Getting Accomplishment
(Not) Getting What You Deserve: How Misrecognized Evaluators Reproduce Misrecognition in Peer Evaluations
Mabel Abraham, Tristan Botelho & James Carter
American Sociological Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
In most evaluation systems -- such as those governing the allocation of prestigious awards -- the evaluator's primary task is to reward the highest quality candidates. However, these systems are imperfect; top performers may not be acknowledged and thus be underrecognized, and low performers may receive unwarranted recognition and thus be overrecognized. An important feature of many evaluation systems is that people alternate between being candidates and being evaluators. How does experiencing misrecognition as a candidate affect how people subsequently evaluate others? We develop novel theory that underrecognition and overrecognition lead people to reproduce those experiences when they are evaluators. Across three studies -- a quasi-natural experiment and two preregistered, multistage experiments, we find that underrecognized evaluators are less likely to grant recognition to others -- even to the highest-performing candidates. Conversely, overrecognized evaluators are more likely to grant rewards to others -- even to the lowest-performing candidates. Whereas underrecognized evaluator behavior is driven by individuals' perceptions that their experience was unfair, overrecognized evaluator behavior is driven by the informational cues people glean on how to evaluate others. Thus, in evaluation processes where people oscillate between being the evaluated and being the evaluator, we show how and why seemingly innocuous initial inefficiencies are reproduced in subsequent evaluations.
Shifting Work Patterns with Generative AI
Eleanor Dillon et al.
NBER Working Paper, May 2025
Abstract:
We present evidence on how generative AI changes the work patterns of knowledge workers using data from a 6-month-long, cross-industry, randomized field experiment. Half of the 7,137 workers in the study received access to a generative AI tool integrated into the applications they already used for emails, document creation, and meetings. We find that access to the AI tool during the first year of its release primarily impacted behaviors that workers could change independently and not behaviors that require coordination to change: workers who used the tool in more than half of the sample weeks spent 3.6 fewer hours, or 31% less time on email each week (intent to treat estimate is 1.3 hours) and completed documents moderately faster, but did not significantly change time spent in meetings.
Self-distancing is positively related to higher scores during U.S. Army (USA) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) advanced leadership training
Walter Sowden, Neil Lewis & Rachell Jones
Military Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The extent to which self-regulatory tendencies predict military leadership ability is unknown. In the present study, we assessed the relationship between these tendencies and military leadership competency. During a United States Army (USA) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Advanced Camp capstone leader development and assessment course, 234 cadets completed a survey measuring five self-regulatory tendencies: self-control, cognitive reappraisal, emotional suppression, grit, and temporal self-distancing. Overall camp performance scores were used to assess and quantify leadership ability. Non-parametric bivariate correlations and regression analyses revealed that only cognitive reappraisal and temporal self-distancing significantly correlated with leadership ability. Notably, temporal self-distancing emerged as the most robust predictor of effective leadership. The present findings suggest that strategies for improving specific self-regulatory tendencies may enhance military leadership effectiveness.
Standard-Based Entitlement: How Relative Performance Disclosure Affects Pay Requests
Boris Maciejovsky et al.
Journal of Business Ethics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The decision to disclose employee compensation has implications for workplace ethics, motivation, and performance. Pay transparency reduces pay disparity, fostering fairness, and ethical equity. Conversely, pay secrecy can maintain disparity but may drive increased effort. This study proposes a theoretical framework -- standard-based entitlement -- that explains the non-linear effects of pay disclosure. Our theory predicts that people's compensation requests are not only a function of the information about their peers' pay but also depend on individuals' proximity to the #1 ranking position (and other meaningful standards). The results of four experiments across three studies reveal that pay transparency has heterogeneous impacts: It amplifies salary demands from top performers while dampening those of lower-ranked individuals. These results raise ethical concerns about the potential for pay transparency to exacerbate feelings of inequity and demotivation among lower-ranked employees, offering important insights for designing equitable compensation systems and organizational reward structures.
Can a Voice Channel Reduce Turnover? Evidence on Employee Voice and Exit from a Cluster-randomized Trial in U.S. Fulfillment Centers
Alexander Kowalski et al.
MIT Working Paper, February 2025
Abstract:
Building on the long tradition of research on employee voice and its potential impact on both employee and organizational outcomes, we investigate whether a new voice channel reduces turnover in e-commerce fulfillment centers. A cluster-randomized trial compared hourly workers in sites randomized to launch the new voice channel (Health and Well-Being Committees, or HaWCs) with those employed by the same firm in control sites. This participatory intervention involved a small group of frontline workers and supervisors who solicited concerns and ideas about safety, work processes, and other workplace stressors from the broader workforce and then developed and implemented improvement projects in response. HaWCs were an isolated change, rather than one component of a broader high-involvement work system, and they were implemented in non-union worksites, raising questions about their likely impact. Using administrative data on the population of hourly workers, an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis finds individual workers' monthly probability of exit fell by 1.3%-points in HaWC buildings in the year after randomization, representing a 20% decline relative to pre-intervention exit rates. Workers in buildings where HaWCs completed more projects were less likely to exit, showing that voice can yield visible improvements in the work environment that help retain workers. HaWCs also reduced exits over and above both pre-existing and new, alternative channels for soliciting employee input, suggesting that additional benefits flow from the HaWCs' participatory nature. These findings indicate the feasibility of addressing turnover and improving the work environment through employee voice, even in tough conditions like fulfillment centers.
Human + AI in Accounting: Early Evidence from the Field
Jung Ho Choi & Chloe Xie
Stanford Working Paper, May 2025
Abstract:
This paper provides early evidence on the integration and impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in accounting at the accountant and task levels. Using a multi-method approach, we first identify heterogeneous adoption patterns, perceived benefits, and key concerns through panel survey data from 277 accountants. We then formalize these survey-based insights using a stylized theoretical model to generate corroborating predictions. Finally, partnering with a technology firm that provides AI-based accounting software, we analyze unique field data from 79 small-and mid-sized firms, covering hundreds of thousands of transactions. We document significant productivity gains among AI adopters, including a 55% increase in weekly client support and a reallocation of approximately 8.5% of accountant time from routine data entry toward high-value tasks such as business communication and quality assurance. AI usage further corresponds to improved financial reporting quality, evidenced by a 12% increase in general ledger granularity and a 7.5-day reduction in monthly close time. We also find complementarities between AI and accountant expertise: experienced professionals selectively leverage AI automation and expertise increases intervention when AI confidence scores signal uncertainty. Preliminary analysis from a supplementary pilot framed field experiment sheds light on the potential impact of AI errors. Overall, our findings highlight AI's role in potentially augmenting, rather than replacing, professional accounting expertise.
Looking at the Trees to See the Forest: Construal Level Shift in Strategic Problem Framing and Formulation
Chan Hyung Park, Markus Baer & Jackson Nickerson
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Effective strategy development, evaluation, and implementation starts with a comprehensive understanding of strategic problems. However, developing such an understanding is often challenging due to the complexity of such problems and because how they can be solved is not yet known. Managers often oversimplify these problems by focusing on a few symptoms and obvious causes. Research indicates that big picture, abstract thinking helps managers explore underlying causes more flexibly, but it can also lead to overlooking key symptoms that do not fit existing frameworks. Instead, concrete thinking is likely essential for individuals to identify the full range of symptoms characterizing strategic problems. Because symptoms are essential for fully understanding strategic problems -- they are the building blocks for managers to build theories about causes -- both concrete and abstract thinking may be necessary. Drawing on construal level theory, we propose a construal level shift model. The central claim of our model is that managers benefit from first adopting a low construal level (concrete) thinking when framing strategic problems to identify all relevant symptoms. The benefit of a high construal level (abstract) thinking lies in combining these symptoms more flexibly to theorize more comprehensively about the underlying causes. Two experimental studies and one correlational study, involving samples of working individuals, managers, and experienced executives, support our model. Our findings contribute to the behavioral and knowledge-based views of the firm, the theory-based view of strategy, and managerial cognition research.
Entrepreneurial Spawning from Remote Work
Alan Kwan et al.
NBER Working Paper, May 2025
Abstract:
Using a novel firm-level remote work measure created from big data on Internet activity, we show that firms with higher remote work during the pandemic are more likely to see their employees becoming entrepreneurs. This effect holds both unconditionally and relative to other types of job turnovers. We establish causality using instrumental variables and a panel event study. The marginally created businesses are higher quality than the average new firm. The effect is not driven by employee selection, preference change, or forced turnover. Rather, remote work increases spawning by providing the time and downside protection needed for entrepreneurial experimentation.
Profit Sharing in Practice: Its Prevalence and Influence on Job Satisfaction Controlling for Workplace Amenities
Christos Makridis
International Review of Applied Economics, Spring 2025, Pages 277-292
Abstract:
This paper explores the relationship between profit sharing and employee engagement using new data from a large-scale PayScale survey from 2020 to 2023. First, I document new empirical patterns: although profit sharing respondents are only 4% of the sample, it is more prevalent in technical and managerial occupations, industries like manufacturing and construction, and higher income workers. Second, using variation within the same occupation and industry, controlling for a wide array of demographics and workplace amenities, I find that profit sharing is associated with increases in job satisfaction and declines in turnover. Incentive effects account for 16% of the overall impact. These results underscore the significance of non-pecuniary benefits in shaping corporate culture and employee retention.