Read each of the discussion posts and give a reply to each in 250 words each. Each reply must incorporate at least 1 scholarly citation in APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include the textbook, the Bible, etc.
Respond to each of the following:
1. Pay-for-Performance in the Public Sector: To Be or Not to Be
This report examines two issues: Whether pay should be connected to performance in government employment and whether there are salient characteristics of an effective pay-for-performance or PFP program. On the latter issue, this work identifies what those characteristics might be. Finally, government employees who believe in God should consider a biblical worldview in approaching job performance. This work thus concludes with a covenantal synthesis.
The Utility of PFP in the Public Sector
The first issue is whether pay-for-performance or PFP should exist in public sector performance management, irrespective of whether the financial inducement to work hard is a one-time bonus, a permanent raise, or another form of compensation. PFP should exist, and it does, although there are detractors. The federal government is a good place to start in the public sector because performance pay exists there. Performance pay is codified in the “federal personnel management” provisions of the United States Code. The statute, which applies to executive branch agencies and the Government Publishing Office, reads, in part, “Equal pay should be provided for work of equal value [and] appropriate incentives and recognition should be provided for excellence in performance” (Merit System Principles, 2014).
This federal merit pay system, as we know it today, began with the passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Ideally, pay-for-performance would make excellent workers feel great about being on the team. The system is also intended to nudge underachievers to improve or leave. The program may even help the federal government attract recent college graduates (Nigro et al., 2013). Nevertheless, one might say, there is a cloud in this silver lining.
The National Academy of Sciences asserts there is “no evidence” that PFP improves performance. Additionally, Pearce and Perry did a study in 1983 that found no aggregate motivational boost from PFP. The study cited a pair of possible reasons: PFP may make workers focus on individual performance to the detriment of team performance. Further, the quest for more money may instill “conflict” in the ranks (p. 162).
Bae (2023) examined many studies favorable and unfavorable toward PFP and concluded that the success of PFP in motivating workers depends on the system’s ability to link performance directly to the rewards, which is easier said than done in the public sector because it lacks the profit motif on which the private sector operates; hence, although the public sector can have “ambiguous goals and conflicting values,” individual-based PFP—not group-based PFP—can bolster “employees’ satisfaction with their pay, organizations, and jobs” (p. 605). Ironically, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration uses a combination of “individual and collective pay for performance systems” (p. 601). Appropriately expanding the use of PFP, the Department of Veterans Affairs will add optometrists to those medical professionals who will be eligible for performance pay if the VA Clinician Appreciation, Recruitment, Education, Expansion, and Retention Support (CAREERS) Act, S. 10, passes Congress and is signed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. (CAREERS Act, 2023).
Having asserted that PFP is and should be used in the public sector to improve performance, the second issue surfaces: the characteristics of a sound system.
Characteristics of PFP Done Right
This analysis will raise three features of PFP that federal agencies should ensure they instill in their programs. But, first, the federal civil service can study, and perhaps borrow from, public education. Pham et al. (2021) overviewed several education studies that dealt with what the authors termed “performance-based human resource management,” on which performance pay is based (p. 323). The bottom line is that federal PFP can help to recruit and retain personnel and, at the same time, motivate (p. 557). For instance, Washington state operates a Challenging Schools Bonus program that awards certified teachers a bonus of up to $5,000 to teach in “high-poverty schools.” The program has increased the percentage of such teachers (p. 558).
The federal government applies this concept from time to time to attract and retain workers, especially in medical fields. The CAREERS Act, noted above, is one such use. This report’s education example leads us back to those characteristics of a sound PFP program particularly applicable to the federal workforce. Lee (2019) hypothesized that there are three keys to motivating employees in the public sector. First, PFP requires simple and plain statements of goals and objectives that establish what employees “are expected to accomplish” (p. 327). Second, FPF necessitates a fair employee evaluation process, featuring performance ratings that guide employees on what they must do to improve (p. 328). Third, employees must be “satisfied with post[-]assessment feedback” (p. 329).
“Feedback” is also crucial when it comes from God, which draws this work to its conclusion.
Covenantal Synthesis
This discussion does not delve into whether PFP existed in the span during which the Bible was written; nevertheless, Jesus says, “[R]eward every man according to his works” (New Scofield Reference Bible, 1967, Matthew 16:27). Just as important as working hard and being compensated well is living a Godly life in and out of work by “follow[ing] righteousness, faith, love, [and] peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). The word of God always stresses the priorities in life.
References
Bae, K. B. (2023). The differing effects of individual- and group-based pay for performance on employee satisfaction: The role of the perceived fairness of performance evaluations. Public Management Review, 25(3), 601-619. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2021.1988270
Lee, H.-W. (2019). Performance-based human resource management and federal employee’s motivation: Moderating roles of goal-clarifying intervention, appraisal fairness, and feedback satisfaction. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 39(3), 323-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X17721300
Merit System Principles, 5 U.S.C. § 2301 (2014). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/2301
Nigro, L. G., Nigro, F. A., & Kellough, J. E. (2013). The new public personnel administration (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Pham, L. D., Nguyen, T. D., & Springer, M. G. (2021). Teacher merit pay: A meta-analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 58(3), 527-566. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831220905580
Scofield, C. I. (1967). The New Scofield Reference Bible. Oxford University Press.
VA Clinician Appreciation, Recruitment, Education, Expansion, and Retention Support Act, S. 10, 118th Cong. (2023). https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/s10/BILLS-118s10is.pdf
2. My response is no , because some people when got the job, they gonna took everything relax at work. That happen at the public service from Puerto Rico, like the politics, they contract people that cooperated with them on the campaign, but them doesn’t have the experience to do that type of work duties. In Puerto Rico at the capitol hills, contract people like families, friends of the same politics, and that people doesn’t have the studies for doing its work duties, and then the have to need to contract another person to help them to do the work duties. Also, that people have the best salaries for doing nothing at job. Finally,that is very sad because people like my friends that they are have studies and preparation don’t get at job in any place.
In my agency “Protection and Advocacy of Puerto Rico”, in when we are helping people with disabilities, contract people with the studies necessaries for the work duties. For example, for getting the job you need to spend for a interview, then you recollect point is you have a master or PhD degrees is a point , if you have experience at the work is another point, if you are military, if you have disabilities, and then this determine if you was selected for the job. Finally, if you was selected your wages is according for the points that you recollected in your interview. Anda that is great and I am agree with that because is fair.
So, I think we are not supposed to have pay tied, because is a fault of respect to people like us that we have studies and/or another people with experience at the job. Also, this is unfair because if a gave the mile extra how as said in my country, and other people that are not doing nothing don’t should to have the same wages like me. I am doing this Doctor in Public Administration for getting a best job offer, for getting experience, for getting better my English, and because I want to become someday in agency Director of any cultural agency , either disabilities rights agency, or non- profit organization.
The perfect performance management is “ as it encompasses activities such as joint goal setting, continuous progress review and frequent communication , feedback and coaching for improved performance, implantations of employee development programs and rewarding achievements” (Sifunda, 2017) My boss did that with us, she make a feedback our job, we have communication with her and she said to us in what area should be to improve our skills ,and in where areas we are working very well at job. Also, she said we have this goal to this month we need to complete all, so if we can do it, I am going to give food that I cook at my house if we achieve the goal. And on that way we have two goals, complete with the job duties and then taste her food that she cooks for us. Finally, she gave us a photo with the Psalm 23 as said “. The Lord in my shepherd, I shall not want……. “ He restores my soul, He learns me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake”.That bible’s verse make me feel in peace at the work and that motivate to me to work better at job. So , for that reason I think that this performance management is a great skills to lead a program. Because is a way to get the better feel of the employees to improve their skills at job, motivate to them to obtain training, and certification for getting better theirs job and be more efficient. In my work we are using mindfulness for motivate the employees of agency. This activities help us to resolve the problems at job “ The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001Links to an external site.) posits that positive emotions broaden our thought and action repertoire, which in turn is associated with better decision-making, problem-solving, and proactive behaviour (Fay & Sonnentag, 2012Links to an external site.; Hayward, Forster, Sarasvathy, & Fredrickson, 2010Links to an external site.).“ Finally, as said in the investigation the mindfulness is positive at jobs, because is a way of intervention in when reschedules our emotions of negative to positive and we can improve skills to being relaxed at job. In my agency one time on the month we have meeting of mindfulness or therapy in group, for how to motivate our partner at job, how we can help other people at job, and how to learn to fight with the burnout in our job and lives.
Reference:
Sifuna-Evelia, M. (2017). Human resource management practices: A Biblical Perspective. Partridge Publishing Singapore.
Psalm 23 (KJV). (n.d.). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2023&version=KJVLinks to an external site.
Michel, A., Groß, C., Hoppe, A., González‐Morales, M. G., Steidle, A., & O’Shea, D. (2021). Mindfulness and positive activities at work: Intervention effects on motivation‐related constructs, sleep quality, and fatigue. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 94(2), 309–337. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12345
