Implementing and Integrating Policies on Performance-Based Pay: Coordinating the “One-Employer Approach” in a Swedish Municipality

Abstract

In Sweden, performance-based pay has gone furthest in the public sector. This development has placed demands on employers to have a transparent and salient salary review process with which to evaluate employees uniformly and fairand to act in a unitary manner, as one employer. Pay policies aim to coordinate salary reviews in organizations. However, the transfer of policy to practice is not easy and research has shown a gap between intended and implemented policies. Drawing on a case study in a municipality, this article expands knowledge on policy transfer by exploring and describing how HR, unions, managers and employees perceive implementation and integration of the pay policies, and to what extent the municipality succeeds in a one-employer approach. The findings suggest that the municipality fails to act as one employer and that the units that are most successful in implementing the policy are those closer to top management.

Collective Versus Individual Influence at Work Procedural Autonomy, Individual Arrangements, and Intention to Leave Work in the Eldercare Sector

“…However, processes of individualization are nonetheless present. Decades of decentralization of collective bargaining have institutionalized individualized wage setting, which has particularly affected the public sector (Kjellberg, 2019;Ulfsdotter Eriksson et al, 2021). Most collective agreements statue the right to yearly salary negotiation.…”

“…Most collective agreements statue the right to yearly salary negotiation. However, the scope for the negotiation is limited by a normative use of wage raises in the industry (the "mark") as the benchmark, and limited local pots for wages, creating a zero-sum game where giving a reward to one employee reduces the availability of raises for the others (Ulfsdotter Eriksson et al, 2021). Hence, as individualized wage setting co-exist with collective regulations, the prevalence and impact of individual arrangements might be less distinct than in other contexts.…”

Employees of Greatness: Signifying Values in Performance Appraisal Criteria

“…When the fieldwork was conducted, they had specified the general criteria only for childcare in which they had slightly different wordings in the criteria for pre-school teachers and child-minders. A survey study conducted showed that about 40% of the employees had specified ones and equally many used the general appraisal criteria (Ulfsdotter Eriksson et al 2019).…”

“…The state agency and the municipality use 'professionalism' as the main criterion for quality and, for the latter, 'high quality' is the main part of the definition of the 'professionalism criterion'. Professionalism is a common performance criterion (Ulfsdotter Eriksson et al 2019) and a prevalent value in organizations more generally. Also, and as discussed by Fournier (1999) and Evetts (2011), professionalism is increasingly used as a discursive device to manage, control, and discipline employees.…”