Managing with Style? Microevidence on the Allocation of Managerial Attention

Desmond (Ho-Fu) Lo (), Francisco Brahm (), Wouter Dessein () and Chieko Minami ()
Additional contact information
Desmond (Ho-Fu) Lo: Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California 95053
Francisco Brahm: London Business School, London NW1 4SA, United Kingdom
Wouter Dessein: Columbia Business School, New York, New York 10027
Chieko Minami: Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

Management Science, 2022, vol. 68, issue 11, 8261-8285

Abstract: How does task expertise affect the allocation of attention? Our theory argues that when attention is scarce, expertise and attention are complements: A manager optimally focuses her attention on tasks in which she has relatively more expertise; she “manages with style.” In contrast, when attention is abundant, attention and expertise become substitutes: A manager shifts her attention toward tasks in which she has less expertise; she “manages against her style.” Using microlevel data on managers from two unrelated companies and employing various measures of time stress and managerial attention, we find converging and supporting evidence. A manager’s attention capacity determines whether she manages with style or against it. Whereas current behavioral approaches view managing with style as prevalent and biased, our theory and findings suggest, instead, that it is contingent and optimal.

Keywords: organizational economics; microeconomic behavior; organizational behavior; managerial attention; bounded rationality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4269 (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:8261-8285

Access Statistics for this article

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