Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explain how performance management, long the most unpopular HR process, has received increased criticism in recent years.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Research Update: Pay for Skills, Knowledge, and Competencies
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. and Charles Rivers write that research interest in pay for skills, knowledge, and competencies (SKC) has continued over the past three decades.
Using Motivation Theory to Improve Gamification
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explore the topic of gamification. Today, the purposeful use of games in work settings is growing rapidly. Organizations are rapidly embracing the systematic use of “gamification,” which brings game-like elements to core managerial processes.
Commentaries on “The Changing Landscape of Employee Rewards: Observations and Prescriptions”
This paper first summarizes key themes from a recent paper by Gerald Ledford that was published in Organizational Dynamics. That paper reviewed changes in employee reward systems during the past 35 years, looked at factors explaining the changes, and recommended a set of five changes in the future. Five distinguished corporate HR leaders then comment on the paper, exploring a number of important topics in contemporary employee rewards.
The Future of Employee Compensation: Compensation Café Entries
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) This collection is a three-part series that appeared in Compensation Café, the leading blog on reward systems, from December 1-3, 2014. See www.CompensationCafe.com for the original entries and reader responses to them.
Paying for Skills, Knowledge, and Competencies
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) shares that implementation of skills, knowledge, and competency pay has become commonplace, and usage has gradually increased in the last three decades.
The Changing Landscape of Employee Rewards: Observations and Prescriptions
This article by Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) examines the dramatic changes in employee rewards since the Center for Effective Organizations (CEO) was created 35 years ago.
Maximizing Your Return on HR Information Technology (HRIT), 3/17/14, recording/slides
Gerry Ledford (Senior Research Scientist, CEO)
The typical Fortune 500 organization spends millions of dollars annually on HR information technology, counting the cost of software, programming, training, and consulting.
Are Monetary Rewards Compatible with Lean Systems?
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) argues here that the lack of attention to rewards in the lean systems literature is a mistake. Decades of academic research confirm that pay exerts powerful effects on employee attitudes and behavior.
Negative Effects of Extrinsic Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation: More Smoke Than Fire
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO), Meiyu Fang (National Central University, Taiwan), and Barry Gerhart (University of Wisconsin) demonstrate that motivation research makes a basic distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In general, researchers define intrinsic motivation as that which arises from performing the task.
Doing Research That is Useful for Theory and Practice
Edward E. Lawler III, Allan M. Mohrman, Susan A. Mohrman, Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. and Thomas G. Cummings, (Jossey-Bass, 1999)
Dealing with issues that cut across all social and behavioral sciences, Doing Research That Is Useful for Theory and Practice is full of practical advice on conducting successful research.
Strategies for High Performance Organizations: The CEO Report
The CEO Report by Edward E. Lawler III , Susan Albers Mohrman and Gerald E. Ledford, Jr., (Jossey-Bass, 1998) distills reams of surveys and research into an easy-to-interpret tool that managers can use to identify those improvement practices that best promote organizational effectiveness.