Question

A company has a merit pay plan based on the relative performances of workers teams. Each worker is a team gets the same wage as other team members, but those in more productive teams get higher wages. Which of the following would NOT explain why this incentive might be better than other methods for motivating workers to work harder?

A) If a worker works harder, it increases the productivity of other team members.
B) If a team works harder, it does not affect the productivity of other teams.
C) One worker can easily sabotage the productivity of other workers.
D) One team can easily sabotage the productivity of other teams.

Answer 1

C) One worker can easily sabotage the productivity of other workers.

Step-by-step explanation:

This is a form of compensation by merit that comprises the performance of a team as a whole, so this is a way of motivating both group work and individual work.

In the scenario above, we can see that this compensation plan would be effective in leveraging the performance of individual workers, and of teams, because if each member of the team is more productive, it will benefit the team as a whole. And this method will not affect the productivity of other teams, as each team will be encouraged and engaged to do the best job possible to achieve merit pay.

The alternative that does not correspond to the question that this incentive may be better than other methods to motivate workers to work harder, is the one that says that a worker can sabotage the productivity of other workers, as that worker is also likely to be engaged in not sabotaging the work of other team members, as the remuneration bonuses depend on the effort of the entire team to work together, and not just one employee.