Jackie’s Management 449 Blog

If I were just offered an amazing opportunity long term internationally, there are a few things that I would factor into my decision of whether I wanted to pursue this opportunity or not.

The first being the culture of the country. Being that you would be moving to this country long term, it is important to consider the culture of the company and if it aligns with my values and similar beliefs. If I had children, this would also be important to consider the schools and how they would be able to fit in this new country and culture. Another aspect to consider is the cost of living, and how that compares to your compensation package that you are being offered. I would want to consider what type of lifestyle I could live with the package they offered me, and the cost of living. Additionally, the language of the country I would be moving too would be important to me. If I were living somewhere short term, I might be able to make do with not knowing the language to the full extent. But since this would be long term, it would be important to me that I am able to easily learn, or pick up on the language so that I could meet people outside of work and form friendships.

Overall there are many aspects to consider if I were to be moving internationally long term in order to ensure that it is the best decision for myself and my career at the time!

Executive Compensation is a very interesting topic, some individuals may say that it is excessive while others think that it is appropriate. In my opinion, I believe that executive compensation is appropriate yet sometimes can seem excessive when you compare their salaries to an average worker. Companies often have to offer competitive packages in order to recruit the best talent on the market to run their business. CEO’s also obtain a ton of knowledge and leadership and should be compensated appropriately for that. But where I find it excessive, is when the income disparities between the average workers and the CEO’s is brought to light. As stated in our textbook “the typical CEO’s annual salary plus bonus was nearly 180 times greater than the typical fast food cook’s annual pay and approximately 15 times greater than the typical anesthesiologist’s annual pay” (272) While it makes sense that CEO’s who have an immense amount of leadership and knowledge make more than the typical fast food cook, it is concerning to see the difference and income disparities.

If the executive compensation packages were decreased or limited, I believe that some individuals would not be very happy. Many people work very hard to obtain these leadership roles and believe that they are worthy of the income they are receiving. If you were to limit the pay and overall package, it might create an issue where not enough people are wanting to step up into these leadership roles because there isn’t proper compensation in their eyes. By offering the competitive compensation packages, it creates motivation for individuals to work their way up and obtain the role of CEO.

The component that I believe is essential to recruiting executives and motivating them to lead companies towards a competitive advantage is their equity agreements. By creating an incentivizing equity agreement it promotes a sense of ownership within the company for the executive. As the company is performing well, the stock value will generally increase. This will help to motivate the CEO to lead their company towards excellent performance.

When discussing our rankings in class it was really interesting to see how we all had very similar rankings for our benefits. For example, we all had Health Insurance, Paid Time Off, and 401k plan in our non-negotiable benefits. These were all three discretionary benefits that we felt as though were necessary in a benefits package offered from a company. As for our top three that we felt were most likely to eliminate, we all had different rankings which is understandable. The non-negational benefits are ones that are necessary to have in order to set yourself and possibly your family up for success. Whereas the others such as tuition reimbursement, transportation services, gym memberships, etc., are more luxuries than necessities and will really differ based on an individual’s specific values and goals. These rankings can really change over time as an individual grows, and their values and goals change.

The demographic composition of the company’s workforce can really influence the needs and wants in a benefits package. As I stated, depending on an individual’s specific goals and values, and stage in life their wants in a benefit package will change. For example, if a workforce has a high number of young adults who are about to begin their families, those employee’s might put a lot of value in a maternity, and paternity leave plan, as well as flexible work schedules. But if the company has mainly older adults that are near to retirement, they are not going to find as much value in that so therefore the company’s package might be different.

The choices for benefits package greatly influence the overall commitment to a company. Your benefits are included in your total compensation package, therefor it plays a key role in your overall commitment to a company. Overall, offering good benefits is key for a company to attract new talent, and retain their current employees by offering benefits that appeal to their overall demographics.

Pay Structures are an important framework for every business to have. They provide a framework for recognizing differences in employee contributions. When deciding on a pay structure there are two different types of structures that a company can choose. The first being Person Focused pay structure, which rewards employees for acquiring new job related skills, knowledge or competencies. On the other hand there is Job- Based pay structures, which rewards employees based off of compensable factors determined by the company, including responsibility, effort, skills, etc.

I decided to look at Apple as a company and what type of pay structure I think fits appropriately with their business model. Apple’s competitive strategy is product differentiation, where they strive to always be creating their own design and developing their own hardware, software applications and services. They are a part of the electronic Retail product market in which they compete with Samsung, Dell, HP, Sony, etc. Apple has to continuously be creating a competitive edge against their competitors by making new products and software. I believe the best structure for Apple would be the Person-based structure. The person based structure supports apple’s organizational strategy by continuously motivating their employee’s to acquire new skills and knowledge. By providing an incentive to employee’s for their new skills, and knowledge, it motivates the employee’s to want to continuously educate themselves which in turn leads to higher productivity. Instead of directing the employees to be motivated through getting promotions to increase their pay, this strategy motivates employees to gain new knowledge and skills that are applicable to their work to increase their pay. As it is stated in our textbook “Evidence does suggest that person-focused pay plans lead to increased employee commitment, enhanced work motivation, and improved employee satisfaction. These results are probably due to the fact that well-designed, person-focused pay plans promote skill variety and autonomy. “(Page 112)

Overall, I believe that Apple would benefit greatly from a person-focused pay structure that would motivate employees to continuously be learning and gaining new skills and knowledge.

Every individual has different motivating factors when it comes to decisions. For some, they are motivated by intrinsic factors, and for others they are motivated by extrinsic factors such as money. For example, a dear friend of mine recently was telling me about her recent experience at work. While she was going to pick up her check one day from her boss’s office, she noticed had to go through a pile of them to find hers. While doing so, she saw how much her other co-workers were being paid. Since they all work a stipend paid job, she realized that she was being paid way less than her other coworkers. In finding this information out, she was extremely upset because she has been there the longest, and is always going above and beyond. After finding this out, and reflecting she felt very defeated and almost as though her hard work was not valued, and that she wasn’t being paid equally. I believe that in this specific scenario money is a motivator because she feels as though she is not being paid fairly for her hard work.  In this situation, she went to her boss and had a conversation about her work, and was given a raise after her boss did not realize that she wasn’t making more than the others.