The Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains

Greer K. Gosnell, John List and Robert Metcalfe ()

No 25620, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Increasing evidence indicates the importance of management in determining firms’ productivity. Yet, causal evidence regarding the effectiveness of management practices is scarce, especially for high-skilled workers in the developed world. In an eight-month field experiment measuring the productivity of captains in the commercial aviation sector, we test four distinct management practices: (i) performance monitoring; (ii) performance feedback; (iii) target setting; and (iv) pro-social incentives. We find that these management practices—particularly performance monitoring and target setting—significantly increase captains’ productivity with respect to the targeted fuel-saving dimensions. We identify positive spillovers of the tested management practices on job satisfaction and carbon dioxide emissions, and captains overwhelmingly express desire for deeper managerial engagement. Both the implementation and the results of the study reveal an uncharted opportunity for management researchers to delve into the black box of firms and rigorously examine the determinants of productivity amongst skilled labor.

JEL-codes: C93 D01 J3 Q5 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-lma
Note: IO LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published as Greer K. Gosnell & John A. List & Robert D. Metcalfe, 2020. "The Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains," Journal of Political Economy, vol 128(4), pages 1195-1233.

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Journal Article: The Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains (2020)
Working Paper: The impact of management practices on employee productivity: a field experiment with airline captains (2020)
Working Paper: The Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains (2018)
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