Group Exercise
A Reward Allocation Decision
You are in charge of allocating a $12,000 bonus to a team that
recently met an important deadline. The team was in charge of
designing a Web-based product for a client. The project lasted a
year. There were five people in the team. Your job is to determine
each person’s share from the bonus.
Devin: Project manager. He was
instrumental in securing the client, coordinating everyone’s
effort, and managing relationships with the client. He put in a lot
of extra hours for this project. His annual salary is $80,000. He
is independently wealthy, drives an expensive car, and does not
have any debt. He has worked for the company for 5 years and worked
for the project from the beginning.
Alice: Technical lead. She oversaw the
technical aspects of the project. She resolved many important
technical issues. During the project, while some members worked
extra hours, she refused to stay at the office outside regular
hours. However, she was productive during regular work hours, and
she was accessible via e-mail in the evenings. Her salary is
$50,000. She is a single mother and has a lot of debt. She has
worked for the company for 4 years and worked for the project for 8
months.
Erin: Graphic designer. She was in
charge of the creative aspects of the project. She experimented
with many looks, and while doing that she slowed down the entire
team. Brice and Carrie were mad at her because of the many mistakes
she made during the project, but the look and feel of the project
eventually appealed to the client, which resulted in repeat
business. Her salary is $30,000. She is single and lives to party.
She has worked for the company for 2 years and worked for this
project from the beginning.
Brice: Tester. He was in charge of
finding the bugs in the project and ensuring that it worked. He
found many bugs, but he was not very aggressive in his testing. He
misunderstood many things, and many of the bugs he found were not
really bugs but his misuse of the system. He had a negative
attitude toward the whole project, acted very pessimistically
regarding the likelihood of success, and demoralized the team. His
salary is $40,000. He has accumulated a large credit card debt. He
has worked for the company for 3 years and worked for the project
in the last 6 months.
Carrie: Web developer. She was in
charge of writing the code. She was frustrated when Erin slowed
down the entire project because of her experimentation. Carrie was
primarily responsible for meeting the project deadline because she
put in a lot of extra work hours. Her salary is $50,000. Her mother
has ongoing health issues, and Carrie needs money to help her. She
worked for the company for the past year and was involved in this
project for 6 months.