Relationships between performance and satisfaction under contingent and noncontingent reward systems.

Abstract

Relationships between performance and satisfaction with specific job facets were examined for two samples of female telephone company workers. In the contingent system, pay was based on piece rates and promotions were tied to performance; in the noncontingent system, these rewards were based on seniority. Performance levels were similar under the two systems. However, in the performance-contingent sample, performance was related to satisfaction with the work itself, pay, and promotions. In the seniority sample, performance was related to satisfaction with interpersonal factors, pay, and work. A major concern of organizationa l psychologists has been to determine the relationship between job behavior and job attitudes. Comprehensive reviews of early studies relating job satisfaction and job performance (Vroom, 1964) indicated that if satisfaction is related to performance, the degree of association is rather weak. Recent studies have considered conditions under which these two variables should be related (Schwab & Cummings, 1970). The hypothesis that performance causes satisfaction suggests that reward contingencies mediate relationships between these two variables. In a laboratory experiment, Cherrington, Reitz, and Scott (1971) found that when rewards were contingent on performance, performance and satisfaction were positively related. When rewards were delivered randomly to high performers and low performers, performance and satisfaction were unrelated. Negative correlations were obtained when low performers were rewarded and high performers were not. Other experiments have shown higher levels of performance by subjects who were told that their earnings were contingent on the effectiveness of their performance (Atkinson, 19S8). In the present field study two hypotheses were tested: (a) Performance is greater under a reward system that explicitly rewards performance 1This article is based on a portion of a thesis by the first author submitted to the Ohio State University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master's degree. Requests for reprints should be addressed to