In a clear sign of its dissatisfaction with the direction of the company, the board of J. C. Penney gave its chief executive, Ron Johnson, a pay cut of almost 97 percent, to $1.9 million, for 2012, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

In addition, not a single top executive received a cash bonus for the year.

“The C.E.O. is certainly being given a message,” said Kent Hughes, managing director at the proxy advisory firm Egan-Jones Ratings Company.

Analysts generally say they believe that Mr. Johnson will be given at least another couple of quarters to turn around the company he was hired a little more than a year ago to revive.

Since Mr. Johnson arrived in late 2011, J. C. Penney has wrestled with one problem after another. Mr. Johnson did away with discount sales, but revived them when it turned out customers liked sales. He proposed a three-tiered pricing strategy that he abandoned when customers were confused. He revamped the company’s advertising strategy to focus on lifestyle, not prices, but backtracked when it turned out customers wanted the ads to tell them how much items cost.