An employee motivation plan that provides bonuses or other financial rewards to employees based on how much they improve performance or productivity. Gainsharing is usually provided on a team, rather than an individual basis. To make sense as a motivation technique, gainsharing only makes sense if the employees have some control over the conditions that can lead to the improvement in productivity or performance.
Contributed by: Managerwise Staff
gantt chart
A diagram used in project planning and management that maps out the series of tasks required to complete a project, showing how the tasks fit in the overall project time-line.
Contributed by: ManagerWise Staff
garbage in, garbage out
Abbreviated as GIGO, it is a shorthand way of saying that if bad data is fed into a business system or poor quality efforts and materials are put into a business process, the results coming out of that system or process are going to be of poor quality—or outright wrong.
Contributed by: Managerwise Staff
garnishment
A court-ordered transfer of property (typically money) from one party to another to satisfy an outstanding debt. For example, after a creditor (the person or company owed funds) wins a lawsuit against a debtor (the person who owes the funds to the creditor), a court may order the debtor's employer to transfer a portion of the employee's wages to the creditor. The same portion of wages may be garnished every pay period until the debt (including interest if the court so orders) is paid in full.
A government may garnish an employee's wages to collect back taxes, but the creditor can also be an individual or corporation.
Contributed by: ManagerWise Staff
general ledger
A book that records all transactions affecting a company's balance sheet or income statement. Thus, the general ledger provides a current status of those accounts.
generally accepted accounting principles
The rules and procedures that define how U.S. public corporations should formulate their publicly available financial statements. Abbreviated as GAAP. GAAP, which may change from time-to-time, are defined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
A very large reward (such as non-vested stock) that a senior will have to forfeit if he or she leaves the company's employ before a certain time, typically the end of his or her employment contract.
A large sum of money or other rewards (such as stock or a pension contribution) that is given to a senior employment who leaves before the end of his or her employment contract that is often not based on how well the employee performed on the job.
Contributed by: Managerwise Staff
golden parachute
Terms included in an executive's employment contract that provide rich rewards (such as severance pay, company stock or options, bonuses and/or continuation of benefits, etc.) should an event occur, such as the sale of the company, that results in the loss of the executive's job. Under some circumstances those rewards may be paid even if the departure is the executive's choice rather than being forced on him or her.
goodwill
Typically, when buying another company or buying enough shares to control another company, the acquirer will pay a premium over the price that the shares were trading at on the open market. This price premium is referred to as goodwill.
Contributed by: ManagerWise Staff
grace period
The formally recognized time before a creditor can initiate legal action when an amount owing is not paid.
Contributed by: ManagerWise Staff
greenmail
A process of buying shares in a company and threatening to take control of the company with the primary purpose not of taking control, but of convinciing the target company to buy back the shares at a premium in order to prevent the greenmailer from taking control.
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