Michle Bear and Mark D. Cannon - Article Example

Summary The article “Promise and Peril in Implementing Pay-for-Performance” by Beer and Cannon talks about the pay for performance program. In this article the authors question the reason for the abandonment of pay for performance strategy by managers of HP after initializing it with great hope. The authors look at the experimental work conducted by Hewlett Packard management and their elimination criteria of pay for performance plan. These experiments were conducted in 13 different location which had its own PFP plan but different implementation method.

The article explains the assumption made to analyze each situation considering the authors find that there had been no research done to justify the decision process for PFP plans by the management. The article state that the managers found that the cost of the PFP plans was greater than its benefits.The managerial thought effective leadership, clear objective, coaching and training to be better investment. The authors have done a research on the implementation of PFP and the context in which the system was implemented.

The article suggest that cost and benefit analysis has led to the elimination of PFP system. That authors state that the study allowed them to understand the reason why the managerial did not implement PFP programs. Their challenges in making decision regarding PFP system was studied through experiment. The study included organization of United States and workers were blue – collar employees. In study, Beer and Cannon understood that the PFP program of Hewlett Packard was eliminated in three years of its implementing.

The article explains about the five case example of experiment project of HP at different sites in America as San Diego site, Boise printer formatter shop, PRCO Loveland, Colorado Memory System, The workstation group. The PFP programs included bonus packages on completing of project also stock awards were given to the employees for quality of product and customer service. The trial projected only lasted for 6 months and the employees felt there was no benefit out of this PFP program and some did thing it was a successful attempt.

However the experimental projects were dropped as the HP management felt such a motivation was not necessary for a positive outcome. They found that the current pay system is sufficient to support the work team environment.The authors tell that HP management has gained information from this experiment and this has given an insight about the decision making process of the management. The management of the HP had an ultimate motive to improve the performance of their employees. However, the authors suggest that HP management perceived that they could achieve better performance result with alternative managerial tool.

The article show that there is gap between the expectation of the management and the subsequent reality and the managers were overly optimistic. Also there was unrealistic assumptions and over expectation which damaged the PFP program. The HP management was trying to negotiate with their employees but turned out to be wrong choice. The article conclude that even though the PFP has many motivation and performance benefits but the cost incurred in the program was under appreciated by researcher and managers .