ABSTRACT
Introduction The case studies confirmed the introduction of performance-related pay as the most important adaptation in the management of regular employees. All firms had introduced performance-related pay as early as the first study in 2002. Moreover, the initiatives received continued support and they were maintained five years later. Adaptations were limited to the extension of initiatives to new groups of employees or small adjustments to improve the flexibility or ease of execution of the performance evaluation. At the same time, the case studies also illustrated the variety in initiatives as well as the intricacies involved. The shared strategy to introduce performance-related pay has therefore been a source of inter-firm differences, a diversity that is underexposed by more general references to ‘seikashugi’. This diversity matters, not just to the firms implementing performance-related pay, but also to the employees who face changing working conditions. This latter aspect is best illustrated by the unions’ references to the importance of the conditions under which performance-related pay is introduced as discussed in the case study of RetailCo.
