TITLE : SELECTING A WAGE PAYMENT SYSTEM.

PREFACE

This paper was written at the suggestion of Mr. E. J. Robertson, Research Director of the Engineering Employers' Federation, after he had read a paper I had presented to a conference on payment systems organised by O.E.C.D. in September 1967. It was originally intended that this paper should be a slightly enlarged version of the article, with academic jargon ruthlessly expunged for the benefit of practical men. However, the ideas of the 1967 paper have been developed and refined very considerably. The attempt to incorporate all the developments and refinements has led to a completely different, more tightly organised, but still, we hope, jargonless work.

For many of the developments and refinements I owe a debt to my colleagues in the Payment Systems Research Project at the Centre for Business Research, Manchester Business School; particularly Roger Morris, Neil Millward, Alan Brown, Graham Barlow, Karen Legge, and Angela Bowey. My greatest debt is obviously to Dan Gowler, the joint author of this book, who saw very clearly the potential for development of the ideas I put forward in the O.E.C.D. paper; who hit upon the idea of an analytical classification of payment systems, and whose contribution to the problem of measuring the variables in my original "situation profiles" has been invaluable.

We have used the method for selecting a payment system described in this work as the basis of a teaching project in Management Courses at the Manchester Business School. We have been encouraged to find that experienced managers have found it useful as a tool for decision in simulated situations, and have been interested enough to suggest improvements. We have incorporated some of these. We hope that the wider audience of managers to whom this book is mainly directed will find it just as useful a tool for decision in real situations.

The validity of the method that is described in this paper is best tested by experimentation, and by appraisal of the results of such experimentation. To this end, plans are being made to mount a research project, in perhaps a dozen or so federated firms, to test the feasibility of selecting a wage payment system using our method. As a result of this, and indeed as a result of the experiences of any company trying out our ideas, the further improvement of the theoretical concepts is then made possible. That suggestions for improvement come as a result of real-life application and appraisal, is a welcome prospect.

Finally, our thanks are due to Miss M. Hewitt, for translating pencilled notes into readable early draft, and to Miss C. Pearson for typing the final draft.

Tom Lupton, Manchester Business School January 1969.