A cognitive evaluation and equity-based perspective of pay for performance on job performance: A meta-analysis and path model
verifiedrich profile · Frontiers in Psychology · 2023
Chen, Yuyao; Zhang, Zhengtang; Zhou, Jinfan; Liu, Chuwei; Zhang, Xia; Yu, Ting
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
pay for performance → task performance
pay for performance → intrinsic motivation
pay for performance → distributive justice
pay for performance → task performance
pay for performance → organizational citizenship behavior ocb
pay for performance → overall job performance
pay for performance → pay satisfaction
pay for performance → procedural justice
pay for performance → overall job performance
pay for performance → procedural justice
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
pay for performance correlates distributive justice
pay for performance correlates intrinsic motivation
pay for performance correlates overall job performance
pay for performance correlates pay satisfaction
pay for performance correlates procedural justice
pay for performance correlates task performance
pay for performance predicts distributive justice
pay for performance predicts organizational citizenship behavior ocb
pay for performance predicts overall job performance
pay for performance predicts procedural justice
pay for performance predicts task performance
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Pay for performance, as one of the most important means of motivating employees, has attracted the attention of many scholars and managers. However, controversy has continued regarding whether it promotes or undermines job performance. Drawing on a meta-analysis of 108 independent samples ( N = 71,438) from 100 articles, we found that pay for performance was positively related to job performance. That pay for performance had a more substantial positive effect on task performance than contextual performance in workplace settings. From the cognitive evaluation perspective, we found that pay for performance enhanced employees' task performance and contextual performance by enhancing intrinsic motivation and weakened task performance and contextual performance by increasing employee pressure. From the equity perspective, our results indicated that the relationship between pay for performance and task performance was partially mediated by employee perceptions of distributive justice and procedural justice, with distributive justice having a more substantial mediating effect than procedural justice. However, the relationship between pay for performance and contextual performance was only partially mediated by procedural justice. Further tests of moderating effects indicated that the varying impacts of pay for performance are contingent on measures of pay for performance and national culture. The findings contributed to understanding the complex mechanisms and boundary conditions of pay-for-performance's effects on job performance, which provided insights for organizations to maximize its positive effects.
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “The results that salary has an impact on employee performance are in line with those of Chen et al. (2023) who found that salary has a positive and significant role in motivating employees and influencing their job performance, commitment, dedication, productivity, as well as job satisfaction.”
supports “The results that salary has an impact on employee performance are in line with those of Chen et al. (2023) who found that salary has a positive and significant role in motivating employees and influencing their job performance, commitment, dedication, productivity, as well as job satisfaction.”
supports “Is the association between merit pay and subsequent employee work motivation, effort, and performance stronger depending on the perceived relationship by employees between their performance and their pay?”
supports “The results that salary has an impact on employee performance are in line with those of Chen et al. (2023) who found that salary has a positive and significant role in motivating employees and influencing their job performance, commitment, dedication, productivity, as well as job satisfaction.”
supports “Is the association between merit pay and subsequent employee work motivation, effort, and performance stronger depending on the perceived relationship by employees between their performance and their pay?”
supports “The results that salary has an impact on employee performance are in line with those of Chen et al. (2023) who found that salary has a positive and significant role in motivating employees and influencing their job performance, commitment, dedication, productivity, as well as job satisfaction.”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.