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Managerial Decisions

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ANALYZING MANAGERIAL DECISIONS: Structuring Compensation Plans

Parkleigh Pharmacy is a small department store in Rochester, NY, specializing in upscale, expensive personal accessories (e.g., sunglasses, beauty aids, leather goods) and home decorations (e.g., crystal, china, table lamps). Kaufmann's is a large department store chain, based in Pennsylvania, with several stores in the Rochester area. Kaufmann's carries a broader range of products and caters more to middle-income consumers.
Salespeople at Parkleigh are paid a straight hourly wage (i.e., no sales commissions). In addition, they are entitled to a 30 percent discount on anything they buy at the store. By contrast, salespeople at Kaufmann's are paid an hourly wage (lower than the hourly wage paid at Parkleigh) plus a commission of 5 percent on sales they make. They receive no discount on products they buy at Kaufmann's.
Why do you think the compensation plans differ at the two firms? In particular, why do you think Kaufmann's pays commissions to salespeople, while Parkleigh does not? Why does Parkleigh offer employees discounts on purchases, while Kaufmann's does not?
One of the reasons for having different compensation plans could be that Parkleigh does not operate under the philosophy that sales incentives drive sales but instead high customer service and friendly staff drives sales especially when selling to higher end customers. Parkleigh may offer the employee discount because they may have the philosophy that if the employee owns the products they could more easily sell them to others customers. Since the products are more upscale this may be the only way the employees could afford to purchase them.
Since Kaufmann’s is more of a middle class store the incentive plan may need to be structured differently. The employees may already own the products that they are selling so a discount may not be as

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