The Contingent Effect of Management Practices

• Steven Blader ^[1] ; Claudine Gartenberg ^[3] ; Andrea Prat ^[2]
  1. [1] New York University

     New York University

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Columbia University

     Columbia University

     Estados Unidos

     
  3. [3] The Wharton School

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• Localización: Review of economic studies, ISSN 0034-6527, Vol. 87, Nº 2, 2020, págs. 721-749
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This article investigates how the success of a management practice depends on the underlying values articulated by the management. A large U.S. transportation company is in the process of fitting its trucks with an electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) to provide drivers with information on their driving performance. The company also has commenced a multi-year initiative to remake its internal operations, the first phase of which focuses exclusively on changing values toward a greater emphasis on teamwork and empowerment. In this setting, a natural question is whether the optimal managerial practice consists of: (1) letting each driver know his or her individual performance only; or also (2) providing drivers with information about their performance with respect to other drivers. Using the EOBR-provided driver performance data, we randomize these practices across sites. The main result of our experiment is that (2) leads to better performance than (1) in a particular site if and only if the site has not yet received the values intervention, and worse performance if it has. The result is consistent with the presence of a conflict between competition-based managerial practices and a shift to a cooperation-based value system. More broadly, it highlights the role of intangible factors in determining the optimal set of managerial practices.