Pay for Performance: Evaluating Performance Appraisal and Merit Pay (1991)
Chapter: Appendix A: Survey Descriptions
A Survey Descriptions
A brief description of each survey used in the committee's review of private-sector performance appraisal, merit pay, and variable pay plan practices is presented below. Each description includes a complete survey reference.
The surveys are nearly all proprietary; they are not based on scientific sampling methods and report no sampling frame, error rates, or confidence intervals.
The American Compensation Association
1987 Report on the 1987 Survey of Salary Management Practices. Scottsdale, Ariz.: The American Compensation Association.
No. of Organizations: 1,395
Type of Organizations: 33% manufacturing; 40% services; 27% utilities/other
Size (employees): 31% < 1,000; 69% = 1,000
Respondents: Top personnel officers
Response rate: 24%
Bretz, R., and Milkovich, G.
1989 Performance appraisal in large organizations: practice and research applications. Working Paper #89-17. Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
No. of Organizations: 63
Type of Organizations: Manufacturing
Size (employees): Mean: Exempt = 20,816; Nonexempt = 31,407
Respondents: Top personnel and compensation executives
Response rate: 70%
The Bureau of National Affairs
1974 Management performance appraisal programs. Personnel Policies Forum Survey No. 104. Washington, D.C.: The Bureau of National Affairs.
No. of Organizations: 139
Type of Organizations: 50% manufacturing; 25% nonmanufacturing; 25% nonprofit/government
Size (employees): 40% < 1,000; 60% = 1,000
Respondents: Top personnel officers
Response rate: 60%
The Bureau of National Affairs
1981 Wage and salary administration. Personnel Policies Forum Survey No. 131. Washington, D.C.: The Bureau of National Affairs.
No. of Organizations: 183
Type of Organizations: 49% manufacturing; 31% nonmanufacturing; 20% nonprofit/government
Size (employees): 46% < 1,000; 54% = 1,000
Respondents: Top personnel officers
Response rate: 60%
The Bureau of National Affairs
1984 Productivity Improvement Programs. Personnel Policies Forum Survey No. 138. Washington, D.C.: The Bureau of National Affairs.
No. of Organizations: 195
Type of Organizations: 45% manufacturing; 27% nonmanufacturing; 28% nonprofit/government
Size (employees): 53% < 1,000; 47% = 1,000
Respondents: Top personnel officers
Response rate: 65%
(The Personnel Policies Forum surveys vary somewhat in their geographic coverage, but typically try to cover major geographic regions; in the latest survey we used, the responding 31 percent of the responding organizations were headquartered in the South, 27 percent in the North Central states, 23 percent in the West, and 19 percent in the Northeast.)
The Conference Board
1976 Compensating employees: lessons of the 1970s. Conference Board Report No. 707. New York: The Conference Board.
No. of Organizations: 493
Type of Organizations: 54% manufacturing; 46% services/retail & wholesale
Size (employees): 23% < 1,000; 77% > 1,000
Respondents: Top compensation executives
Response rate: Not reported
The Conference Board
1977 Appraising managerial performance: current practices and future directions. Conference Board Report No. 723. New York: The Conference Board.
No. of Organizations: 293
Type of Organizations: 41% manufacturing; 59% services/retail & wholesale
Size (employees): 29% < 1,000; 71% > 1,000
Respondents: Top personnel executives
Response rate: Not reported
The Conference Board
1984 Pay and performance: the interaction of compensation and performance appraisal. Conference Research Bulletin No. 155. New York: The Conference Board.
No. of Organizations: 557
Type of Organizations: 54% manufacturing; 46% services
Size (employees): Median: 9,600 manufacturing; 2,130 services
Respondents: Top compensation executives
Response rate: Not reported
The Conference Board
1990 Variable pay: new performance rewards. Conference Board Research Bulletin No. 246. New York: The Conference Board.
No. of Organizations: 435
Type of Organizations: 43% manufacturing; 57% services/retail & wholesale Size (sales): Only companies with sales of > $100 million
Respondents: Top compensation executives
Response rate: 16%
HayGroup, Inc.
1989 Compensation and benefits strategies for 1990 and beyond. The Hay Report. Philadelphia: HayGroup, Inc.
No. of Organizations: 1,098
Type of Organizations: 78.1% industrial; 21.9% financial
Size (employees): Not reported
Respondents: Top compensation managers
Response rate: Not reported
(This report is a compilation of several HayGroup surveys; we used the results from The Hay Compensation Report, 1989.)
Hewitt Associates
1989 Compensation Trends and Practices Survey, 1989. Lincolnshire, Ill: Hewitt Associates.
No. of Organizations: 705
Type of Organizations: 33% manufacturing; 67% services
Size (employees): 33% < 1,000; 67% = 1,000
Respondents: Compensation managers
Response rate: Not reported
Committee on Performance Appraisal for Merit Pay, National Research Council
1990 The committee solicited additional information on performance appraisal from 28 Conference Board member firms. The respondents represented all major industrial sectors and are generally considered leading firms in human resource management. A draft summary of the responses of these firms is available through the committee's staff files.
O'Dell, C.
1987 People, Performance, and Pay: A Full Report on the American Productivity Center/American Compensation Association National Survey of Non-Traditional Reward and Human Resource Practices. Houston: American Productivity Center.
No. of Organizations: 1,598 (some multiple units of firm)
Type of Organizations: 46% goods; 46% services; 8% government
Size (employees): Not reported
Respondents: 83% personnel; 17% other managers
Response rate: 36%
TPF & C/Towers Perrin
1990 Achieving Results Through Sharing: Group Incentive Program Survey Report. New York: TPF & C/Towers Perrin.
No. of Organizations: 144 companies (177 variable plans)
Type of Organizations: 77% manufacturing; 23% services and retail/wholesale
Size (employees): Median = 2,600; Range = 26 to 300,000 (sales):
Median = $500 million
Respondents: Variable plan designers
Response rate: Not reported
U.S. General Accounting Office
1981 Productivity Improvement Programs: Can They Contribute to Productivity Improvement? AMFD-81-22. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
No. of Organizations: 54
Type of Organizations: 93% manufacturing; 7% services and retail/wholesale
Size (employees): Range from 100 to 100,000
Respondents: Reported only as "officials" of firms
Response rate: 56%
Wallace, M.
1990 Rewards and Renewal: America's Search for Competitive Advantage Through Alternative Pay Strategies. Scottsdale, Ariz.: The American Compensation Association.
No. of Organizations: 46
Type of Organizations: 83% manufacturing; 17% services/utilities
Size (employees): Mean = 19,362; Range = 55 to 90,000
Respondents: Wallace conducted case studies; interviewed key executives, managers, and employees
Response rate: Not applicable
The Wyatt Company
1989 Results of the 1989 Wyatt survey: getting your hands around performance management. Pp. 4-18 in The Wyatt Communicator Fourth Quarter, 1989.
No. of Organizations: 3,052
Type of Organizations: 30% manufacturing; 40% services; 5% utilities/transportation/oil; 6% retail/wholesale; 19% government/nonprofit/other
Size (employees): 65% < 1,000; 35% = 1,000 (25% > 10,000)
Respondents: 93% senior and middle personnel managers
Response rate: Not reported
This survey has a broad geographic representation with 24 percent in the Northeast, 20 percent in the Southeast; 21 percent in the Great Lakes; and 15 percent in the Pacific states (north and south).
The Wyatt Company
1989 The 1989 Survey of Locality Pay Practices in Large U.S. Corporations. Philadelphia: The Wyatt Company.
No. of Organizations: 80
Type Organizations: 44% manufacturing; 19% services; 37% utilities/other Size (employees): 67% = 50,000; 33% > 50,000
Respondents: Top compensation managers
Response rate: Not reported
The Wyatt Company
1987 The 1987 Wyatt Performance Management Survey. Chicago: The Wyatt Company.
No. of Organizations: 805
Type Organizations: 35% manufacturing; 40% services; 25% other
Size (employees): 20% = 1,000; 33% 1,000-5,000; 20% > 5,000
Respondents: Personnel managers
Response rate: Not reported
