Hell to Pay: A Dogmatic Reward Strategy Can Seriously Damage Your Organisation's Financial Health-Which Is Why Management Accountants Should Get More Involved in Policy-Making. (Management)

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The last weeks of 2002 were notable for the number of high-profile cases concerning the relationship between an organisation and its employees.

Most column inches were devoted to confrontations in the public sector. First came the hospital consultants' rejection of a deal that would have given them a salary increase of around 15 per cent, because in return they would have had to allow their work patterns to be governed by managers who, the consultants believe, are preoccupied with politically inspired but clinically inappropriate performance measures.

Then there was the firefighters' dispute, where the union insisted that its members were worth more money, even though there was a waiting list of people wanting jobs at the going rate. The government predictably resorted to "lump theory" in …