1. What theories about motivation underlie the switch from salary to commission pay?
2. What needs are met under the commission system? Are they the same needs in the shoes and handbag department as they are in lingerie? Explain.
3. If you were Frances Patterson, would you go back to the previous compensation system, implement the straight commission plan in all Kimbel’s stores, or devise and test some other compensation method? If you decided to test another system, what would it look like?

Frances Patterson, Kimbel’s CEO, looked at the latest “Sales by Manager” figures on her daily Web-based sales report. What did these up-to-the-minute numbers tell her about the results of Kimbel’s trial of straight commission pay for its salespeople?
A regional chain of upscale department stores based in St. Louis, Kimbel’s faces the challenge shared by most department stores these days: how to stop losing share of overall retail sales to discount store chains. A key component of the strategy the company formulated to counter this long-term trend is the revival of great customer service on the floor, once a hallmark of upscale stores. Frances knows Kimbel’s has its work cut out for it. When she dropped in on several stores incognito a few years ago, she was dismayed to discover that finding a salesperson actively engaged with a customer was rare. In fact, finding a salesperson when a customer wanted to pay for an item was often difficult.