the organization`s operating objetives and strategies. This study seeks to expand the emerging compensation strategy literature and examines the various dimensions that may be used to study this construct. Compensation strategy is the repertoire of pay choices available to management, that may, under some conditions, have an impact on the organization`s performance and the effective use of its human resources. Pay mix (the split between fix and variable pay) was assumed to be the most important pay choice for the sales force. Besides that, pay mix is one of the pay strategies that presents great variability between the companies, even from the same economic sector, suggesting that it is influencied by contingency factors. Thus, this study adresses the following key research question: What are the contingency factors that moderate the pay choices (pay strategy)? The contingency fators were studied beyond two major categories: external environment and internal environment. To answer the proposed question, an empirical study was conducted. The study was employed was a case study methodology. Primary data was obtained by in deep interviews .The study offer empirical support for the contingency theory. In particular, macrolevel factors like uncertainly and risk, as well as organizational factors ? corporate culture seemed to be relevant for the corporate pay strategies. On the other hand, ?pay mix? was the pay choice that seems to be influencied by multi-level factors. Some factors appeared to have more influence in the pay mix choices in the searched organizations: the degree of uncertainty of the market and the environment; the competitiveness and stability of the market; the competitive strategy; the organization life cicle and culture; characteristics of the sales cycle autonomy and received supervision. It can be concluded that strategic decision on pay mix must take careful analysis on contingency factors related to external and internal environments, because they tend to shape the sales process and the sales force role. The findings suggests some possible points of attention in the decision concerning to compensation of sales force towards effectiveness and could help practitioners manage the relationship between reward processes and strategy in organization.

Magister Legum - LLM / This paper compared the South African concepts of pay equity and equal pay for work of equal value with those of industrialised countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The study considered how South Africa recognized the right to promote equal pay, in the absence of a proper legal framework which expressly includes such a right. The paper also focused on the impact of statutes and case law on the developments of equal pay in the aforementioned industrialized countries. It also considered the impact of the decisions of the European Court of Justice on such developments as well as it impact on the interpretation of equal pay in these industrialised countries. The purpose of such comparison was not to transplant the legal system of these industrialised countries but to assist South Africa in remedying its weaknesses by creating legal rules for the promotion of equal pay for work of equal value. / South Africa

The notion of Decent Work has been broadly advocated since 1999 by means of various International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions. Through these Conventions and as part of its Decent Work Agenda, the ILO strives to foster the creation of social and economic systems, capable of ensuring basic security and employment and adaptable to rapidly changing local and global economic circumstances. The Decent Work Agenda has been widely accepted as an important strategy to eradicate poverty and enable socio-economic development. It is submitted that the concept of Decent Work as contemplated by the ILO, firstly focuses on the payment of an income, which allows the working individual a good life. It secondly strives to ensure that everybody has an equal chance to develop themselves; that working conditions are safe; that there is no instance of child and forced labour; and that discrimination does not occur. The elimination of discrimination in the workplace is not only an ever-evolving pursuit, given that it continues to manifest in innumerable forms, but it has also proven to be an extremely pervasive pursuit as evidenced by the jurisdiction-specific literature review in this study. The jurisdictions focused on in this study are the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia. This study concerns itself with pay-related discrimination which strains ILO Conventions No 100 and 111. Convention 100 focuses on equal pay for equal work and Convention No 111 focuses on the elimination of all forms of discrimination in the workplace. In spite of extensive legislative developments in the various jurisdictions which form part of this study, enhanced by the creation of various practical mechanisms to enable the elimination of pay-related discrimination, the stubborn problem of discriminatory pay practices has survived structured and deliberate attempts to get rid of it. In South Africa, the amendment to section 6(4) of the Employment Equity Act, assented on 1 August 2014, specifically describes a difference in conditions of employment between employees of the same employer performing the same or substantially the same work or work of equal value based on any one or more of the grounds listed in section 6(1), as unfair discrimination. This amendment therefore seeks to prohibit such unfair discriminatory practices. Based on the newness of this amendment and the fact that courts have not yet delivered judgments arising from litigation related to this particular amendment, a sense of uncertainty exists with respect to the adequacy of the amended section 6 in the Employment Equity Amendment Act. If progress in the other jurisdictions in this regard is anything to go by, there is no reason to believe that the amendment to section 6 will be a panacea capable of addressing all alleged discriminatory pay practices.

This thesis describes new possibilities that can occur at construction of motor-vehicle insurance on the worldwide market. In Czech republic there has been insurance liability for damage incurred running vehicles and wrecking crane insurance till now. Abroad indeed begins extend unprecedented product of motor-vehicle insurance known as Pay As You Drive that derives benefits from absolutely new methods at construction insurance.Insurance is invoiced on the basis of real mileage.For data gathering there are exploited different counter circuit functional mainly on the basis of GPS navigation.Aim of diploma work was analysis of this new kind of insurance, evaluation of its fruitfulness, serviceability and possibilities of its aplication in Czech republic.At the end of my thesis there was effected analysis of GAP insurance that can be negotiate in Czech republic already. GAP Insurance there has been like form of additional insurance to all-risk insurance. It covers difference in acquisition price of new vehicle and its actual market price that the classical all-risk insurance doesn't cover.

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In this thesis, we conduct an experimental simulation of 131 students from a university in Hong Kong and investigate the relationship between pay changes and the perceived values (i.e., utility). Applying traditional psychophysical methods, we measure the utility of pay changes (i.e., pay raises and pay cuts) of different sizes by individual responses (i.e., happiness/unhappiness). Drawing on utility theory and expectancy theory, we examine the function that best fits this relationship by considering common function forms including linear, quadratic, logarithmic, and power functions. Using regression techniques, we find that a quadratic function best fits the data, and the utility function is concave in the pay change. When we examine the best form of utility functions for pay raises and pay cuts separately, we find that the utility of pay raises and that of pay cuts are best described by a quadratic function and a linear function, respectively. We further show that a single model involving all pay changes better describes the utility than two separate models for pay raises and pay cuts. In addition, our best-fit utility model reveals that a sufficiently small amount of pay increase may generate a negative value of utility, and we calculate the percentage of smallest meaningful pay increase that results in non-negative utility. We also discuss the theoretical contributions of our findings to the literature and their implications to practitioners.