Higher Income Distribution System Analysis

With the economic and social changes in China, income distribution system at institutions of higher education has experienced several important reforms. The year 2006 saw a new reform of income distribution system for staff members at institutions of higher education in July. The aim of this reform is to build a new income distribution system which fits into the characteristics of institutions of higher education and reflects job performance and classified management. Income distribution system at institutions of higher education in China has made great achievements in the following aspects. Transformation from"Identity Management"to"Post Management"has taken place. Incentive and restraint mechanism has been reinforced to arouse enthusiasm of the staff members. Reforms both of income distributions system and internal management system have been mutually accelerated with the help of each other. As a result, the income of the teaching staff at institutions of higher education has been greatly increased, which help a lot in the maintenance of teaching staff. Meanwhile problems have occurred during this process. Fairness and efficiency in distribution have not been achieved. Effectiveness of incentive in income distribution system has been impaired. The assessment of job performance has not been scientifically standardized. Scientific research orientation in income distribution system can not safeguard the improvement of teaching quality.The current reforms of income distribution system carried out in many institutions of higher education have three characteristics: hypothesis of"economic man", orientation of organizational goal and mechanism of behavioral restraint. Theses three characteristics represent, to some extent, part of the management traits or a kind of value orientation of management at institutions of higher education. The mechanisms and policies in the same system are logically connected so they are closely related to each other in basic characteristics and value orientations. Hence, it can be deducted that the characteristics and value orientation of management system at institutions of higher education also have the above-mentioned three characteristics.This value orientation of management does not fit into the characteristics of organizations and their staff (especially academics) at institutions of higher education. Institutions of higher education are academic organizations taking profound knowledge as their existence basis and subjects as their organizational forms. Bearing some characteristics of political organizations, institutions of higher education are unions of loose organizations where there exist distributions of influence, power and interest. The academic staff at institutions of higher education has the traits of"academic man"besides being an economic man, a social man and a man of self-realization. Owing to the complexity of institutions of higher education and the multi-values of the staff in these organizations, there exist some problems and even conflicts if hypothesis of"economic man", orientation of organizational goal and mechanism of behavioral restraint are used to guide the management at institutions of higher educations. Therefore, the trend of management reforms at institutions of higher education should aim at innovations of management concepts and application of culture-based management and value-based management, which is of great significance to the setup of income distribution system suitable for institutions of higher education.