Umbrella Model:A Formative Mechanism Of The Expectation Of Employees For Pay Raises In Enterprises

In the practice of business management,when the employees are informed with the possible pay raises,they tend to emerge a common and general psychological expectation for how much their salary will get increased immediately.Concluded through the observation of this pervasive phenomenon,the expectation of employees for pay raises shares a set of fundamental characteristics,including but not limited to rapidness,autonomy,internality,clarity,feasibility,etc.Therefore,if organizations can accurately predict the expectations of employees for pay raises and provide just meaningful increase,it will eventually have a valuable impact on the behaviors of employees and their psychological satisfaction.This article aims to develop a formative mechanism of the expectation of employees for pay raises in enterprises by analyzing the correlation between key factors within the organization that may influence employees' expectation.Based on the data collected through in-depth interviews with the employee sample and further analysis in terms of grounded theory,18 factors were determined in response to the employees' expectation on the pay raises.The mechanism of the 18 factors can be described as the process of opening an umbrella.For example,“last pay raise”,as the basis of employees' expectation,can be regarded as the umbrella handle,working as the cardinal base.Then,employees can adjust the base,“last pay raise”,in terms of three other factors: job performance,job level,and external pay raise,to get a modified value.These three factors work as the umbrella stand.Besides these key factors,there are other miscellaneous factors that have impacts on employees' expectations.Employees continuously rely on these factors to make comprehensive but ambiguous amendment to their final expectation.These miscellaneous factors work as the umbrella cover on the basis of umbrella handle and stand.Eventually,organizations obtain a formula of employees' expectation for pay raises.This article defines the formative mechanism of the expectation of employees for pay raises in enterprise as Umbrella Model.“Umbrella Model” vividly depicts the internal formative mechanism of psychological expectations of employees for pay raises.It also explains the rationale of the factor system in decision-making process.In addition,this model revealed the formation and importance of psychological expectations for pay raises in terms of just meaningful pay increase,which can eventually help lead organizations to more science-driven pay raise practices.