Study Of Pay Systems In High-technology Firms

High-technology firms are developing quickly, and they are confronted with human resource competition. Human resource is the key resource for high-technology companies, and compensation is the main incentive tool to gain human capital advantage. " The system is more important than technology". Pay systems are most important for high-technology firms' survival and development. How to choose and design pay systems in high technology firms is one of the difficulties of human resource management. It is also an important question in the research field of corporate management.The paper focuses on the pay system arrangements in high-technology firms. At first the author reviews the related theories and studies. Based on these research findings, the author analyzes pay system choices, their current situation, their effectiveness, and their alignment with organizations. There are theoretical analysis, case analysis and empirical study.1.The author discusses the pay system arrangements in high-technology firms, and provides theoretical basis of pay systems. High-technology firms are typical knowledge-based enterprises. Thus high-technology firms must adopt a compensation level which is higher than or compared to market pay level, introduce competency-based pay which reflects human capital heterogeneity, use long-term incentives which relate employee benefit with firm profit, conduct flexible variable pay which scatters firm risk, implement broad banding pay which supports compressed organization structure, and carry out total reward system which satisfies employee alternative needs. All aspects of a pay system supplement each other, and high-technology firms must introduce competition mechanism in order to improve compensation incentive effectiveness. The deep theoretical foundations of pay systems include contractual theory of the firm, super-property right theory, competency...