Work performance, affective commitment, and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate employee attitudes and behaviors among knowledge workers under different forms of pay administration and pay levels. To examine these issues, I collected data from two business units in a large Norwegian multinational company with pay plans combining individual and collective performance and behaviors as the foundations for individual bonuses; one with two collective components (profit and behavior of the unit and the organization) and one with an individual component in addition to the two collective components. After controlling for organizational tenure, education, gender, perceived unit support, perceptions of distributive and procedural justice, and type of pay plan, the key findings are that base pay level, but not bonus level, was positively related to both self‐reported work performance and affective unit commitment, and that these relationships were partly mediated by intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed that the relationships between bonus level and the outcome variables were not affected by type of pay plan. Implications and directions for future research on pay in knowledge intensive organizations are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Individuals interpret monetary rewards as indicative of their competence, value, or worth to their organization.
“This is because individuals interpret monetary rewards as indicative of their competence, value, or worth to their organization (Gardner, Dyne, & Pierce, 2004;Kuvaas, 2006).”
Kuvaas (2006) showed that higher salaries foster better performance and affective commitment through its positive effect on intrinsic work motivation.
“Yet, Kuvaas (2006) showed that higher salaries foster better performance and affective commitment through its positive effect on intrinsic work motivation.”
From A test of work motivation profile similarity across four distinct samples of employees (2020) · cites this paper as Kuvaas (2006)
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Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis.
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Intrinsic Rewards and Employee's Performance With the Mediating Mechanism of Employee's Motivation
Manzoor, F., Wei, L., & Asif, M. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.563070 · Cited by 191 · see citing works
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A test of work motivation profile similarity across four distinct samples of employees
Gillet, N., Morin, A. J. S., Ndiaye, A., Colombat, P., & Fouquereau, E. (2020) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1111/joop.12322 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kuvaas, B.
- Corresponding author
- Kuvaas, Bård
- ORCID
- Kuvaas, Bård
- Venue
- Journal of Organizational Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-03-27
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 365-385
- ISSN
- 0894-3796 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-1379
- OpenAlex
- W2002758113
- Cited by
- 422
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 29.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Organizational Behavior (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Employee Performance and Motivation
- Keywords
- wage levels, base salary, performance-based pay, bonuses, employee performance, affective commitment, intrinsic motivation, knowledge workers, pay plans, distributive justice, procedural justice, organizational tenure, knowledge-intensive organizations
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