The Case Of Merit Pay In A Public University Setting

Abstract

This case examines the issue of merit-based pay as an incentive mechanism within a state university context.  Students in a business school setting are asked to apply organizational behavior and human resource theory to a non-business setting.  This case evolved from a real setting involving the usual suspects (faculty) in a business school.  The actual situational process was contentious.  It is noteworthy, that as academics who teach in a business institution, we often prove better at imparting the mechanics and technical aspects of theory than the application end of business.  Faculty and business school institutions may find interest in this study with respect to student perspectives on the issue of merit pay in general and within a university context specifically.  Students may find this case intriguing because of their connection to a university and how an exercise of this nature may take place within the backdrop of the environment with which they think they are familiar.  Prospective users of the case may wish to discuss the different applicable areas of human resource management although the main thrust is in the area of compensation and the direct application of merit pay.  Related issues for possible inclusion consist of job analysis, job descriptions, job specifications, performance appraisals, criterion contamination, and criterion deficiency.  Side issues include minority status considerations and the concepts of procedural justice (was the process for determining merit pay fair?) and distributive justice (was the final, end result of merit pay equitable?).