- The Unsatisfied Department Chair
Dr. Roman Mascardo is chairperson of the Department of Management in the College of Business Administration at a large state university in Dasmarinas. He has been a member of the department for 14 years and a full professor for five years. Last summer , he was asked to assume the chair after screening committee conducted interviews and reviewed resumes for him and three other candidates.
Roman was very excited about the new challenge and has begun several innovative projects to enhance faculty research and consulting. The teaching function in the department has always been first ratewhile research has been somewhat weaker. Roman has continued to be very productive publishing three articles and two books.
The University’s policy is that all salary increases are based only on merit. Roman had developed a very sophisticated performance appraisal system for his faculty to help him quantify salary recommendations. His point system considers and weights different items in the areas of teaching , research, and service. Teaching and research were given weights 40% each with service at 20%. Roman felt he had good documentation for all his recommendations.
Roman submitted his recommendation to Dean Tolentino and was pleased when all these recommendations were accepted.
Roman then submitted his own annual report detailing his accomplishments as Chair as well as his more
personal accomplishment. From his perspective, he felt he deserved at least 10% increase since his department had made major strides in a number of areas while the other departments had been standing still or status quo. Moreover , none of the other chairs were professionally active on the national level and none published in the past year. His teaching evaluations were also in the top 15% of faculty in the college.
Dean Tolentino sent out letters to all Department Chairs in May and Roman was shocked to learn that his salary increase was just 7%. infromation he received through the “grapevine” was that all the Chairs had received the 7% increase. He also learned from one of the other chairs that Dean always gave Chairs equal percentage increases each year. Contrary to the official university policy, there were no distinctions based on merit.
Roman was visibly upset about what he considered to be major inequity. He then called the Dean secretary to schedule an appointment to discuss the situation with Dean Tolentino.
Questions:
- Are “merit” salary increases always based on merit? Why or why not?
- If you were Dean Tolentino, how wil you explain your decision to give equal percentage salary increases for all department chairs to Roman?
- What should Roman say to Dean Tolentino at their meeting? What are the long-range benefits of a true “merit” program. What are the problems associated with the luck of such “merit” system for department chairs? How likely is the discussion and future behavior ? why? If the Dean does not change his policy , what are the long run implications for the change?