The Effects of Group and Individual Monetary Incentives on Productivity of Telephone Interviewers

The relative effectiveness of three types of monetary incentive contingencies was estimated among telephone research company employees. Six college-aged telephone interviewers (5 females, 1 male) participated in the study. The baseline condition consisted of monetary rewards being delivered to the t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of organizational behavior management 2000-09, Vol.20 (2), p.3-25
Main Authors: Thurkow, Niki M., Bailey, Jon S., Stamper, Mark R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
call rates
differential monetary rewards
group based monetary rewards
Impact analysis
individual monetary rewards
Monetary incentives
OBM
Organizational behavior
performance maintenance
Polls & surveys
Productivity
reward contingencies
reward system preference
social validity
Studies
survey completion rates
telephone interviewers
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Summary:The relative effectiveness of three types of monetary incentive contingencies was estimated among telephone research company employees. Six college-aged telephone interviewers (5 females, 1 male) participated in the study. The baseline condition consisted of monetary rewards being delivered to the top performer(s) of each shift. In one experimental condition, individuals were paid monetary incentives if their performance rate exceeded a standard rate set by the supervisor. In the other experimental condition, individuals were paid monetary incentives if their group's performance met or exceeded a group performance standard set by the group's supervisor. Effects of incentive contingencies on interviewer completion rates were investigated by varying participants' exposure to experimental and baseline incentive conditions within a multi-element design. Results indicated that both individual and group incentives produced a greater number of call completions per hour compared to call completions observed under the baseline incentive contingencies while the highest productivity rates were observed under the individual incentive contingencies.
ISSN:0160-8061
1540-8604
DOI:10.1300/J075v20n02_02