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SOME SHARED REWARDS CONCEPTS 373

cerned. Being a member of a team does not relieve most people of their need to
guard their position in the pecking order. Therefore, it is likely that any ap-
proaches to shared measurements and rewards will have to be installed on top of
existing practices, rather than in place of them.

What this means is that existing practices for individual measurements and re-
wards will stay in place, and new practices will be added to recognize team per-
formance and results. There can be some changes to the individual measurement
practices, however, such as involving peers in the performance appraisal. This af-
fords team members the opportunity to recognize the contribution of other team
members and to influence their rewards.

Some Shared Rewards Concepts

We can’t get into actual shared rewards designs at this time. First of all, they must
be developed to support the specific projects environment within each firm. Sec-
ond, they need to be addressed by competent human resources specialists, which
I am not.

However, I can venture forth with a few ideas that may serve to guide the spe-
cific developments.

• The measurements system should be balanced. That is, it should cover a
wide range of desired results, both individual and team oriented, pertaining
to both projects and technical performance, recognizing contributions to
both projects and operations goals, and comprising both short-range and
long-range objectives.

• The performance review should be based on inputs from a wide range of as-
sociates. These would include both functional and project managers and
specialists, on both a supervisory and peer level. The team leader, where
there is one, should be able to coordinate and influence such reviews. Also,
where there is a team leader, the members of the team should participate in
that leader’s review.

• The reward pool should be available for equal sharing among the team partic-
ipants. If there is a formal measurement and ranking of individual contribu-
tions to the project’s success, then it might be feasible and proper to modify
the individual rewards on the basis of results of the performance review. This
should be exercised with caution, as such individual rating and reward prac-
tices can just as well act as a point of contention rather than as a motivator.

• Equal rewards does not necessarily mean identical rewards. What we are
looking for is equal reward value. However, the specific reward can be tai-
lored to the individual, based on that person’s preferences (see Psychologi-
cal Contract, in Chapter 13.5).