Indiv. & Team Compensation LO12730

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@CompuServe.COM)
28 Feb 97 23:14:11 EST

[Arbitrarily linked to LO12705 by your host...]

Re Compensation and Team participation,

There was a question about why someone should 'sacrifice' themselves for
the team when everyone was being compensated the same.

It needs to be recognized that not everyone is cut out to be a team
member, and there should be room for individual contribution as well. If
it truly feels like a sacrfice, then it may be that you are one of those
people who is not intended for teamwork.

Having said that, even people such as these could learn something from the
challenges of working in a team. Thus you could think of this not as a
sacrifice but as a challenge, or a learning opportunity. Many, many
people actually consider team participation a lot of fun and a big
challenge.

Another reason for participating may be because your organization has made
a strategic decision that teams are the way they will operate. One can
join or quit, but one cannot hide for long in these situations. If you
want _any_ compensation, you may need to participate just to keep working.
When the bus is leaving, finally, do you want to be on it or not?

Another, perhaps more relevant reason for working in a team is that in
many circumstances it has been shown that a team can accomplish things
that individuals cannot. Perhaps we should ask the reverse question. Why
should I sacrifice my performance by being forced to work as an individual
contributor? But in companies where raises are allocated based on
achieving certain performance standards, teams are likely to achieve
higher performance standards -- and thus receive more raises -- than
individual contributors. Perhaps it is not a sacrifice to work on a team
after all.

-- 

Rol Fessenden 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>