The impacts of trust and control on faculty reactions to merit pay Available to Purchase

Examines the relationships between trust and perceived control on faculty reactions to a new merit pay system. In this system, faculty committees made recommendations to the administration, who made the final award decisions. A total of 286 faculty responded toasurvey that asked about their beliefs regarding the criteria used to make merit awards, their perceptions and opinions about the merit system, perceived outcomes from having the system, how much they trusted the administration, how much they trusted their colleagues, and whether they saw the merit system as being used as a negative form of control. Respondents indicated that the more they trusted the administration, the more they saw positive outcomes from the new system. The more the system was seen as a method of negative control, the more respondents reported negative outcomes from the program. In general, support was found for Lawler’s prescriptions regarding the role of trust and valid performance measures in effective merit pay systems.