People and Productivity: The New York Stock Exchange Guide to Financial Incentives and the Quality of Work Life Abstract: An authoritative instructional text for managers emphasizes proven principles and research findings for improving the effectiveness of utilizing existing human resources to boost productivity in the workplace through human resource programs. The text markedly expands an earlier published study by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a comprehensive discussion of financial incentive "gain-sharing" plans, and includes the results of the first nationwide survey of human resource programs to boost productivity in US corporations. The first section of the text examines financial incentive plans in detail, ranging from individual incentive plans, to group plans, to profit sharing and employee ownership. The second section of the text summarizes experiences learned from Japan concerning the relationship between discrimination and productivity, the importance of basic schooling and manager training for preparing people for work, and practices of Japanese-owned US businesses promoting both the quantity and quality of outputs. The final section of the text details human resource programs for productivity and the findings of an NYSE survey. |