NMIMS Global Access
School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)
Course: Compensation & Benefits
Internal Assignment Applicable for September 2021 Examination

1. Why are incentive plans useful for motivating high performers? Identify some of the different incentive plans payable for a sales employee (10 Marks)

2. Contrast the differences between straight piecework, differential piece rate and standard hour plans. Explain where each plan might best be used.

3. Mount Carmel University (MCU) is a medium sized public university with 21000 students and 1200 faculty members. The College of Business Administration is the largest one on campus, with 8000 students and 180 faculty members. For the past few years, the dean has had to deal with a large number of dissatisfied faculty who complain that they are underpaid relative to newly hired faculty. Many of the complainants are senior tenured professors who refuse to engage in committee activities beyond the minimum service requirements and who are seldom in their offices because they feel aggrieved. They teach six hours a week, spend two hours in the office and then disappear from the campus. Recently, the head of the college faculty council compiled some statistics and sent these to the dean, demanding “prompt action to create more equity in the faculty pay structure.” The dean replied that he has little choice but to make offers to new faculty that are competitive with the market and that the university will not give him enough funds to maintain equitable pay differences between new and current faculty or between higher and lower ranks.

a. Identify the compensation problems that exist at Mount Carmel University. (5 Marks)
b. Discuss the types of compensation programs and plans available to the University to motivate and retain their existing staff.