Second, they seek to provide management with the objective and fact-based information it needs to reward top performers.

The department needs to be able to reward high performers with incentive pay, Mr. Portman added, which is often prohibited by existing rules.

The Shah rewarded performers with jewels, so many costumes had elaborate gold embroidery, pearl beading and gemstones.

By the wider public he will be remembered as a composer whose style, founded in practical music-making, has an immediate appeal which rewards both performers and audiences.

Competitions tend to reward performers with flashy techniques and crowd-pleasing styles.

While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes for the Golden Globes, tends to be more adventurous in its choices than the traditionally stodgier academies handing out Emmys, it never goes far enough for our taste in terms of rewarding the truly deserving programs and performers.

But Mr. Giuliani asserted that the best way to raise productivity was to reward high performers with large raises, perhaps 6 percent, while giving little, perhaps a 2 percent increase, or nothing at all, to poorer performers.

Carrots, like using big salary increases to reward good performers, tend to be out of most managers' hands.

While some companies plan their own events to reward top performers, others hire meeting and incentive planning companies to do the job.