ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with three mechanisms that form the nucleus of most major work organizations’ reward systems. Usually these include pay systems, the use of promotions to managerial positions, and performance appraisal techniques. For many American workers, motivational strategies geared to task redesign, participative management models, and the like have limited potential because these employees are preoccupied, necessarily, with survival and security needs. From the standpoint of motivation in the processes of group development, performance, maintenance and renewal, comparative pay levels among the members of a work group is a critical matter. If performance appraisal is to be used as a motivational tool, both the nature of the feedback provided to individuals and groups and its timing are of critical importance. Improved application of psychology to work group process in organizational settings requires some significant departures from customary administrative approaches.
