Employee incentives engineering: towards a decision support system

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: One of the key challenges organisations face is how to enhance the level of performance of their employees. This research focuses on how incentive practices can be used to stimulate employee motivation. While there are various useful models that can be consulted with regards to the development of an incentive plan, the models do not address incentive plan design considerations in sufficient detail.Recognising that the performance of organisations is adversely affected by employees who are not appropriately incentivised, and that existing research is extensive yet difficult to utilise, this research contemplated how organisations can utilise the existing literature to enhance organisational performance. This challenge is addressed through the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) that can be used to improve an organisation's employee incentive practices. The research takes a systems engineering approach, with problem-solving at its core and with pragmatism as its main philosophical perspective, and draws from a variety of disciplines to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline.The research is divided into two main phases: A structured literature review, and the development of a DSS. While the findings from the structured literature review and the developed DSS are rigorous and detailed, it must be noted that the answer to the research question lies in the processes and underlying framework that the research designed. Prospective development in the theoretical landscape behind employee motivation and incentives hence poses no problem; the structured literature review can be repeated at any time to reflect this, and the DSS is able to be amended to incorporate any changes in the findings.The first phase of this research identifies thirteen Primary Incentive plan design Considerations (PICs), the most important considerations that must be taken into account in the design or development of an incentive plan, through a systematic and structured identification process. The thirteen PICs are a unique amalgamation from influential research papers that deal with incentives and motivation from various disciplines.The second phase continues by using the thirteen PICs as the basis, towards the design of a DSS. The DSS is in the form of a knowledge-driven personal decision support system that acts in an advisory capacity and is composed of a knowledge base, model base, and user interface. The DSS can be used to evaluate and improve practices regarding employee incentives. Decision-making is improved both in terms of quality and speed.The use of the DSS is demonstrated through a series of hypothetical illustrative case studies and validated externally by means of interviews with experts.On a high level this research increases the relevance and usability of existing knowledge by analysing existing insights and information, and structuring them into a form that is more conducive to decision-making.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University