If pay systems can be effective in motivating better performance, can they be used to motivate other desired behaviors as well? We often hear that people show the behaviors that are rewarded. This suggests that compensation systems could be powerful tools in motivating a multitude of desired behaviors. Mattson, Torbiörn, and Hellgren address this issue in their paper. They use a qualitative approach to decipher the effects of bonus systems on safety behaviors in nuclear plants. The data suggest that financial incentives can in fact promote safety. It is particularly noteworthy that no major problems or downsides are evident from the use of money in the safety context they describe.
A different behavior is of interest in the paper by Merriman. Here the role of pay systems in employee choice of the number of hours to work is explored. Non-exempt employees often work overtime hours, partly due to the inducement of premium pay. But this paper explores the role of regular pay in decisions about how many hours to work, suggesting that there is a curvilinear relationship between the two. The propositions offered in this paper present interesting opportunities for empirical exploration