This study explored pay-setting managers’ experiences regarding the individualized pay-setting process. Seven semi-structured group-interviews with pay-setting managers (N = 28) from four private companies in Sweden were conducted. A thematic analysis identified three main themes: 1) Prerequisites for pay-setting, which included conditions for pay-setting work and experiences of these conditions; 2) Assessment and feedback, which included experiences of employee performance assessment and feedback provision; 3) Rewards, which covered experiences of different pay incentives and the relationship between performance and pay. The pay-setting process was considered to include many obstacles as well as a few opportunities. Without proper pre-requisites to assess employee performance, the possibilities to adequately reward performance were experienced as limited, which, in turn, hampered possibilities to justify both the assessment and pay raise. Taken together, this study underscores the conflict between intentions relating to how to carry out a pay-setting process and managers’ difficulties to actually accomplish this.

How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, willingness to remain in the organization, and health has been the subject of much debate. Previous research has typically used a variable-centered approach to investigate associations between different pay-related factors and such outcomes. In contrast, we used latent profile analysis to explore combinations of compensation characteristics (pay level, perceived horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality, i.e., transactional leadership and procedural pay-setting justice), combining relevant theories on the subject. Based on a nationally representative sample of private sector employees in Sweden (N = 1,146), our study identified six compensation profiles. Our key findings show, first, that higher levels of pay were generally associated with better performance, lower turnover intention, better self-rated health, and lower work-related exhaustion, especially when combined with perceptions of high procedural quality. Second, in terms of perceived horizontal pay dispersion, the results indicate that pay compression may be associated with beneficial outcomes, particularly when combined with high procedural quality. Third, procedural quality was generally associated with favorable work-related and health-related outcomes, although such positive effects may be contingent upon pay level and perceived horizontal pay dispersion. In conclusion, while pay level, perceptions of horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality may all matter for employee outcomes, it is important to consider their combinations.

Work and family are sources of both satisfaction and conflicting demands. A challenge is to identify individuals at risk for conflict and factors that potentially reduce conflict. This study investigated how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with work-family interference (WFI) and family-work interference (FWI) and how control at work and at home related to WFI and FWI. Data from 1991-1993 and 1997-1999 of the Whitehall II study of British civil servants, including 3484 (827 women and 2657 men) employees in three SES-levels, were analysed. Women reported a higher risk for WFI and FWI. High SES employees reported higher WFI. Less control at home increased risks for WFI and FWI as did low control at work but only for WFI. This suggests that high SES women are especially at risk for conflict and that aspects from the spheres of both work and home should be considered in further research and practice.

The use of performance-based pay is increasing rapidly, but empirical evidence on how and why it relates to job performance, as well as its relative strategical importance, remains unclear. The present study examined the relative importance of performance-based pay variables and support of psychological needs variables for task and contextual performance in a sample of 582 white-collar employees in Sweden. Multiple regression results, based on survey and register data, showed that the instrumentality of the pay system related to lower levels of task and contextual performance. However, supplementary relative weight analysis (RWA) showed that, in relative terms, instrumentality of the pay system was of minor importance for performance. Performance-based pay-raise amount was positively related to contextual performance but not predictive of task performance. Procedural pay-setting justice was unrelated to both outcomes. Among the support of psychological needs variables, feedback and job autonomy had positive associations with both outcomes while social support from colleagues was not predictive of performance. Considering the explained variance (16–17%), the performance-based pay variables combined accounted for up to a third (12.6–29.2%) while support of psychological needs variables accounted for more than half of the explained variance (56.1–68.1%) in task and contextual performance. The results indicate that organizations would benefit from putting support of psychological needs to the forefront of their motivational strategies as a complement to administrating complex compensation systems.

Perceiving a pay system as just has been suggested to be a precondition for individualized pay to have a motivating effect for employees. Supervisors’ enacted justice is central for understanding the effects that pay setting can have on employee attitudes and behavior. Yet, enacted justice has received little research attention, in regard to both organizational justice and pay-related topics. This study examines the effects of employees’ perceived pay justice and supervisors’ enacted justice, as well as the degree of congruence, on employees’ work-related attitudes and behaviors. Questionnaire data from employees (N = 566) matched with data from their pay-setting supervisors (N = 208), employed in a Swedish manufacturing company, were analyzed. Results of polynomial regression with response surface analysis show that employees’ perceptions of pay justice were important for their work-related attitudes and behaviors and that supervisor–employee congruence regarding pay justice was positively related to employees’ attitudes and behavior, particularly when the ratings concerned high levels of justice. The results not only highlight the importance of developing a pay system that is perceived as just by employees but also emphasize the importance of reaching a congruence between supervisors’ and employees’ perceptions of high fairness, as this has positive implications for employees’ attitudes and behaviors.

Nella loro carriera lavorativa tutti, prima o poi, sperimentano cambiamenti organizzativi. Il modo in cui le persone fanno fronte e reagiscono ai cambiamenti che incontrano nelle loro carriere e nella vita in generale dipende da molti fattori e da molte circostanze. È stato mostrato che un fattore importante del modo in cui i dipendenti reagiscono a un cambiamento organizzativo è la percezione e la valutazione del cambiamento stesso – se come una minacciao come un’opportunità. Quando il cambiamento è percepito come qualcosa di stressante, le persone tendono ad assumere un atteggiamento difensivo e a mettere in atto vari meccanismi di difesa per affrontare la situazione. Se invece il cambiamento è interpretato positivamente, e c’è la speranza che certi desideri e certe aspettative troveranno realizzazione, le persone possonoaccogliere con favore il cambiamento e possono anche contribuire ad esso. Poiché la maggior parte delle persone sembra preferire la prevedibilità, la sicurezza e la stabilità quando si tratta del proprio impiego e della propria situazione lavorativa, i cambiamenti organizzativi tendono a essere vissuti,almeno in una certa misura, come una fonte di stress. Questo capitolo illustra i modelli correnti del cambiamento organizzativo e ne descrive diversi tipi, soffermandosi sugli elementi più importanti per comprendere e spiegare imodi in cui le persone li interpretano e reagiscono ad essi.

Purpose: In organizations using individualized pay setting, where pay raises are based on job performance and the quality of work, managers have a central role as they execute the organizations’ pay systems. The present study aims at increasing the understanding of pay-setting managers’ beliefs and perspectives on their role in connection to pay setting.

Design/Methodology: The study is based on seven focus group interviews with pay-setting supervisors from four different companies in the Swedish private sector. In the past few years, all four companies have implemented new pay-systems with a greater focus on employee performance. The semi-structured focus group interviews were analyzed with an inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Data analysis is ongoing. A preliminary thematic analysis revealed several tentative themes. These concern difficulties in assessing employee performance and in ensuring that employees fully understand the pay setting process (especially the performance assessments), the importance of regular constructive feedback, need for guidance and support, and lack of resources to reward high performing individuals.

Limitations: While focus groups with managers from four organizations provide a wealth of perspectives, individual interviews may have allowed for more in-depth insights. The results also need replication using questionnaire data to examine how wide-spread various experiences are.

Implications: This study contributes to a better understanding of the challenges that pay-setting supervisors perceive. This knowledge could be used by organizations to facilitate the pay-setting process for managers.

Originality: This is one of few studies focusing on pay-setting managers, who are the ones executing organizations’ pay setting systems.

Purpose: When children are living at home, parents are interdependent of each other to care for them. Higher work flexibility than partner might provide better opportunity for recovery, but might also mean more responsibility for work at home or at paid work. It is possible that mothers and fathers use their relative work flexibility differently. The aim with this study was to investigate 1) the association between parent´s relative work flexibility, compared with their partner, and emotional exhaustion 2) gender differences in emotional exhaustion 3) the interaction between relative work flexibility and gender in relation to emotional exhaustion and 4) differences between mothers and fathers in time use.

Methodology: Mothers and fathers in paid work in Sweden with children living at home was included (n=2 911). Cross-sectional data was collected in 2012.

Results: The results indicated that 1) having higher flexibility than partner was associated with lover levels of emotional exhaustion; 2) mothers reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion than fathers 3) relative flexibility seemed to influence fathers emotional exhaustion more than mothers 4) differences in time use between mothers and fathers was found.

Limitations: Ideally, data from the same family would have been gathered and relative flexibility would have been measured in a more nuanced way.

Research/Practical Implications: Highlighting the importance of consider work flexibility in its family context.

Originality/Value: The first study, as far as we know, that investigates the relative work flexibility and emotional exhaustion among mothers and fathers.

Purpose: Individualized pay-setting, where pay raises are based on job performance, are used in many organizations. Research suggests that employees’ justice perceptions are important for pay to have beneficial outcomes. It can also be expected that the level of agreement between employee and supervisor regarding the fairness of the pay-setting process may have similar positive effects. The aim of this study was to investigate how congruence in pay justice perceptions between supervisor and employee relates to employees’ work-related attitudes and behaviour.

Methodology: An online questionnaire was administered to all white-collar employees (N=744) and their pay-setting supervisors (N=188) of an industrial enterprise in Sweden, which had recently implemented a more individualized pay-setting system. The matched data was analysed using polynomial regression analysis.

Results: Preliminary results of the polynomial regression analyses show that employee experiences of pay-related justice related to more positive work-related attitudes, a lower inclination to leave the organization, and better job performance. The preliminary findings also indicate a tendency for more favourable outcomes among employees who experienced higher fairness congruence with their supervisor.

Limitations: The cross-sectional design does not allow for causal inferences. The study needs replication among other occupational groups, in other sectors, and in different countries.

Implications: The results highlight the importance of a transparent pay-setting process, which is perceived as fair by both supervisors and employees.

Originality/Value: While supervisors’ enacted justice has been highlighted in research on organizational justice, there is a lack of research on the congruence between supervisors and employees regarding pay-related justice perceptions.