Organizational Behavior

Joseph Vitus

Module 3 Assignment

February 14, 2012

1. The conflict arises because one of the primary functions of the teachers' union is to look out for the interests of all of the teachers and since the new pay-for-performance plan caps the base salary raises you can get at 13 years, the union feels that the program discriminates against veteran teachers. The extra bonus you can get for teaching in impoverished areas also favors new teachers because they are more likely to have the flexibility to move to the areas where those schools are located. Veteran teachers are more likely to have a family and home established preventing them from having the ability to relocate easier. So, while the school district has noble intentions, what they have failed to identify in their pay-for-performance plan is the effect on the individual-organizational exchange relationship. The veteran teachers and the teachers' union feel that there should be equal reward for equal work, and while veteran teachers can still receive pay bonuses, it is not the same as having that bonus added to their base pay and receiving it year after year. This new program has a perceived negative inequity and is very demotivating to the veteran teachers as can be seen by their protesting and acting out. I think this aspect of the program is something that the school district did not account for and is causing the unexpected conflict between the two parties.

2. The equity and expectancy theories of motivation play interesting roles in the implementation of the Denver Public Schools' pay-for-performance program. I feel that the school district intended to use the expectancy theory in conjunction with goals in order to drive performance. I feel that the school district felt that this was a program that had high procedural justice and that this would be an equitable solution. They felt that the instrumentality would be a high belief that the performance bonus would result of hard work and achieving certain metrics. The school district also thought that each teacher's valence would be the same. I believe the school district felt that a bonus is a bonus and it doesn't matter if the bonus is tied to the base pay or comes as a bonus check. What the school district failed to realize, however, is that the younger teachers that fall within the 13 year window would view the valence as positive and this new pay-for-performance structure would have a positive inequity for the young teachers. For the veteran teachers the valence is negative and to them the new pay-for-performance structure has a negative inequity. To the veterans, the less accomplished teachers are getting rewarded better and now the veteran's pay structure isn't equal to their peers around the country.

3. The conflict between the school district and the teachers' union creates some interesting tensions within the various cultures and sub-cultures. The different parties are already dealing with two strong organizational cultures--the culture found within the school district and the culture found within the teachers' union. Most times both cultures are in sync because it is in the school district's best interest to look out for the teacher's interests and it is the union's main responsibility to look out for the teacher's interests. Now within the two main cultures, because of the conflict between the school district and the teachers' union, interesting sub-cultures develop. Since there is a divide built in to the performance program by the 13 year provision, between the teachers who still receive base salary increases and those who don't those groups turn into sub-cultures within the two main cultures and each have competing interests. These sub-cultures also divide generationally since the new performance program has the perception of favoring newer teachers, who fall within the 13 year provision, at the expense of the veteran teachers.

The development of these sub-cultures is a negative consequence as a result of the new pay-for-performance plan. Both of these sub-cultures are going to cause a shift in each organization's social system stability and the teacher's organizational identity. For the