Describe a variable pay plan you currently use or one with which youve had past experience. Identify the plan based on those described in Chapter 8 and the category into which the plan is classified. Do you think the plan is (or was) successful or a failure in some way? How do you feel it could be improved? If you have not experienced variable pay, would you be interested in a position with variable pay? Why or why not?

For this discussion, the variable pay plans should be classified into three categoriesindividual, group or team, and organizational. Individual incentives are given to reward the effort and performance of individuals. Group/team incentives are given when an organization rewards an entire group/team for its performance. Organizational incentives reward people according to the performance results of the entire organization. These are your choices for this discussion.

Keep in mind you can have no variable pay plan, one or even multiple plans. When I worked at 3M, we had all three categories of variable pay: individual, based on your performance appraisal; groups, based on Division or Group results; and, company or organizational results, based on gross profit changes from year to year. These incentives are paid out in the form of profit sharing.