Hi,
I am giving my gmat for the first time on 28th july. Could some1 pls review my essay n arguments
Essay Question :
“Some have argued that the salaries of corporate executives should be linked to those of their lowest-paid employees. This, they argue, will improve relations between management and workers, reducing costly labor disputes and increasing worker productivity. What these people overlook, however, is that these high salaries are necessary to attract the best managers, the individuals whose decisions have the greatest impact on the overall well-being of the company.”
Which do you find more compelling, the contention that worker and executive salaries should be linked, or the response to it? Support your position with reasons and examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
Essay Answer :
I find the view that higher salaries are necessary to attract the best managers to be more compelling than the view that salaries of corporate executives should be linked to those of their lowest-paid employess.
Primarily ,the people whose decisions have the greatest impact on the overall well-being of the company need to be provided an appropriate salary. In case that these executives are not paid a suitable renumerarion, it is highly probable that they would leave the company in search of other greener pastures. Apart from the cost of finding replacements for vacancies in important positions, there is also a very high probability that similarly talented people may not want to work for the renumeration offered.
Secondarily,the position of the company would be like that of a ship without its captain. In case that there are not competent enough people to provide the proper direction and strategy of the company , not only the company but also all its employees including the lowest-paid employess would be facing a crisis. Various companies have faced such situations when their top exectives have left the organization. Thus it is of primary importance that every effort is taken to retain them .
Increasing worker productivity requires the efficient work of the corporte executives since they would be at the forefront of any strategies which would have to implemented to find holes in the current operation method or fine tuning the already efficient methods. It would be a condition of false reasoning to consider that salary is the sole reason for causing labor disputes.In fact proper and fair action is needed by the exectives in order to smoothen any ruffled feathers and avoid labor disputes. The relations will only turn for the worst if the managers feel that they are being under-paid because of the lowest-paid employees and this would cause unnecessary tension between them.
It is of no doubt that everybody- from the CEO to the lowest-paid employee- has an important role to play for the organization to run smoothly. However the value add that each person gives to the company is different and salary has to match this value addition that they are providing.
Instead of reducing the salary of the exectives, other preventive and corrective measures can be initiated so as to improve the relations between management and workers ,as well as reducing costly labor disputes. Disputes can be primarly avoided if the relation between each employee is good. This can be achieved by integrating everyone into the company fold and having a flat hierarchy . Also the adequare measures to monitor the mood and morale of the workforce can be implemented.
To sum, I would like to state my opinion that it would not be prudent to link the salary of the corporate executives to those of the lowest-paid employees