MANAGING PEOPLE | Managing People - How Employees' Social Preferences Shape the Returns to Management Practices

Summary
Many management practices incur important consequences for the distribution of resources as well as for workers' monetary and non-monetary benefits. It is therefore likely that employees' social preferences - like reciprocity, fairness concerns - matter for the effectiveness of management practices and play a major role in the productivity of firms. I analyze the causal effects of management practices and study to what extent employees' social preferences shape the returns of the considered management practices. In RCTs, I randomize management practices within firms to identify their effects on multiple outcomes, e.g. sales and turnover. I then collect survey data on employees' social preferences and managers' beliefs to study how social preferences shape the returns of the management practices. PROJECT A: In a bakery chain with a control-oriented culture, I reduce for a randomly selected half of the 150 stores documentation duties that workers perceive as a sign of distrust. I examine the causal impact of employee control on performance and study whether the effects interact with workers' reciprocity. PROJECT B: In a random sample of 234 grocery stores, bonuses are allocated equally among workers. In the remaining stores, managers have full discretion regarding the bonus allocation. I study whether managers' discretion causally affects performance and examine to what extent the effect is associated with employees' fairness perceptions and managers' beliefs about workers' distributional preferences. PROJECT C: In a kitchen manufacturer, 301 workers employed in various units whose task it is to identify kitchen planning errors do not interact and share knowledge. I introduce a new component into the organizational structure: regular meetings in which randomly selected workers from different units discuss planning errors. I study the causal impact of the meetings on performance and trust between workers, and examine whether the effects depend on workers' reciprocity.
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Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101040134
Start date: 01-08-2022
End date: 31-07-2027
Total budget - Public funding: 1 445 535,00 Euro - 1 445 535,00 Euro
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Original description

Many management practices incur important consequences for the distribution of resources as well as for workers' monetary and non-monetary benefits. It is therefore likely that employees' social preferences - like reciprocity, fairness concerns - matter for the effectiveness of management practices and play a major role in the productivity of firms. I analyze the causal effects of management practices and study to what extent employees' social preferences shape the returns of the considered management practices. In RCTs, I randomize management practices within firms to identify their effects on multiple outcomes, e.g. sales and turnover. I then collect survey data on employees' social preferences and managers' beliefs to study how social preferences shape the returns of the management practices. PROJECT A: In a bakery chain with a control-oriented culture, I reduce for a randomly selected half of the 150 stores documentation duties that workers perceive as a sign of distrust. I examine the causal impact of employee control on performance and study whether the effects interact with workers' reciprocity. PROJECT B: In a random sample of 234 grocery stores, bonuses are allocated equally among workers. In the remaining stores, managers have full discretion regarding the bonus allocation. I study whether managers' discretion causally affects performance and examine to what extent the effect is associated with employees' fairness perceptions and managers' beliefs about workers' distributional preferences. PROJECT C: In a kitchen manufacturer, 301 workers employed in various units whose task it is to identify kitchen planning errors do not interact and share knowledge. I introduce a new component into the organizational structure: regular meetings in which randomly selected workers from different units discuss planning errors. I study the causal impact of the meetings on performance and trust between workers, and examine whether the effects depend on workers' reciprocity.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2021-STG

Update Date

09-02-2023
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.0 Cross-cutting call topics
ERC-2021-STG ERC STARTING GRANTS
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2021-STG ERC STARTING GRANTS