Reciprocity and resistance to change: An experimental study

Jan Philipp Krügel and Stefan Traub

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2018, vol. 147, issue C, 95-114

Abstract: Many uncertain organizational changes fail because of resistance by employees. This paper studies the circumstances under which acceptance to change occurs. We propose that reciprocity towards the employer helps to increase change approval. Subjects in our experiment play a combination of a gift exchange and a threshold contribution game. In each group, one employer chooses a wage and then five employees decide on their effort. A ‘reform’ is adopted if the employees exert at least a minimum threshold of effort. The reform is efficiency enhancing but also raises inequality among employees. We find that uncertainty over payoffs does not necessarily lead to resistance. The likelihood of reform approval is especially high if the employer is able to trigger reciprocal behavior in employees by offering a fair wage, which confirms our hypothesis.

Keywords: Resistance to change; Reciprocity; Gift exchange; Threshold contribution game; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 J30 L20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:147:y:2018:i:c:p:95-114

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.12.017

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