Interdependence in worker productivity

Abstract

SUMMARYThis paper investigates interactions between co-worker productivity levels in a rich empirical context. Workers have unambiguous output measures, compensation that depends on individual and group output to differing degrees and potential peers beyond their immediate work group. Important productivity interdependencies exist, which could arise from the group-based component of compensation, peer pressure, common supervisors or information exchanges, but not group-based output or technological interdependence. Workers with the strongest individual incentives seem least sensitive to these interactions. In contrast, they are important to workers with no individual incentives. For these workers, peer pressure must be a powerful influence.

Identification and estimation of econometric models with group interactions, contextual factors and fixed effects

“…The class size in Hoxby (2000) is a factor in a school's production function. A larger group size in Rees et al (2003) presents the difficulty for monitoring performance of workers. assumption that 's are normally distributed, the likelihood function for the within equation (2.3) as derived in the Appendix is …”

“…Hoxby (2000) has investigated the effect of class size on student achievement. Rees et al (2003) has investigated the effect of group size on workers' productivity. Their motivations are, however, different from ours.…”

Productivity dynamics, performance feedback and group incentives in a sales organization

“…The variable y −i,g,t−1 is the average productivity of the other members of the team in the previous week, and the coefficient β 4 measures the effect of an increase in co-worker productivity on subsequent individual productivity the next week. We also build on Rees et al (2003), where we estimate how individual productivity is affected by the position relative to the other members of the team. We thus include dummy variables for the position in quartile j, where Q j i,g,t−1 , j = 1, 2, 3, 4.…”

Helpless in Finance: The Cost of Helping Effort Among Bank Employees

“…In related work, Rees et al (2003) estimate the extent of inter-related worker productivity among telephone sales workers. While the technological interdependencies between workers are limited by the nature of the occupation, they suggest that the interactions between coworker productivity they identify might flow from a group-based component of earnings, from peer-pressure or from information exchanges (a type of helping effort).…”