We use an experiment to test the hypothesis that adding discretionary adjustment to performance-based pay strengthens the sorting of employees based on how strongly they identify with the organization’s objectives. Our conceptualization of identification is grounded in identity economics, which predicts that employees who identify strongly with the organization’s objectives exert greater effort toward those objectives than employees who identify weakly with those objectives. Building on this conceptualization, we expect that employees anticipate that managers will adjust performance-based pay more (less) favorably when employees reveal strong (weak) identification with the organization’s objectives. Thus, when managers can adjust performance-based pay, performance-based pay contains a feature that benefits (disadvantages) employees with strong (weak) identification, which we expect to strengthen the sorting of employees based on their identification. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the difference in preferences for performance-based pay between employees with strong and weak identification is larger when discretionary adjustment accompanies performance-based pay than when it does not. Our results also confirm that employee identification increases employee costly effort exertion toward the organization’s objectives. We contribute to the management accounting literature on discretion in performance evaluation by documenting a previously undocumented benefit of discretionary adjustment.

我们使用一个实验来检验这样一个假设，即对基于绩效的薪酬进行酌情调整会根据员工对组织目标的认同程度加强对员工的分类。我们对认同的概念化以认同经济学为基础，它预测与组织目标认同感很强的员工比对这些目标认同感较弱的员工付出更大的努力来实现这些目标。基于这一概念，我们预计，当员工对组织目标表现出强烈（弱）认同时，员工预期经理会更多（更少）有利地调整基于绩效的薪酬。因此，当管理者可以调整基于绩效的薪酬时，基于绩效的薪酬包含一个特性，即福利（劣势）认同性强（弱）的员工，我们希望加强员工基于认同的分类。与我们的假设一致，我们发现，当酌情调整伴随绩效薪酬时，具有强认同和弱认同的员工之间对绩效薪酬偏好的差异比不伴随绩效薪酬时更大。我们的结果还证实，员工身份识别会增加员工为实现组织目标而付出的代价高昂的努力。我们通过记录以前未记录的酌情调整的好处，为有关绩效评估的酌情决定权的管理会计文献做出了贡献。我们希望加强员工的身份分类。与我们的假设一致，我们发现，当酌情调整伴随绩效薪酬时，具有强认同和弱认同的员工之间对绩效薪酬偏好的差异比不伴随绩效薪酬时更大。我们的结果还证实，员工身份识别会增加员工为实现组织目标而付出的代价高昂的努力。我们通过记录以前未记录的酌情调整的好处，为有关绩效评估的酌情决定权的管理会计文献做出了贡献。我们希望加强员工的身份分类。与我们的假设一致，我们发现，当酌情调整伴随绩效薪酬时，具有强认同和弱认同的员工之间对绩效薪酬偏好的差异比不伴随绩效薪酬时更大。我们的结果还证实，员工身份识别会增加员工为实现组织目标而付出的代价高昂的努力。我们通过记录以前未记录的酌情调整的好处，为有关绩效评估的酌情决定权的管理会计文献做出了贡献。我们发现，当酌情调整伴随绩效薪酬时，强和弱认同员工之间对绩效薪酬偏好的差异比不伴随绩效薪酬时更大。我们的结果还证实，员工身份识别会增加员工为实现组织目标而付出的代价高昂的努力。我们通过记录以前未记录的酌情调整的好处，为有关绩效评估的酌情决定权的管理会计文献做出了贡献。我们发现，当酌情调整伴随绩效薪酬时，强和弱认同员工之间对绩效薪酬偏好的差异比不伴随绩效薪酬时更大。我们的结果还证实，员工身份识别会增加员工为实现组织目标而付出的代价高昂的努力。我们通过记录以前未记录的酌情调整的好处，为有关绩效评估的酌情决定权的管理会计文献做出了贡献。