A study of the impact of Performance Related Pay on Job Satisfaction using Job Autonomy as mediating variable

The aim of my thesis is to investigate the impact of Performance Related Pay on Job Satisfaction using Job Autonomy as mediating variable. The first chapter is aimed at offering a theoretical background of PRP and JS and an analysis of many aspects connected to these topics is provided. First of all, performance management system, which is responsible to decide about employees' compensation, is described and then, the various PRP schemes are presented. Always in this first part, the possible implications about the relationship among performance related pay and performance are discussed. Then, after a general overview of the concept of job satisfaction and all its possible linkages, the focus goes to the main relationship between PRP and JS. Successively, the motivational effects of PRP in the workplace are analysed in depth with a distinction among intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, followed by the presentation of the Self Determination and Motivation Crowding theories that particularly focus on this issue. At the end of this first chapter, the mediating role of job autonomy is introduced with the four conditions of PRP for preserving autonomy. In the second chapter, an empirical analysis is implemented using secondary data from the sixth edition of the EWCS. In this second chapter, it is possible to find specific explanations regarding the variables used and the procedures implemented to answer to two research questions regarding the existence of a direct relationship between performance related pay and job satisfaction and if this relationship is mediated by job autonomy. The analysis has been implemented using the SPSS software. In the last part of this thesis the main results obtained from the regression models are discussed. Finally, there are the main conclusions compared to the literature.