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Journal of Business and Psychology

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23-06-2016 | Original Paper

The Relationship Between Employees’ Objective Internal and External Pay Standing and Their Job Performance: A Within-Person Analysis

Authors: Jost Sieweke, Bianca Köllner, Stefan Süß

Published in: Journal of Business and Psychology | Issue 5/2017

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Abstract

Purpose

Researchers have paid little attention to the relationship between employees’ objective internal and external pay standing and their job performance. Moreover, few studies have considered that employees’ objective pay standing is dynamic; that is, it changes over time. In this study, we analyze the relationship between changes in employees’ objective internal and external pay standing and their job performance.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We test the hypotheses using data for players in the National Basketball Association over a period of 12 seasons (n = 4830).

Findings

Decreases in employees’ objective internal and external pay standing are negatively related to their task performance. Furthermore, decreases in employees’ objective internal pay standing, but not in their external pay standing, are negatively related to their contextual performance.

Implications

Analyzing the relationship between changes in employees’ objective internal and external pay standing and their job performance adds to our understanding of the individual-level consequences of pay dispersion.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to analyze the relationship between employees’ objective internal and external pay standing and their job performance. Moreover, this is one of the first studies that considers that employees’ objective internal and external pay standing changes, for example, because the external and internal labor markets change. The study contributes to research on employee compensation and salary, and to research on pay disparities.

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Although the construct’s contextual performance and (organizational) citizenship behaviors are distinct, they capture similar behaviors (e.g., helping colleagues) (Motowidlo 2000). Therefore, we refer to both constructs.

To check the robustness of the findings, we ran all the analyses with altered parameters (at least 200 min played per season). The results were similar.

Please note: the NBA is an exclusively male competition.

We are indebted to an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

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Title: The Relationship Between Employees’ Objective Internal and External Pay Standing and Their Job Performance: A Within-Person Analysis
Authors: Jost Sieweke
Bianca Köllner
Stefan Süß
Publication date: 23-06-2016
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Business and Psychology / Issue 5/2017
Print ISSN: 0889-3268
Electronic ISSN: 1573-353X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9457-6

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