The Attack on Pay

Status, not contribution, has traditionally been the basis for the numbers on employees’ paychecks. Pay has reflected where jobs rank in the corporate hierarchy—not what comes out of them. Today this system is under attack. More and more senior executives are trying to turn their employees into entrepreneurs—people who earn a direct return on the […]

by

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

by

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

From the Magazine (March 1987)

Status, not contribution, has traditionally been the basis for the numbers on employees’ paychecks. Pay has reflected where jobs rank in the corporate hierarchy—not what comes out of them.

A version of this article appeared in the March 1987 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, the founding chair of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, and a former chief editor of Harvard Business Review. She is the author of Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time (Public Affairs, 2020).
RosabethKanter

The Attack on Pay

Partner Center

Explore HBR

HBR Store

About HBR

Manage My Account

Follow HBR