Talk:Pay-for-Performance (Federal Government)

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Overlap with Wiki article Merit Pay, sub-section on "Federal Government Merit Pay."

Reasons for creation

In Spring 2014, after reveiwing the Wiki article Merit Pay, I developed an entirely new sub-section for that page on the subj-topic "Federal Government Merit Pay." The term "Merit Pay" is MUCH broader in application than simply "Teacher Pay." It has extensive meaning and application in both the private sector and public sector. Though I did not make that point directly, it was made implicitly by creating the new sub-section on "Federal Government Merit Pay."

This section was of extremely timely importance because -- at the time it was written -- the top domestic news story for over a month was the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014, at multiple medical facilities of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, over employees falsifying patient waiting-time records to protect their eligibility for merit pay bonuses. The problem (still unfolding as of this writing) has already resulted in dozens of deaths, multiple investigations, the resignation of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and hasty Congressional legislation.

Overwhelmingly, the most-cited motivation for the misconduct is the VA's merit pay bonus system. At this time, then, it is important for that aspect of Merit Pay to be covered substantially by Wikipedia.

Accordingly, the sub-section was added; the section it is under (Political History...) was relabeled and re-organized; and the opening paragraph of the entire page was expanded to include this new sub-topic.

Possible Overlap with THIS Wikipedia Entry: Pay-for-Performance (Federal Government)

The addition of "Federal Government Merit Pay" sub-section, as noted above, somewhat overlaps related subject material covered in THIS Wikipedia article, "Pay-for-Performance (Federal Government)," which I discovered AFTER having completed the aforemetioned addition to that "Merit Pay" wikipedia entry.

There is room for debate about nomenclature, here, I suspect, and it might well be argued that "Pay-for-Performance" is a sub-topic of "Merit Pay," though the terms seem to be used somewhat interchangeably in the referenced professional, academic and government literature.

At this point, it would be a large and awkward undertaking to try and merge the two entires -- partly becuase they seem to have reached fundamentally different interpretations of the subject, based on the very different sources cited, and perhaps because of bias (concious or otherwise) of one or both of the two different wiki contributors responsible.

The statements made in the two different topic presentations conflict on statements such as

"How it got started" ("Merit Pay" contributor cites Clinton/Gore 'Reinventing Government' initiative -- "Pay-for-Performance..." contributor cites Pres. Jimmy Carter.)

"Whether it is in use in the federal gov't" ("Pay-for-Performance..." contributor says there is no nationwide federal system for such pay; "Merit Pay" contributor cites extensive government documentation and current news articles indicating widespread use of such pay.)

A contributor or editor with more time, and personal neutrality (spelled "i-n-d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-c-e") on the issue, if available and willing to help, might be the best person to blend these two articles, and settle out their differences.

Added 'See Also' section

To give readers the alternative to view the other article, in the context of THIS article, I put a link to it in a new "See Also" section, immediately after the body text. The same was done on the "Merit Pay" wiki page, linking to THIS article, for fairness.

Zxtxtxz (talk) 13:39, 9 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]