Doing Well by Doing Good: Improving Retail Store Performance with Responsible Scheduling Practices at the Gap, Inc

Saravanan Kesavan (), Susan J. Lambert (), Joan C. Williams () and Pradeep K. Pendem ()
Additional contact information
Saravanan Kesavan: Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
Susan J. Lambert: Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Joan C. Williams: Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco, California 94102
Pradeep K. Pendem: Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403

Management Science, 2022, vol. 68, issue 11, 7818-7836

Abstract: We estimate the causal effects of responsible scheduling practices on store financial performance at the U.S. retailer Gap, Inc. The randomized field experiment evaluated a multicomponent intervention designed to improve dimensions of work schedules—consistency, predictability, adequacy, and employee control—shown to foster employee well-being. The experiment was conducted in 28 stores in the San Francisco and Chicago metropolitan areas for nine months between November 2015 and August 2016. Intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses indicate that implementing responsible scheduling practices increased store productivity by 5.1%, a result of increasing sales (by 3.3%) and decreasing labor (by 1.8%). Drawing on qualitative interviews with managers and quantitative analyses of employee shift-level data, we offer evidence that the intervention improved financial performance through improved store execution. Our experiment provides evidence that responsible scheduling practices that take worker well-being into account can enhance store productivity by motivating additional employee effort and reducing barriers to employees adhering to the scheduled labor plan.

Keywords: responsible operations; retail labor; work schedules; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4291 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:68:y:2022:i:11:p:7818-7836

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().