Abstract
ABSTRACTIn Sweden, performance-based pay has gone furthest in the public sector. This development has placed demands on employers to have a transparent and salient salary review process with which to evaluate employees uniformly and fair – and to act in a unitary manner, as one employer. Pay policies aim to coordinate salary reviews in organizations. However, the transfer of policy to practice is not easy and research has shown a gap between intended and implemented policies. Drawing on a case study in a municipality, this article expands knowledge on policy transfer by exploring and describing how HR, unions, managers and employees perceive implementation and integration of the pay policies, and to what extent the municipality succeeds in a one-employer approach. The findings suggest that the municipality fails to act as one employer and that the units that are most successful in implementing the policy are those closer to top management.
Highlights
This article deals with one of the many challenges in organizations, namely coordination
The document states that the municipality has a “clear wage policy” and that the salary review process aims to spur employees to good performances, commitment and job satisfaction, which in turn will improve efficiency, productivity, and quality
The policy does not say anything about the salary review process or how employees are to be informed about it
Summary
This article deals with one of the many challenges in organizations, namely coordination. The oneemployer approach aims to have managers at all levels and in all departments carry out HRM strategies uniformly, in order to bring about social order within the organization (cf Ahrne & Brunsson, 2009). Through a mixed methods approach, this article studies a Swedish municipality’s attempts to implement a oneemployer approach, by focusing on the transfer of pay policies and the coordination of HRM in a large, departmentalized organization. HR policies communicate intentions to align and integrate, that is, coordinate people management. They provide guidelines for the organization to strive in the same direction; for managers to steer in line with the employer’s overall goals, and to treat employees’ uniformly and justly. Policies on pay are especially important as they aim to motivate employee performance (Perry, Engbers, & Jun, 2009; Schay & Fisher, 2013; Spano & Monfardini, 2018), and their motivational effects build upon their perception by employees as transparent and fair (Andersson-Str åberg, Sverke, & Hellgren, 2007; Colquitt, 2001; Kim, 2016; Mulvaney, McKinney, & Grodsky, 2012; Schay & Fisher, 2013)
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