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1. (Mt) – HRM critical thinking
Appendix A / Critical Thinking Applications key contingencies that may be related to the
success of a piece-rate system in that setting. Also, in addition to the piece-rate method, to
what extent are the other characteristics of the Lincoln com- pensation and management
systems critical for Lincoln’s success? (Even in 2008, a terrible year for machinery, Lin- coln
had still maintained its lifetime employment record.) Do you think a CEO’s pay relative to
that of the producers of the goods and services is critical for establishing and maintaining
employee trust? Do you think trust is impor- tant? Expectancy theory says nothing about
trust. Or does it? Also, is this a work setting for so-called workaholics only? Explain your
answer. ‘Handlin, H. C. (1992). The company built upon the golden rule: Lincoln Electric. In
B. L. Hopkins & T. C. Mawhinney (Eds.), Pay for performance: History, controversy, and
evidence (p. 156). New York, NY: Haworth Press. Chilton, K. W. (1994,
November/December). Lincoln Electric’s incentive system: A reservoir of trust.
Compensation & Benefits Review, 29-34. Critical THINKING APPLICATION 11-D Should
Teacher Pay Be Tied to Student Test Scores? Former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney,
proposed large increases in state spending on education that took effect in 2006 and
included provisions for merit pay tied to the classroom performance for public school
teachers in his state. The merit pay could add $5,000 or more to a teacher’s annual salary.
“The ability to close the achieve- ment gap is the civil rights issue of our generation,” Mr.
Romney said in an interview, noting his concern over student test scores. President
Obama’s $4.3 billion education initiative, the Race to the Top, included funding for what’s
called pay-for-performance. Many states have responded to this call for more
accountability. Arizona, Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, and North Carolina are among the many
states that have added some form of merit pay for teachers that reward classroom
performance based on student performance. A 2011 Florida law was passed entitled “The
Student Success” Act. Half of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on student test scores
starting in 2014. The new law created a teacher evaluation system that relies on so-called
value-added data on student test scores to judge teacher quality. A “value- added”
evaluation of a teacher is based on the standard- ized test scores of all taught by a teacher
during a defined period of time. Each student’s past test performance is used to project that
student’s future performance. The difference between that student’s actual performance
(after instruc- tion from the teacher being evaluated) and the projected test results is the
estimated “value” that this particular teacher added (or subtracted) during the academic
year (across all of the teacher’s students). The teacher’s rating thus reflects her average
2. “value-added” results after teaching a requisite number of students (to ensure reliability of
this value-added estimate) For new teachers, the Florida law also created a performance-
based pay system and ends tenure-like job protections and seniority-based pay increases.
Other states are moving in that direction and there has been less re- sistance from teacher
unions, which almost always fight merit pay proposals and programs. Minnesota offers an
extra $2,000 per year for teachers based on their students’ achievement. Many cities have
also pursued merit pay for their teachers. Middle-school math teachers in Nash- ville,
Tennessee were given bonuses up to $15,000 for student gains in student test scores. A
Denver, Colorado, ballot initiative raised property taxes $25 million a year to be used for a
teacher pay initiative that includes performance-based bonuses and salary increases. The
common thread behind these initiatives and programs is the tie-in between classroom
performance and teacher pay. The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excel- lence
(www.abcte.org) has proposed a model merit pay plan for all states. Among the criticisms of
teacher merit pay are the criteria for eligibility. Some programs restrict eligibil- ity to only
those who teach certain classes (e.g., science and math) and those who are at the top as
measured by student classroom test score improvement. Randi Weingarten, president of
the American Federation of Teachers, issued this statement about the new Florida law:
“Florida Gov. Rick Scott took a wrecking ball to the dreams and aspirations of the state’s
public school students by imposing a test- and sanction-driven edu- cation policy that
rejects the proven educational strate- gies of the world’s highest-achieving nations.”
Catherine A. Boudreau, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association
(www.massteacher.org), a branch of the National Education Association, called the
Massachusetts law “short on substance, long on politics.” She describes merit pay plans as
“inequitable, divisive and ineffec- tive.” Kathleen A. Kelley, president of the Massachusetts
Federation of Teachers (www.mfteducator.org), said that Mr. Romney’s plan was developed
with no input from the education community. In response to this criticism, Mr. Romney said,
“You know, I would just love it if you could just throw out all the special interests from
educa- tion.” Governor Scott of Florida called the new law good for students and teachers.
He stated that “the teachers that are the most effective are the teachers that are going to do
well.” With high-stakes student testing comes more cheating. Economist Steven D. Levitt, of
“Freakonomics” fame and a blogger for the New York Times, studied answer sheets from
Chicago public schools after the introduction of high- stakes testing in the 1990s. He
concluded that 4 percent to 5 percent of elementary school teachers cheat. There have been
many reports of cheating involving high-stakes standardized testing in the nation’s school
systems. A 2011 state probe found that teachers and prin- cipals in dozens of Atlanta public
schools doctored stu- dents’ test papers. USA Today also found evidence of test 582
tampering in six states besides Georgia and Maryland, including California, Florida, and
Ohio. The same USA Today article reported that the Dallas Morning News found more than
50,000 cases of cheating on high-stakes state tests with 90 percent of students in some
cases showing suspi- cious answer patterns. The Atlanta probe found a “culture of fear,
intimidation and retaliation,” which prompted many Atlanta teachers and administrators to
give children correct answers on tests and change incorrect answers once answer sheets
were submitted. Appendix A / Critical Thinking Applications Furthermore, the critics note,
3. employers are in a pow- erful position when it comes to negotiating an implicit or explicit)
employment contract as organizations essentially support the livelihood of individual
workers. In a study investigating how well workers understand the employment-at-will
doctrine, Kim found that, on the whole, many individuals erroneously deemed terminations
for no “good reason” as unlawful, when in fact they were legal based on the employment-at-
will doctrine. For instance, 89 percent of workers surveyed believed that an employee
cannot be lawfully terminated for simple reasons personal dislike. This is in fact lawful as
long as EEO laws are not violated. No matter what your stance is on the issue, it is an
interesting question as to whether workers tend to correctly estimate their job security
under employment-at-will. The following exercise guides you through a replication of Kim’s
study and requests that you conduct research on employment-at-will in your state.
Assignment Conduct research on teacher pay, including teacher pay- for-performance
programs. How have teachers typically been paid in the past and what has been the role of
student performance in determining teacher pay? What does re- search say about tying
teacher pay to student performance? What has happened to teacher merit pay in
Massachusetts since Governor Romney left office? What do teacher unions now say about
subject? What effect has the Florida law had on student test scores? How has the new law
affected teacher recruitment and retention? Generate a list of potential prob- lems with
teacher merit pay tied to classroom performance and then possible solutions to those
problems. Janofsky, M. (2005, October 4). Teacher merit pay tied to education gains.
Retrieved from http://www.NYtimes.com 2PBS Newshour. (2010, September 21). Tying
students’ test scores to pay: Burden or opportunity for teachers?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/ july-dec10/teachers_09-21.html Watanabe,
T. (2011, March 28). “Value-added teacher evaluations: L.A. Unified tackles a tough formula.
Los Angeles Times on line. http://www.latimes.com/news/ local/teachers-investigation/
*Kaczor, B. (2011, March 25). Gov. Scott signs Florida teacher pay, tenure bill. Bloomberg
BusinessNews. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/ D9M68VQ01.htm
Sanders, T. (2011, March 24). Rick Scott signs teacher merit pay bill; critic calls it ‘wrecking
ball.’ Florida Times Union. http://jacksonville.com/news/ florida/2011-03-24/story/rick-
scott-signs-teacher-merit-pay-bill-critic-calls-it- wrecking-ball Gabriel, T. (2010, June 10).
Under pressure, teachers tamper with tests. New York Times on line.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/education/11cheat .html?pagewanted=all Toppo,
G. (2011, July 6). Atlanta public school exams fudged. USA Today.on line.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-07-06-Atlanta-schools-standardized- test-
cheating_n.htm Assignment A study was discussed in which individuals were asked their
perceptions of employment-at-will. Specifically, they were asked to define the concept and
they were presented with a scenario in which they were to determine if a ter- mination was
lawful. Do a similar “study” by asking five people the following questions: 1. Define
employment-at-will. 2. Can an employer legally fire someone who was performing
satisfactorily merely to replace her with someone at a lower wage? 3. Can an employer
legally fire someone who refuses to participate in illegal billing practices? 4. Can an
employer legally fire someone who has been accused of stealing, even if the employee can
prove that he or she is not the culprit? The results from the entire class will then be
