Blackwell Reference Online

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Team‐based incentives consist of financial rewards provided to employees based on the performance of their group. Individuals are expected to have common goals and objectives, work in close collaboration with one another, and be dependent on one another for the performance of the team. The team incentives can be provided based on outcomes that are objectively measured (e.g., cost savings, number of units produced, revenues from a patent) or subjectively assessed (e.g., judgments made by a panel of executives). The goals, measurement criteria, and payment amount may be specified in advance or management may distribute the team rewards on an ad hoc basis (e.g., upon completion of a product design). Payments can be provided in cash, as company stock, or in the form of special nonmonetary awards, such as time off, a trip, a dinner, and the like. Many team‐based plans differentially allocate rewards within the team based on individual contributions to the team effort and the extent to which the employee cooperates with other team members and is able to work effectively with others in problem‐solving assignments. In general, team‐based incentives work better when teams are relatively permanent in their composition and have relatively impermeable boundaries between them, and intragroup interdependencies exceed intergroup interdependencies. ( 1996 ). Mutual monitoring and gainsharing ... log in or subscribe to read full text