scholarly journals Team Incentives, Social Cohesion, and Performance: A Natural Field Experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josse Delfgaauw ◽  
Robert Dur ◽  
Oke Onemu ◽  
Joeri Sol

We conducted a field experiment in a Dutch retail chain of 122 stores to study the interaction between team incentives, team social cohesion, and team performance. Theory predicts that the effect of team incentives on team performance increases with the team’s social cohesion because social cohesion reduces free-riding behavior. In addition, team incentives may lead to more coworker support or to higher peer pressure and thereby, can affect the team’s social cohesion. We introduced short-term team incentives in a randomly selected subset of stores and measured for all stores, both before and after the intervention, the team’s sales performance and the team’s social cohesion as well as coworker support and peer pressure. The average treatment effect of the team incentive on sales is 1.5 percentage points, which does not differ significantly from zero. In line with theory, the estimated treatment effect increases with social cohesion as measured before the intervention. Social cohesion itself is not affected by the team incentives. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (8) ◽  
pp. 2168-2203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Friebel ◽  
Matthias Heinz ◽  
Miriam Krueger ◽  
Nikolay Zubanov

In a field experiment with a retail chain (1,300 employees, 193 shops), randomly selected sales teams received a bonus. The bonus increases both sales and number of customers dealt with by 3 percent. Each dollar spent on the bonus generates $3.80 in sales, and $2.10 in profit. Wages increase by 2.2 percent while inequality rises only moderately. The analysis suggests effort complementarities to be important, and the effectiveness of peer pressure in overcoming free-riding to be limited. After rolling out the bonus scheme, the performance of the treatment and control shops converges, suggesting long-term stability of the treatment effect. (JEL D22, J31, J33, L25, L81, M53, M54)


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
KAIWEN LEONG ◽  
HUAILU LI ◽  
DAN LI ◽  
YUCHEN XIE

Using a natural experiment, we examine the causal effect of a team incentive scheme on teachers in a Chinese middle school that intended to help the school’s students improve in their weak subjects. The scheme was successful, the average treatment effect is positively significant in math and total scores. The most improvement observed in top students’ weak subjects. The top students weak in math, English and social science improved in those subjects by 0.12, 0.10, 0.16 standard deviations, respectively. Students at the bottom 20% of the testing distribution also improved in Chinese and math.


2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 1487-1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Bursztyn ◽  
Georgy Egorov ◽  
Robert Jensen

Abstract We model and test two school-based peer cultures: one that stigmatizes effort and one that rewards ability. The model shows that either may reduce participation in educational activities when peers can observe participation and performance. We design a field experiment that allows us to test for, and differentiate between, these two concerns. We find that peer pressure reduces takeup of an SAT prep package virtually identically across two very different high school settings. However, the effects arise from very distinct mechanisms: a desire to hide effort in one setting and a desire to hide low ability in the other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Zhu ◽  
L J Johnston ◽  
M H Reese ◽  
E S Buchanan ◽  
J E Tallaksen ◽  
...  

Abstract This study was conducted to evaluate whether cooled floor pads combined with chilled drinking water could alleviate negative impacts of heat stress on lactating sows. Thirty sows (Landrace × Yorkshire, Parity = 1 to 6) were housed in individual farrowing stalls in two rooms with temperatures being controlled at 29.4°C (0700–1900 hours) and 23.9°C (1900–0700 hours). Sows in one room (Cool), but not in the other room (Control) were provided cooled floor pads (21–22°C) and chilled drinking water (13–15°C). Behavior of sows (15 sows/treatment) was video recorded during farrowing, and days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21 after farrowing. Videos were viewed continuously to register the birth time of each piglet, from which total farrowing duration and birth intervals were calculated. The number of drinking bouts and the duration of each drinking bout were registered for each sow through viewing videos continuously for 2 h (1530–1730 hours) each video-recording day. Postures (lying laterally, lying ventrally, sitting, and standing) were recorded by scanning video recordings at 5-min intervals for 24 h each video-recording day, and time budget for each posture was calculated. Rectal temperature and respiration rate were measured for all sows the day before and after farrowing, and then once weekly. Sow and litter performance was recorded. Data were analyzed using the Glimmix procedure of SAS. The cooling treatment did not affect sow behavior or litter performance. Sows in the Cool room had lower rectal temperature (P = 0.03) and lower respiration rate (P < 0.001), consumed more feed (P = 0.03), tended to have reduced weight loss (P = 0.07), and backfat loss (P = 0.07) during lactation than sows in the Control room. As lactation progressed, sows increased drinking frequency (P < 0.001) and time spent lying ventrally (P < 0.0001), standing (P < 0.001), and sitting (P < 0.0001), and decreased time spent lying laterally (P < 0.0001) in both Cool and Control rooms. While cooled floor pads combined with chilled drinking water did not affect sow behavior, they did alleviate heat stress partially, as indicated by decreased rectal temperature, respiration rate, weight, and backfat loss, and increased feed intake in lactating sows.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105960112110169
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Wiese ◽  
C. Shawn Burke ◽  
Yichen Tang ◽  
Claudia Hernandez ◽  
Ryan Howell

Under what conditions do team learning behaviors best predict team performance? The current meta-analytic efforts synthesize results from 113 effect sizes and 7758 teams to investigate how different conceptualizations (fundamental, intrateam, and interteam), team characteristics (team size and team familiarity), task characteristics (interdependence, complexity, and type), and methodological characteristics (students vs. nonstudents and measurement choice) affect the relationship between team learning behaviors and team performance. Our results suggest that while different conceptualizations of team learning behaviors independently predict performance, only intrateam learning behaviors uniquely predict performance. A more in-depth investigation into the moderating conditions contradicts the familiar adage of “it depends.” The strength of the relationship between intrateam learning behaviors and team performance did not depend on team familiarity, task complexity, or sample type. However, our results suggested this relationship was stronger in larger teams, teams with moderate task interdependence, teams performing project/action tasks, and studies that use measures that capture a wider breadth of the team learning behavior construct space. These efforts suggest that common boundary conditions do not moderate this relationship. Scholars can leverage these results to develop more comprehensive theories addressing the different conceptualizations of team learning behaviors as well as providing clarity on the scenarios where team learning behaviors are most needed. Further, practitioners can use our results to develop more guided team-based policies that can overcome some of the challenges of forming and developing learning teams.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document