Can You Pay for Quality Work? A Government Case Study

Abstract

This article presents some recent developments in team performance pay using a complexity framework. It challenges W. Edwards Deming's traditional view on performance pay, which is that it takes the focus off the process and encourages competition instead of cooperation. In the past, wage payment and quality management systems were perceived as simple and discrete. As quality organizations were encouraged to develop teamwork and cooperation, most continued the old system of paying for individuals. An Australian qualitative case study is reported, which shows both improved corporate performance and greater stakeholder quality alignment. “Quality pay” was used as the transforming methodology. The qualitative data confirmed employees increasingly sharing the management s strategic intent to achieve quality and teamwork. The quantitative data showed that quality pay led to more than expected improvements in customer satisfaction, employee wellness, and business processes. The ethnographic and grounded research approach using NUD*IST™ as the text management provided rich authentic examples of the findings in the Australian organization's stakeholders' own words. The novel quality pay assessment method using quality-trained peers gave employees confidence in the new system and helped build quality alignment. The new synergy of wage and quality systems provides valuable insights for quality researchers and practitioners.