外部环境资源短缺对员工薪酬奖励偏好的影响与机制

The influence and mechanism of external environment resource scarcity on employees remuneration preference

以往关于时间与金钱奖励选择问题的探讨主要从员工工龄视角着手。但这一视角不能直接解释外部环境资源短缺时,员工对时间与金钱奖励选择偏好的差异问题。本文依据生命史理论,探讨外部环境资源(如就业资源和自然资源)短缺与否对员工选择时间和金钱奖励偏好的影响及内在机制。本文以即将步入职场的大学生和企业员工为样本,发现不管是外在就业资源短缺还是外在自然资源短缺都会促使员工更加偏好金钱而非时间奖励,内在机制是外部环境资源短缺时人们的心理表征更具体,并且这一现象在高物质主义者身上更为明显(实验1和2)。本文结尾讨论了对资源短缺、时间和金钱等研究领域的理论突破与推进。

The external environment resources such as employment and natural resources （water, air, and biodiversity） on which human kind is dependent are becoming scarcer and less available. Whether the scarcity of these resources will affect employees＇ preference on both time and money remuneration thus arouse the attention of public interest. Meanwhile, the extant research of organizational behavior and human resources both at home and abroad seldom covers the issue, despite the evident theoretical value and practical significance of the issue. Aiming at the question, while being are exposed to a situation of resource scarcity （i.e. employment resources and natural resources）, will people’s choice preferences to time and money change？ Based on the theories of Life History, this paper explores the phenomenon, medication and moderation mechanism of employees’ remuneration preference for time and money in the case of different types of resources scarcity. This paper tests the hypotheses by conducting two experiments. In Experiment 1, where external job resources are primed to be scarce, a external resource scarcity （resource scarcity vs. not resource scarcity vs. control） is used in the one factor between-subjects design, with the choice between time and money as dependent variables. This experiment aims to test whether resource scarcity affects employee’s choice between monetary reward and time remuneration. Experiment 1 is laboratory experiments with college students as sample, with the aim to test the mediation of mental representation and the moderation of materialistic values. Experiment 2, in which external natural resources are primed to be scarce, uses an external resource scarcity （resource scarcity vs. not resource scarcity vs. control） in the one factor between-subjects design, with the choice between time and money as dependent variables. For Experiment 2, a field experiment is used with employees as a sample to test their remuneration preference in business practice. By the results from Experiments 1 and 2, it is observed that, in comparison to the no-scarcity condition and the baseline condition, a significant percentage of participants in the external resources scarcity condition chose monetary rewards rather than time rewards. This phenomenon occurred because when exposed to a resource scarcity situation, participants’ mental representation becomes more concrete, where they choose concrete monetary remuneration. And it is also found out that individual differences in materialistic value do matters, where those employees scoring low in materialism value scale do not prefer monetary remuneration although they were exposed to a resource-scarcity situation. Through the testing of whether, how and when the different types of resource scarcity will influence employees’ monetary versus time remuneration preference, this paper provides a useful reference to existing organizational behavior researches in studies of time and money preference and on resource scarcity. And the paper has also potential usage in human resource and business practice.