The Effects of Recently Introduced Incentive Payments Systems in Britain

This paper reports on the results of a two‐year study of the effects of newly introduced incentive payment systems (funded by the Department of Employment and the Social Science Research Council). At the time the study began many organisations in Britain were considering introducing self financing productivity schemes which involved changes to their wage payment systems. This provided the project team with a unique opportunity for a large‐scale comparative study of the effects of introducing new reward schemes designed to encourage better performance at work, supplemented by in‐depth studies of a smaller number of organisations.