| An exploratory study of a merit pay allocation system within a single college of a university was undertaken to relate the elements of the system--annual faculty salary increases, faculty workload and productivity data, and departmental statements of merit criteria--and to evaluate the objectivity and consistency of the system.; Annual percentage merit and discretionary increases were chosen as the dependent variables for the analysis. Demographic data, faculty workload and productivity data, and salary increase data were collected for 113 ranked faculty members who were on contract with the university from 1981-1986, the five-year period of the analysis. Linear regression was used to describe the relative correlational effects between the merit and discretionary salary increases and the faculty workload and productivity variables.; The major conclusions of this study were summarized as follows: (1) the merit and discretionary regression models did relate merit and discretionary increases to faculty productivity; (2) the discretionary model was more consistent than the merit model while rewarding administrative service and years of experience regularly; (3) there was no evidence to suggest that illegal reward criteria (race and gender) were being used to discriminate against certain groups in awarding either merit or discretionary increases; and (4) the analyses of departmental differences did not add new information to the findings nor strengthen predictions about awarding merit and discretionary increases. |
