Performance-related pay in Chinese professional sports

Abstract

There have been numerous research studies and discussions of performance-related pay (PRP) in the human resource management literature, but very little research on PRP has included samples from non-Western societies. Moreover, few have studied PRP in the sport sector. The present study supports an expectancy model framework for PRP for professional athletes in China. The findings indicate the importance of the valence for monetary incentives, the instrumentality of performance for these incentives and clear individual and group objectives for improving performance. Comparisons for individual versus team and for females versus males yield important differences in the perception of the components of PRP programmes.

Keywords:

• Performance‐related payment
• China
• sport
• resource management

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Editor and the reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

Dr  Yehuda Baruch (address for correspondence), School of Management, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 9TJ, UK (e-mail: [email protected]). Ken Wheeler, University of Texas at Arlington, USA. Xia Zhao, University of East Anglia, UK.