How the realized measure of a worker’s performance affects their perception of their compensation
实验发现，工人在任务前认为薪酬应随绩效度量下降而减少，但绩效度量实现后，他们要求更高薪酬，且度量越差要求越高，说明绩效度量扭曲了薪酬感知和公平感。
Workers often struggle to fully appreciate the quality of their performance. Rather, workers use the measure of their performance that is realized from their firm’s measurement system, which is typically imperfect, as a guide to do so. This study examines how workers’ perceptions about their compensation depend on the realized measure of their performance. Our experimental results suggest that before performing a task, workers display a fairness sentiment whereby they expect compensation to decrease as the measure of performance suggests worse performance. However, once the measure of their performance is realized, workers’ fairness sentiments weaken, and they request higher-than-expected compensation, with this deviation increasing as the realized measure worsens. Thus, a realized measure of performance distorts workers’ perceptions about their compensation and their fairness sentiments. This suggests that the benefits of perceived “fair” worker compensation are less likely to occur once workers have realized measures of performance.