Sometimes the question of staff pay arises although, by survey, the condition with most staffs reportedly is secondary to org income and getting a show on the road.
So it is of interest what really underlies org income and staff pay.
There is a term used in business called “fair exchange.”
Let us apply this to an activity engaged in servicing the public.
We can isolate four conditions of exchange.
1. First consider a group which takes in money but does not deliver anything in exchange. This is called rip-off. It is the “exchange” condition of robbers, tax men, governments and other criminal elements.
2. Second is the condition of partial exchange. The group takes in orders or money for goods and then delivers part of it or a corrupted version of what was ordered. This is called short-changing or “running into debt” in that more and more is owed, in service or goods by the group.
3. The third condition is the exchange known, legally and in business practice, as “fair exchange.” One takes in orders and money and delivers exactly what has been ordered. Most successful businesses and activities work on the basis of “fair exchange.”
4. The fourth condition of exchange is not common but could be called exchange in abundance. Here one does not give two for one or free service but gives something more valuable than money was received for. Example: The group has diamonds for sale; an average diamond is ordered; the group delivers a blue-white diamond above average. Also it delivers it promptly and with courtesy.
Now, believe it or not, org income and staff pay depend upon which of the above four exchanges is in practice by (a) the org or group; or (b) the staff member in the group.
If exchange number 1 is in vogue, income will dry up with a thoroughness you wouldn’t believe. Although the TV and movies try to tell one that robbery is the only way to get rich, this is not true. Those who engage upon it, whether they be stickup men, corporate con men or governments, are not long for this world. The bigger the group, the longer it takes for it to fall, but fall it assuredly does. And the individual who takes but does not give ends up with a deep-six in many ways quite rapidly.
The second condition of partial exchange can only keep a group or individual going just so long. The end result is painfully a demise of status or position and, most certainly, income. Many “third world countries” and even the bigger ones are in this plight right now. They take in but do not really produce or give. This is what inflation is all about. Unemployment ranks are full of such.
The third condition of “fair exchange” gives one a rather level progress. It is considered “honest,” is socially acceptable and very legal under law. It does not, however, guarantee any expansion or improvement of a group or the lot of a person. It is barely comfortable.
The fourth condition is the preferred one. It is the one I try to operate on and have attempted to for ages. Produce in abundance and try to give better than expected quality. Deliver and get paid for it, for sure, but deliver better than was ordered and more. Always try to write a better story than was expected; always try to deliver a better job than was ordered. Always try to produce — and deliver — a better result than what was hoped for.
This fourth principle above is almost unknown in business or the arts. Yet it is the key to howling success and expansion.
It is true for the org, it is true for the individual staff member.
Where a group is concerned, there is another factor which determines which of the four above is in practice. It is group internal pressure. Where this only comes from executives, it may not get activated. Where it comes from individual group members in the group itself, it becomes assured. The internal demand of one staff member to another is what really determines the condition of the group and establishes which of the four conditions above come into play.
Thus the org collectively, in electing which of the four principles above it is following, establishes its own level of income and longevity and determines its own state of contraction or expansion.
While this is a must in an executive — to establish the principle being followed— the real manifestation only occurs from pressure by individual staff members or others within the group.
Unions and workers in the auto industry elected to follow exchange number 2 above. This brought about the decline you see in auto companies. Had they elected to follow number 3 they would not be in trouble. Had they elected to follow number 4 they would now be in clover for the world today does not really have a truly good, economical, wreck-free car.
It is up to the individual staff member in a group what the group income is and what their own staff pay is. The org cannot earn more and the individual staff member cannot be paid more than will be established by which principle above they elect to follow.
If they follow number 3 they will get along. But if they follow number 4 they will really flourish and prosper. And it is the only one which guarantees expansion.