The Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains / Greer K. Gosnell, John A. List, Robert D. Metcalfe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gosnell, Greer K.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

List, John A.

Metcalfe, Robert D.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25620.

NBER working paper series no. w25620

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

Increasing evidence indicates the importance of management in determining firms' productivity. Yet, causal evidence regarding the effectiveness of management practices is scarce, especially for high-skilled workers in the developed world. In an eight-month field experiment measuring the productivity of captains in the commercial aviation sector, we test four distinct management practices: (i) performance monitoring; (ii) performance feedback; (iii) target setting; and (iv) pro-social incentives. We find that these management practices--particularly performance monitoring and target setting--significantly increase captains' productivity with respect to the targeted fuel-saving dimensions. We identify positive spillovers of the tested management practices on job satisfaction and carbon dioxide emissions, and captains overwhelmingly express desire for deeper managerial engagement. Both the implementation and the results of the study reveal an uncharted opportunity for management researchers to delve into the black box of firms and rigorously examine the determinants of productivity amongst skilled labor.

Notes:

Print version record

February 2019.