How Do You Find A Good Manager?

Ben Weidmann, Joseph Vecci, Farah Said (), Sonia Bhalotra, Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo and David Deming
Additional contact information
Ben Weidmann: Harvard Kennedy School
Joseph Vecci: Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg
Achyuta Adhvaryu: University of California San Diego, NBER, J-PAL, BREAD, Good Business Lab
Anant Nyshadham: University of Michigan, NBER, J-PAL, BREAD, Good Business Lab
Jorge Tamayo: Harvard Business School and Digital Reskilling Lab

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: This paper introduces and validates a novel approach to measuring management skills. In a large pre-registered lab experiment we causally identify managerial contributions by randomly assigning managers to multiple teams and controlling for differences in individual skill. We find that manager contributions matter greatly for team success, and that people who want to be in charge perform worse than randomly assigned managers. Managerial performance is strongly predicted by economic decision-making skill, but not by demographic characteristics. LinkedIn data show that participants who succeed in the lab are substantially more likely to receive real-world promotions. We also measure the skills of store managers in a large retail firm and find that they predict store sales and other correlates of productivity, which aligns with our experimental results. A one standard deviation increase in manager quality increases annual per-store sales by $4.1 million USD (25% increase). Selecting managers on skills rather than demographic characteristics or the desire to lead could substantially improve organizational performance.

Keywords: Management; Teamwork; Skills; Measurement; Experiment JEL Classification: M54; J24; C90; C92 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hrm, nep-inv and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... tions/wp715.2024.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: How Do You Find a Good Manager? (2024)
Working Paper: How Do You Find a Good Manager? (2024)
Working Paper: How do you find a Good Manager (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:715

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