Final answer:
Mary should use part of her budget for immediate pay increases and save the remainder for future bonuses and rewards, allowing for flexibility and catering to diverse employee motivations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mary should consider distributing pay increases with strategic insight. Utilizing part of the budget for immediate increases while reserving the remainder for future bonuses and rewards would afford her flexibility throughout the year. Vivian’s scenario indicates that responses to wage increases are not uniform. Some individuals may prefer additional income, while others may value extra leisure time, highlighting that monetary rewards do not uniformly translate to increased work hours. Considering this, Mary should not commit the entire budget immediately but rather, she should use it to incentivize and reward her team throughout the coming year.
A businessman’s reticence to ask for a raise and a belief in hard work as its own reward provide a cultural context on the value of monetary versus intrinsic rewards. Further, a holistic approach to employee compensation, considering both raises and bonuses, facilitates varied motivational strategies. When the sample size is increased from 10 to 70 managers, the distribution of raises changes, showing that more data results in a refined compensation strategy. Lastly, changes in wages affect budget constraints and, consequently, employees' work decisions, just as adjustments in Mary's salary budget will influence her distribution strategy.
Mary should balance her budget between immediate pay increases and funds reserved for bonuses, ensuring a versatile approach to employee motivation throughout the year. This balance allows her to address various preferences among employees and maintain a strategic reserve for unexpected necessities or performance incentives.