Wording and Saliency Matter: The Impact of Incentive System and Organizational Value Statement on Employees' Performance

Abstract

This study extends recent research on the interaction of formal and informal controls that may create divergence between economic self-interest and social norms consistent with organizational belongingness. We use a sequence of two experiments to explore the interactive effects of performance incentives and a contemporary value statement promoting organizational belongingness. Experiment 1 focuses on the moderating effect of a general value statement, showing that a value statement increases (decreases) productivity associated with fixed pay (piece-rate) incentives. Experiment 2 further extends the work on value statements by reinforcing the value statement to increase the statement's saliency with employees. The results of the second experiment confirm that enhancing the saliency of the value statement through active delivery increases its moderating effect on productivity. On an overall basis, the results support our theorized disordinal interaction between formal and informal controls. Most notably, a value statement enhances productivity when incentivizing employees using fixed pay.