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Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment
Abstract
A rising share of employees now regularly engage in working from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can lead to “shirking
from home.” We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000-employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call
center employees who volunteered to WFH were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for nine months.
Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick
days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more convenient working environment). Home workers also
reported improved work satisfaction, and their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance
fell. Due to the success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the experimental
employees to reselect between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them switched, which led to the gains from
WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of learning and selection effects when adopting modern management
practices like WFH. JEL Codes: D24, L23, L84, M11, M54, O31.
... As telecommuting and other forms of flexible work have become more common, employee engagement strategies have had to change to take into account the advantages and disadvantages of this arrangement. The importance of virtual teamwork and health promotion in increasing employee dedication has grown in recent years (Lee & Gajendran, 2019;Bloom et al., 2015). In recent years, there has been a shift from a singular emphasis on employee satisfaction to a broader one on the employee experience. ...
... Employees who have more control over their time at work are more invested in their work and the company as a whole, which leads to greater happiness and productivity. Greater Productivity and Performance Productivity and performance tend to improve when workers are given more leeway in how and when they complete their work (Bloom et al., 2015). Workers who are given the flexibility to work when and where it suits them are better able to bring their full attention, energy, and creativity to their jobs. ...
... Many businesses have seen the positive effects of flexible work arrangements on productivity and bottom line results. The technology company Dell, for instance, has a programme called "Connected Workplace" that encourages employees to work from home if they so choose (Bloom et al., 2015). The initiative has led to happier workers who are better able to balance their professional and personal lives. ...
This research article examines the effect of employee engagement and empowerment on employee performance and organisational profitability. The study investigates how companies adopt various strategies to engage and empower their employees, including participative decision-making, employee empowerment, open communication channels, and employee recognition and rewards. The article highlights the benefits of these practises, including increased employee engagement, improved innovation and problem-solving, increased job satisfaction and employee retention, and a positive organisational culture. Southwest Airlines and Zappos are examples of companies that have successfully implemented employee engagement and empowerment practises to drive performance and profitability, lending credence to the findings. The research article provides insightful information for organisations seeking to improve employee performance and achieve sustainable profitability through employee involvement and empowerment initiatives. Data Collection: The sources of these articles were carefully handpicked from a variety of reputable national and international journals using Google Scholar to conduct extensive searches. To ensure that only high-quality and relevant sources were included, a rigorous filtering process was utilised. This required carefully reading the abstracts of each article, assessing their alignment with the research topic and their significance. By utilising academic databases and thoroughly filtering, we have compiled a collection of 50 research articles and journals that provide valuable insights and contribute to the subject's overall body of knowledge. The list of all the sources are provided in the references below in the alphabetical order. Introduction: The importance of having engaged and invested employees cannot be overstated. Employees who feel a sense of ownership over their work are more likely to take pride in it and stick with the same company over time. Engaged workers show more loyalty to their company, which leads to a better work environment and a more positive company culture. Towers Perrin found that businesses with highly engaged workers experienced a 19.2% increase in operational income (now Willis Towers Watson). Moreover, the level of productivity is correlated with the level of employee engagement. When workers are invested in their jobs, they give their full attention, motivation, and discretionary effort to their tasks. They accept accountability for their actions, actively look for ways to improve themselves, and embrace change. High-engagement teams are 21 percent more productive than low-engagement teams, according to Gallup's research.
... Therefore, the goal of this review is to determine how well flexible work schedules help Indian millennials stay in the workforce. Because of their ability to increase workers' autonomy and work-life balance, flexible work arrangements have gained popularity in recent years (Bloom et al., 2015). This is particularly important for millennials in India, who prioritise work-life balance and professional flexibility (Carless and Wintle, 2007). ...
... Due to its capacity to improve workers' autonomy and work-life balance, flexible work arrangements have been more popular in recent years (Bloom et al., 2015). Telecommuting, flextime, shortened workweeks, and job sharing are examples of flexible work arrangements that enable workers to tailor their working hours and locations to meet their own preferences (Allen et al., 2013). ...
... Supportive culture and proper training (Kossek et al., 2006;Allen et al., 2013) Challenges Difficulty in managing workload and communication when working remotely Possible negative impact on teamwork and collaboration Enhanced Worklife balance and autonomy (Bloom et al., 2015) Organisations are looking towards flexible work arrangements as a viable tactic to retain the services of Indian millennials in order to accomplish this goal. These agreements include a range of work options that let workers adjust their working hours and physical location to suit their unique needs and preferences. ...
This literature review examines the effectiveness of flexible work arrangements in retaining Indian millennials in the workforce. The study finds that flexible work arrangements, which allow employees to alter the time and/or place of work to suit their individual needs, can lead to increased job satisfaction, work-life balance, and productivity among Indian millennials. Specifically, telecommuting and flextime have been found to have a positive impact on job satisfaction and employee retention. The success of flexible work arrangements may depend on various factors, such as organisational support, technology infrastructure, and managerial trust. Organisations that prioritise work-life balance and flexibility are more likely to retain Indian millennials and remain competitive in the market. The review has significant implications for organisations seeking to attract and retain Indian millennial talent, providing evidence that flexible work arrangements can be a powerful tool for retaining this vital segment of the workforce.
... WFH can also save employees money on commuting costs, such as gas and parking fees. (Bloom et al., 2015;Kurland & Bailey, 2022) Another advantage of WFH is that it can increase productivity. Without the distractions of the office, employees can focus better on their work and complete tasks more efficiently. ...
... Additionally, WFH can lead to social isolation, negatively impacting mental health. (Bloom et al., 2015;Nilles, 1975) WFH arrangements have become increasingly popular after the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
... 9 Do you face difficulties working remotely? 10 What is the nature of the problems that you face in working remotely? 11 Do you think that technology provides the necessary technical solutions to communicate well? ...
The remote and distributed work environments have posed new challenges for leaders trying to influence their teams. In this research study, we aim to identify and analyze the obstacles facing leaders in influencing remote and distributed work teams. We will explore the barriers to effective leadership in remote and distributed work environments through a comprehensive literature review and using a computer-directed anonymous questionnaire for leaders & team members, their perspectives on obstacles, with leaders and team members. Our findings will contribute to a better understanding of the unique challenges leaders face in these settings and provide practical recommendations for overcoming these obstacles.
... According to Grant et al. (2019) and Gatsi et al. (2021), individuals who engage in remote work experience enhanced productivity as a result of their remote work arrangements. According to the study conducted by Bloom et al. (2015), it was observed that remote work arrangements were associated with higher levels of job satisfaction. Arntz et al. (2019) provided more evidence suggesting that remote work arrangements have a positive impact on the overall enjoyment of family life. ...
... This can be working from home or working from anywhere. Working from home has been described by different researchers using multiple terms such as teleworking, telecommuting, remote working, and agile working (Bloom et al, 2015;Grant, et al., 2019;Felstead & Henseke,2017;Galanti et al., 2021). Mehta (2021), defined working from home as performing work activities at home or at a location other than the workplace by using technology. ...
... Earlier research (Nilles et al, 1976;Bloom et al., 2015;Berkery et al, 2017) on WFH has been focused on the increase in productivity, and cost reductions of remote work, as well as reducing congestion in major cities. Later studies on remote working added the emotional and social aspects of remote work (Jyothi & Jyothi, 2012;Grant at al., 2013). ...
The objective of this study is to examine the effects of remote work arrangements implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on the equilibrium between work and personal life among employees in Botswana. The case of the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) will be utilized as a specific context for analysis. The study utilized a descriptive qualitative research approach, including in-depth interviews with a sample of 18 employees from BURS who were engaged in remote work throughout the COVID-19 lockdown period. These interviews were done in order to collect relevant data for the study. An alternative sampling method, namely non-probability sampling, was employed to pick a sample size of 18 employees from the BURS organization. The collected data was subsequently subjected to thematic analysis for the purpose of analysis. The findings of the research indicate that employees reported numerous advantages, including increased sleep duration and enhanced concentration. They also highlighted the benefits of having flexibility and autonomy in a home environment, free from the distractions typically encountered in open-office settings. However, the study also identified certain challenges, such as disruptions caused by family members and feelings of isolation. The study suggests that further research should be conducted to examine the effects of remote work in Botswana. This research would provide valuable insights for policymakers in navigating the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
... Physical engagement reflects exerting high levels of effort in the face of persistent difficulties. Emotional engagement refers to strong involvement, being interested, (Bloom 2015;Lamotte 2015), and safety (Yulita et al. 2017;Idris et al. 2015). For this reason, this study investigates the impact of autonomy, convenience, and psychosocial safety climate on employee engagement in the Zimbabwean public sector. ...
... Convenience reduces the time spent commuting, lowers the frequency of work breaks, and offers the convenience of a quieter work environment (Mehta 2021). Previous research reported that convenience positively influences employee engagement (see Mehta 2021;Bloom 2015;Lamotte 2015). It can, therefore, be proposed that: ...
... This research showed that convenience positively impacts WFH (β = 0.59, p = 0.000). These results confirm earlier findings (see Bloom 2015;Lamotte 2015;Mehta 2021). WFH implies that an employee can work from anywhere and at any time of the day. ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of working from home (WFH) on employee engagement in the context of Covid-19. The study developed a model which tested the effect of autonomy, convenience, and psychosocial safety climate on employee engagement from a developing country perspective, where empirical research work barely exists. Data from a total of 170 employees who were conveniently sampled from the public sector were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that autonomy, convenience, and psychosocial safety climate had a significant positive impact on employee engagement. These results have practical implications for managers as it is envisaged that the WFH concept will be a permanent feature in the foreseeable future.
... Worker productivity may increase owing to greater autonomy in allocating work time, the ability to concentrate on work without interruptions from colleagues, and reduced commute fatigue. In terms of overall rm productivity, the possibility of saving o ce space also contributes positively to TFP (Bloom et al., 2015). However, loss of face-to-face communication may negatively affect productivity, making it di cult to exchange informal tacit knowledge, build trust, and monitor workers. ...
... Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloom et al. (2015), a representative study of WFH productivity, present evidence from a eld experiment with call center operators in China that WFH enhanced the productivity of workers and organizations. However, since their study was based on a speci c occupation in which WFH is relatively easy to implement, it is di cult to generalize their results to a wide variety of whitecollar workers engaged in WFH during the pandemic. ...
... This is in sharp contrast to the ndings of the employee survey reported by Morikawa (2023), which indicates that the percentage of remote workers who want to continue frequent WFH substantially increased from 38.1% in 2020 to 62.6% in 2021, suggesting a non-pecuniary bene t or amenity value of WFH for remote workers. 13 There is a large gap between employers and employees regarding their intentions to use WFH practices after the COVID-19 pandemic. 14 As the share of employees who want to continue frequent remote work after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic increases, the gap widens between 2020 and 2021. ...
This study documents the changes in work from home (WFH) practices since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic using panel data from original firm surveys in Japan. Particular attention has been given to the productivity dynamics of WFH. The results indicate the following: First, compared to when the first state of emergency was declared in Spring 2020, at the end of 2021, the ratio of firms utilizing WFH and the intensity of WFH decreased substantially. Second, according to the firms’ evaluations, the mean productivity of WFH improved by more than 10 percentage points, although it was still approximately 20% lower than that of conventional workplaces. The selection effect arising from the exit from this practice among firms with low WFH productivity, and the improvement in productivity among WFH-continuing firms contributed almost equally to the average productivity growth. Third, the majority of firms are planning to discontinue WFH practices and revert to the conventional work style after the end of COVID-19, and the gap between firms’ plans and the desire of remote workers is widening.
JEL Classification: D24, J24, J81, M12, M54
... In addition, the shift toward a higher demand for services instead of goods for Western European and North American countries has contributed to the increased possibility of WfH [11]. From a company's perspective, increasing rents for offices in metropolitan areas as well as increasing travel costs may have highlighted the cost-reducing function of WfH as a measure of becoming more profitable [12]. Another competitive advantage can come from being more attractive as an employer if skilled workers demand that they be allowed to perform part of their work from home. ...
... In a similar vein, some studies concentrate on the relationship between WfH and individual work effort [27]. Other groups of studies examine the impact of WfH on job satisfaction [12,25,[28][29][30][31] and life satisfaction [25,32]. Finally, studies by Dutcher [33] and Bloom et al. [12] address the consequences of WfH for individual working performance as well as productivity and the corresponding consequences on company profitability. ...
... Other groups of studies examine the impact of WfH on job satisfaction [12,25,[28][29][30][31] and life satisfaction [25,32]. Finally, studies by Dutcher [33] and Bloom et al. [12] address the consequences of WfH for individual working performance as well as productivity and the corresponding consequences on company profitability. Most of those studies emphasize the possible endogeneity arising from non-random selection into WfH, but only a handful is able to control for it sufficiently. ...
Using a novel German linked employer–employee dataset, we provide unique evidence about the consequences of working from home (WfH) on individual health and well-being. During the recent pandemic, this locational flexibility measure has been used extensively to promote health by hampering the spread of the virus and to secure jobs. However, its direct theoretical ambiguous effects on health and well-being as characterized by different potential channels have barely been empirically investigated to date despite WfH’s increasing popularity in the years before the pandemic. To address concerns about selection into WfH in our dataset that is unaffected by the COVID-19 shock, our analysis relies on an identification strategy ruling out confounding effects by time-invariant unobservable variables. Moreover, we explain the remaining (intertemporal) variation in the individual WfH status by means of an instrumental variable strategy using variation in equipment with mobile devices among establishments. We find that subjective measures of individual health are partly affected by WfH, whereas no corresponding effect is present for an objective measure of individual health. In terms of individual well-being, we find that WfH leads to considerable improvement. By addressing the potential heterogeneity in our effect of interest, we find that men and middle-aged individuals particularly benefit from WfH.
... Was die Produktivität betrifft, finden sich Belege für erhöhte Produktivität und Zufriedenheit in einer vergleichenden Studie, in der eine Gruppe Call-Center-Mitarbeiter:innen für eine verlängerte Zeit ins Homeoffice wechselte, während die andere Gruppe weiterhin vor Ort arbeitete (Bloom et al., 2014). Auch in Erhebungen während des Arbeitens von zu Hause in der Covid-19-Pandemie finden sich stabile Hinweise auf hohe selbsteingeschätzte Arbeitsleistung und Engagement . ...
... Denn wenn die soziale Interaktion am Arbeitsplatz wegfällt und die informellen Austausche in den Pausen und am Arbeitsende fehlen, erhält das Bedürfnis, eingebunden zu sein, sich zugehörig zu fühlen, weniger Befriedigung. In der bereits zitierten Homeoffice-Studie war dies für einige Teilnehmende der Grund, trotz positiver Effekte einer ausschließlichen Homeoffice-Arbeitserfahrung nach der Experimentalphase freiwillig wieder zurück ins Firmenbüro zu gehen (Bloom et al., 2014). Ebenso wurde dort festgestellt, dass bei geringer Büropräsenz eine Unsichtbarkeit und in der Folge das Übergehen bei Beförderungen resultierte. ...
... Bei Honorierung und Beförderungen sollte darauf geachtet werden, dass die Leistungen aller Mitarbeitenden, auch derjenigen mit weniger Vor-Ort-Präsenz, fair beurteilt werden. Denn es gibt Hinweise aus der Forschung, wonach die Beförderungschancen von Mitarbeitenden im Homeoffice signifikant niedriger sind (z.B. Bloom et al., 2014). ...
... Multiple studies show positive effects on job satisfaction and turnover intent (T. D. Allen et al., 2015;Bloom et al., 2015;Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). Bloom et al. (2014) report that work from home leads to less commuting and fewer distractions. ...
... The survey also included a short module estimating burnout propensity, comparable to Bloom et al (2015). Adopted from the Maslach burnout inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), 6 questions were scored on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from never (1) to always (7). ...
Whereas working from home has risen in popularity after COVID-19, the physical climate of the home office has gained only limited attention in explaining its success. This paper investigates the effect that home office hardware and environment satisfaction have on productivity and burnout propensity during working from home (WFH). We surveyed over 1,000 Dutch individuals working from home. Participants report on the physical climate of their home office and the office characteristics satisfaction, their self-reported productivity and burnout propensity, as well as the willingness to continue working from home. Our results reveal that the individual differences in WFH productivity relate to the heterogeneity in the physical home office environment and its satisfaction. First, we find that, for our sample, self-reported productivity is higher at work compared to working from home. Second, participants prefer the indoor environment (e.g. temperature, air quality, lighting) at home over the environment in the work office, but prefer the work office hardware (e.g. screen, chair, Wi-Fi). Third, higher satisfaction with home environment factors significantly predicts increased productivity and decreased burnout propensity. Fourth, we connect real behavior with satisfaction scores and productivity. A structural equation model shows that more ventilation (the percentage of time the home office is ventilated) during working hours increases productivity and the willingness to continue WFH, whilst decreasing burnout propensity. This effect is fully mediated by satisfaction with the home office factors. Finally, we provide a strong case to emphasize actual measurement over self-reported satisfaction measurement. Ventilation influences related as well as unrelated factors' satisfaction scores. Consequently, satisfaction with unrelated aspects of the office, and thus WFH success, can be influenced (and improved) by seemingly unrelated actions such as increasing office ventilation. Taken together, this paper shows that the physical climate influences the success of WFH. The move from the work office to the home office needs to be accompanied by careful design and investment in the quality of the office and its climate.
... Reflecting difficulty of avoiding self-selection into WFH, the literature has faced a challenge in establishing causality. Exceptions include Dutcher (2012) and Bloom et al. (2015). Dutcher (2012) conducts a laboratory experiment and shows that the productivity of telecommuting may depend on how creative the tasks are. ...
... Dutcher (2012) conducts a laboratory experiment and shows that the productivity of telecommuting may depend on how creative the tasks are. Bloom et al. (2015) provide evidence from a field experiment that WFH increases the performance of call center employees by 13%. ...
We examine how working from home (WFH) affects men’s participation in childcare and housework and their attitudes toward family. Because WFH is an endogenous decision, we apply a first-difference instrumental variable estimator, taking the degree to which one can work from home, measured at the individual level, as the instrument. We find that WFH increases the time that men spend on household chores and with family, and the fraction of men who consider life more important than work. Although WFH decreases their commuting time, we find no evidence that it reduces working hours or self-perceived productivity.
... Nevertheless, previous research has indicated that individuals who engage in remote work experienced enhanced productivity within the context of their home environment (Grant et al., 2019). According to the study conducted by Bloom et al. (2015), it was observed that job satisfaction was enhanced as a result of remote work arrangements. Arntz et al. (2019) provided more evidence suggesting that remote work arrangements have a positive impact on the level of satisfaction experienced within family life. ...
... It's possible to do this either at home or at other locations. Numerous authors have used a variety of words to characterize employees working remotely, including teleworking, telecommuting, remote working, and agile working (Bloom et al., 2015;Grant et al., 2019;Felstead & Henseke, 2017;Galanti et al., 2021). According to Matli (2020), remote work entails carrying out an employer's normal duties through means other than an office. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a widespread shift towards remote work, driven by the imperative of social distancing. This transition has compelled organizations and individuals worldwide to explore alternative employment arrangements. Botswana, like many other nations, witnessed a significant uptake of remote work, leading to the formulation of remote work policies by numerous institutions. To ensure the viability of these policies, it is essential to consider their practicality for both companies and employees. The pandemic offered institutions such as the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) an opportunity to investigate the efficacy of working-from-home (WFH) arrangements, which could play a pivotal role in shaping future labor policies to accommodate flexible working hours. This study leverages data from BURS to scrutinize the impact of WFH during the COVID-19 pandemic on employee productivity in Botswana. Employing descriptive qualitative research methods and conducting in-depth interviews with 18 BURS personnel who experienced WFH during the lockdown, the study employs theme analysis and non-probability sampling to analyze the collected data. The findings reveal that WFH contributed to increased employee productivity, underscoring the importance of allocating adequate resources to optimize WFH performance in organizations.
... Menurut Bloom et al. (2015), amalan BdR berpotensi untuk mengatasi masalah ketidakseimbangan tanggungjawab kerja dan kehidupan. Namun, hal tersebut boleh ditangani secara berkesan jika situasi BdR kondusif dengan anak-anak berada di sekolah masing-masing. ...
... Ini kerana kajian menunjukkan bahawa pekerja BdR menunjukkan peningkatan yang ketara dalam produktiviti. di samping pengurangan pekerja menurun sebanyak 50% (Bloom et al., 2015). ...
Abstrak: Sejak Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) diumumkan di Malaysia pada 18 Mac 2020, semua organisasi kecuali sektor penting telah diarahkan bekerja dari rumah (BdR) bertujuan untuk memutuskan rantaian COVID-19. BdR bukanlah amalan biasa di Malaysia sebelum COVID-19. Bekerja dari rumah mungkin sebahagian daripada 'norma baharu' kerana komuniti global terus memerangi COVID-19. Timbul persoalan bagaimana proses perhubungan pekerjaan berlaku semasa bekerja dari rumah kerana PKP. Adakah kemudahan teknologi dan peranti pintar berjaya mencipta kerja yang harmoni dan berkesan? Secara idealnya BdR yang telah diamalkan di kebanyakan negara maju sebelum COVID-19, adalah untuk menyediakan peluang meningkatkan keseimbangan kerja-kehidupan. Tetapi timbul persoalan sama ada BdR berkesan, apabila seluruh keluarga termasuk anak-anak berada di dalam rumah, dan apakah implikasinya kepada pekerja. Apabila PKP berlaku, organisasi dan pekerja mesti menghadapi semua cabaran dalam memastikan BdR dapat dilaksanakan. Makalah ini bertujuan untuk membincangkan sejauh mana BdR boleh diamalkan secara mampan sebagai langkah ke hadapan. Berdasarkan data tinjauan kualitatif daripada 725 responden, dapatan berdasarkan analisis tematik refleksif menunjukkan bahawa ada pekerja yang merasakan amalan BdR membantu meningkatkan keseimbangan kerja-kehidupan mereka. Namun ada juga yang mendapati bahawa BdR turut menyumbang kepada konflik kerja-kehidupan dan menyukarkan mereka untuk menumpukan pada tanggungjawab dalam kedua-dua domain. Keadaan ini menunjukkan bahawa jika norma baharu ini diamalkan walaupun selepas pasca COVID-19 di Malaysia, Kerajaan dan organisasi kerja memerlukan penstrukturan semula yang menyeluruh untuk menjayakan amalan BdR. Selain itu, beberapa
... This sudden shift presented serious challenges to establish new work routines but, at the same time, also brought some positive effects. This has generated an increasing interest in remote work as a viable work choice in the post-pandemic world (Kane et al. 2021;Smite et al. 2023;Galanti et al. 2023;Bloom et al. 2015). ...
... A number of studies have shown that remote workers are often more productive than their in-office colleagues due to fewer distractions, less time spent in commuting, and increased autonomy (Bloom 2020;George et al. 2022). A study by Bloom et al. (2015) found that remote work during the pandemic increased productivity and reduced costs for companies. Remote work has also proven to generate cost-saving benefits for both employers and employees. ...
Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 pushed organizations towards the adoption of new ways of organizing the workplace, to contrast the diffusion of the virus as well as to ensure the production of goods and services. Many workers and employers were suddenly forced to switch to forms of remote work, quite often without any real preparation to successfully deal with these changes. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the point of view of Italian HR managers on the introduction of these new ways of working in Italian SMEs, to underline both the advantages and risks of remote work and to provide a shared list of best and worst practices related to remote work adoption. A Panel of 19 Italian experts of HR management was recruited in April 2022 to perform a Delphi study. They were asked to take part in an anonymous and asynchronous discussion started with stimulus questions, on their remote working experience during the pandemic. A mixed-methods approach was adopted for data collection and analysis. Results: Five principal themes emerged, related to both the positive and negative implications of the adoption of hybrid and remote work, namely: work-life balance, environmental sustainability, impact of working life on individual wellbeing and health, and technological improvement. The content analysis was realized with the use of the T-Lab software, stressing the risks of inaccurate planning and management of these new ways of work. Conclusions: This is the first application of a Delphi study in the Italian context on the impact of COVID-19 on work-life transformative processes. The results highlight the importance of clear communication, transparency, trust, and technology in successfully implementing remote and hybrid forms of work. By implementing these best practices, organizations can create a work environment that supports remote and hybrid work, fosters collaboration, and maintains productivity. The findings of this study can serve as a useful guide for organizations that are transitioning to remote or hybrid work models.
... Also, for some, remote work may be viewed as a disamenity if they are left socially isolated from their peers or working from home while supervising their children (Bartel et al. 2012;Flood and Genadek 2023;Pabilonia and Vernon 2022;. Thus, in equilibrium, it is unclear what will happen to In addition, workers currently working from home valued the option more than those not working from home. 3 A couple of randomized-control trials show casual evidence of worker productivity gains from remote/hybrid work arrangements (Bloom et al. 2015;Bloom et al. 2023;Choudhury et al. 2022). Workers may be more productive at home if, for example, they are less tired from eliminating a long and stressful commute or sleeping later in the morning, they can better manage their work and life responsibilities, they can work without interruptions in a quiet space, whereas they may be less productive if they need to work closely with teams, the nature of their work involves customer contact, they suffer from the social isolation of working from home, or they miss out on on-the-job training Pabilonia and Vernon 2023a). ...
... This suggests that workers in most occupations were more productive working from home than on-site during the pandemic, which could be because a considerable amount of business shifted online. It is not surprising that those in sales positions working remotely did well, because a randomized-control trial in which call center workers were randomly selected to work from home found that those working remotely experienced a productivity boost (e.g., Bloom et al. 2015). Figure 9 shows the hours differentials in the same 22 occupations in 2021. ...
Remote wage employment gradually increased in the United States during the four decades prior to the pandemic, then surged in 2020 due to social distancing policies implemented to stem the spread of COVID-19. Using the 2010-2021 American Community Survey, the authors examine trends in wage and hours differentials for full-time remote workers and office-based workers as well as within occupation differences in wage growth by work location. Throughout the period, remote workers earned higher wages than those working on-site, and the difference increased sharply during the pandemic. Real wages grew 4.4 percent faster for remote workers within detailed occupation groups and remote work intensity was positively associated with wage growth across occupations. Before the pandemic, remote workers worked substantially longer hours per week than on-site workers, but by 2021, hours were similar.
... Similarly, as Alipour et al. (2021) point out for the German case, the suitability of an occupation may not correlate with an individual's actual ability to WFH, since supply (management) restrictions are usually in place (Bloom et al., 2015;Mas and Pallais, 2017), and this usually differs among economic sectors. Indeed, before COVID-19, WFH was a much less cumbersome practice in some sectors, such as Information and Technology, than in others, with some companies restricting the possibility of WFH, despite occupations providing this ability. ...
... Finally, adjusting a relocation decision after the remote-work shock is very much conditioned by the working arrangements agreed upon between managers and workers, as indicated previously (Alipour et al., 2021;Bloom et al., 2015;Mas and Pallais, 2017). These are still being discussed, negotiated, and adjusted in most organizations as the pandemic dies out. ...
I examine how experiencing working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the out-migration decisions of the working-age population of large Swedish cities. Using register microdata of individuals in the period 2015-2021, the results of this study show that the remote work experiment in 2020-2021 significantly increased the likelihood of moving out of large cities (8.7% in 2020, 12.5% in 2021) and of moving to the hinterlands (4.4% in 2020, 11.5% in 2021) compared to the usual internal migration flows before the pandemic. Such results highlight the new-found relevance of the ability to WFH (as an occupational characteristic) and the potentially associated experience (as a working arrangement) as drivers affecting individuals' residential location. Nevertheless, the relatively small size of the effects compared to other migration drivers and to the change in mobility patterns that the COVID-19 pandemic per se has brought to the entire working-age population in large cities cast doubt on the potential role of remote work in the future distribution of population across space.
... Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the majority of lecturers had minimal experience working remotely. In addition, almost no organization was prepared to support this approach [3] [14] [15]. Individuals, on the other hand, can learn about their past performance triumphs through previous experience and training [12]. ...
... In the remote work environment, information and technology (IT) can be a crucial enabler and can also be a critical responsibility for successful remote work [7]. This rapid change to digital communication necessitated the acquisition of new IT knowledge and abilities [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]. Because of this, official and informal training sessions should be conducted [18]. ...
In 2020, pandemic conditions forced billions of individuals worldwide to engage in remote labor with little or
no prior experience, for firms and organizations, including universities, that are almost certainly unprepared for this
transition. The final question thus becomes the quality of remote work: whether employees can adjust or not, and what
criteria influence this. Previously, a model of remote working self-efficacy was established to account for such situations.
However, the development was intended to evaluate virtual businesses that utilize reliable ICT and provide adequate
training for their personnel. The purpose of this research is to contextualize self-efficacy theory and its antecedent in the
context of unpreparedness. The research surveyed 47 academics in Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta Special
Region, and East Java in June 2021, when rising virus transmission compelled colleges to close their doors. The study
demonstrates different results compared to some previous studies While self-efficacy can mediate the influence on remote
work performance, the antecedents of experience and training, social persuasion, physiological and emotional states have
stronger direct effect on the performance.
... In reaction to new trends and cutting-edge technologies, organizational culture is about to go through considerable changes. The ongoing expansion of remote and flexible work arrangements is one trend that is anticipated to have a significant impact on corporate culture [44]. Since the COVID-19 epidemic has expedited the shift to remote work, firms must reconsider conventional ideas of collaboration, communication, and employee engagement as they adjust to this new reality [45]. ...
The chapter investigates the critical relationship between technology and organizational culture change. It presents a framework that elucidates the interplay between technological adoption and the ensuing cultural shifts within organizations. The author delves into the various stages of the digital transformation process, examining the challenges and opportunities that organizations encounter as they integrate new technologies. By drawing on real-world examples and case studies, the chapter underscores the pivotal role that organizational leaders play in guiding their teams through these transitions, fostering a culture of adaptability, and promoting a growth mindset. The chapter also explores the importance of addressing the human element in digital transformation efforts, emphasizing the need to effectively manage change, overcome resistance, and bridge skill gaps to ensure a successful transition. Furthermore, the author discusses the ethical implications of adopting new technologies, advocating for a responsible and people-centric approach to innovation. In conclusion, the chapter offers a forward-looking perspective on the future of organizational culture in the digital era, anticipating emerging trends and novel technologies that will continue to shape the way organizations function. This informative chapter provides a valuable resource for understanding and navigating the complex interplay between organizational culture change and technology.
... Most of the evidence comes from narrow tasks where output is easy to measure, such as call centers. For example, Bloom, Liang, Roberts and Ying (2015) find that, in a call center in China, workers who were randomly assigned to remote work were more productive than in-person workers. In contrast, Emanuel and Harrington (2023) find that call-center workers at a Fortune 500 company were slightly less productive after they were forced to work remotely at the onset of the Covid pandemic. ...
This paper reviews how productivity has evolved around the world since the pandemic began in 2020. Productivity in many countries has been volatile. We conclude that the broad contours of productivity growth during this period have been heavily shaped by predictable cyclical patterns. Looking at U.S. industry data, we find little evidence that the sharp rise in telework has had a notable impact, good or bad, on productivity. Stepping back, the data so far appear consistent with a continuation of the slow-productivity-growth trajectory that we faced before the pandemic.
... During the COVID-19 pandemic, workers often chose to work remotely for health reasons, and this had a positive impact on job satisfaction. At this time, remote work became widespread for some job types (Bloom et al., 2015). Meanwhile, during the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work contributed greatly to the compulsory self-isolation of workers (Reuschke and Felstead, 2020). ...
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJM-02-2023-0089/full/html
... The study highlights the importance of organizational policies and support in managing work-life balance and the need for social support and fairness to reduce work-family conflict in remote working environments (Blakely et al., 2005). Bloom et al. (2015) studied the effects of working from home on work-life balance and productivity in a Chinese experiment. The results showed that workers working remotely reported higher levels of work-life balance than their office-based counterparts. ...
... The second quadrant represents the niche themes of demand [45], benefits [53], outcome [54], and gender [7,55,56]. "Gender" is the largest circle highlighting the importance of gender in the context of working from home. ...
... Working from home is commonly practiced in developed countries and its effects on individual employees and organizations are often debated (Bloom, Liang, Roberts, & Ying, 2015). In Malaysia, work from home (WFH) is uncommon (Siti Aiysyah, 2020). ...
Article History The question arises as to how the employment relations takes place while working from home due to MCO and whether technological facilities and smart devices have successfully created harmonious and effective employment relationships. This paper aims to explore how WFH during MCO can affect employment relations in Malaysia. Based on qualitative online survey data with 725 respondents and analyzed using the reflexive thematic analysis technique, this study found that four major elements influence employment relations, namely: Digital Transformation, Digital Communication, Support (institutional & social), and New Working Style. These elements can either strengthen and at the same time weaken existing employment relationships. The study also showed that the success of WFH on employment relations is a concept of relationships that exist based on trust and this is shown through a symbol of cooperation that is trusted on the commitment of work given. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each member of the organization to put in their utmost and maintain smooth and harmonious employment relations. Employees and employers with the support of the Government should join hands to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 and ensure that the new work style of WFH efficiently functions for the betterment of everyone, society, and the nation at large. Contribution/Originality: This study is the first that has investigated the effect of WFH practices on the nature of employment relations during the COVID-19 MCO in Malaysia. It contributes new findings whereby social limitations in employment relations as the new norm of WFH during MCO has changed the way employees and employers interact.
... Some anecdotal evidence supports that proposition. Promotion within a firm also appears to be correlated with onsite work, holding productivity constant (Bloom et al. 2015). Thus, even if remote work entails no productivity loss, employees who seek advancement may continue to appear in the office. ...
The dramatic rise of remote work threatens the traditional source of urban growth—the unique ability of dense cities to provide a setting in which firms and employees share productive resources, match needs with skills, and transmit knowledge at low cost. These “agglomeration benefits” have induced cities to pursue clusters of related firms that have served as the basis for local economic development and technological innovation. Remote work reduces the necessity for related firms to co-locate, and its popularity has led commentators to predict significant decrease in city business activity, tax revenues, and services as traditional clusters dissipate. It remains unclear how cities will react to the remote work phenomenon. Prior episodes of cluster decline, however, reveal that cities have difficulty pivoting to new economic models when outmoded ones threaten local decay. Instead, cities tend to support existing clusters, notwithstanding that the impending decline is a function of external forces rather than of local policies. This article addresses the potential mismatch between cluster decline that may flow from remote work and city responses. The article theorizes that continued municipal efforts to support a declining cluster emerge from the ability of affected firms to coalesce, exercise political influence, and exploit fragmented municipal decision making to preserve the status quo, maintain or increase municipal subsidies for the cluster, and deter entry by competitors for city resources. Those strategies impede the city’s transition to a more productive economy in the face of looming cluster decline. The article then turns to the history of the garment industry in New York City to illustrate the theory. That history provides a cautionary tale about how cities should and should not respond to the threats they face from remote work.
... Since Shen (2000), virtual access measurement has attracted research interest (Cavallaro & Dianin, 2022;Muhammad, de Jong, & Ottens, 2008a). Each job category has a share of workers that can work from home (denoted as WFH-capable or WFHc for short) (Bloom, Liang, Roberts, & Ying, 2015;Cetrulo, Guarascio, & Virgillito, 2020;Dingel & Neiman, 2020;Eurofound, 2020). Many workers neither work only from home nor only on-site, and instead split their time. ...
... Remote labor can also improve organizational performance by enabling cost reductions that free up resources for productivity-boosting innovation and restructuring. Additionally, by using less office space and equipment, remote work could effectively lower capital expenses (Bloom et al., 2015). Telework increases the pool of candidates from which businesses can choose, increasing the supply of skilled workers and improving the match between job seekers and openings, for example, by luring highly skilled workers who are confined to a specific location for personal reasons. ...
This empirical study aims to examine and validate the factors influencing productivity among remote academic staff in Jordanian higher education institutions during the Covid-19 crisis, with a specific focus on the mediating role of employee engagement. A comprehensive conceptual framework is developed by integrating relevant studies on remote work-from-home, productivity, and engagement, along with insights from in-depth interviews. Employing a descriptive correlational survey design, the study explores the relationships among the study factors using a quantitative approach. Data is collected from a random sample of 408 remote academic staff members who worked from home during Covid-19. The findings robustly support the proposition that organizational, individual, technological, and client-related factors significantly and positively influence academic productivity through the mediation of employee engagement. These results emphasize the importance of considering these interrelated factors holistically to enhance productivity and engagement in remote academic work. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of remote work dynamics and provides practical insights for improving productivity and engagement in the Jordanian higher education context.
... Caringal-Go et al. (2021a) also noted how Filipino employees were able to spend more time with their families and better embrace the fluidity between work, rest, and leisure that contributed to their work-life balance amid remote work. Positive experiences related to increased productivity and savings on resources while telecommuting was likewise noted in previous research (Bloom et al., 2015;Caringal-Go et al., 2021b). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the various forms of organizational and team-level actions that were perceived to be helpful or not helpful by employees as they navigate the hybrid work arrangements and how these had an impact on their work behaviors and experiences. This research utilized Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory as framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploratory study used a qualitative approach in gathering data via online survey from a total of 45 Filipino employees working in a hybrid work arrangement for at least three months. The analysis utilized both inductive and deductive methodologies in examining the data. Inductive thematic analysis was used in coding the data based on the participants' responses, while the deductive approach ensured that the themes are aligned with the research questions and reflect the different systems within Bronfenbrenner's EST (1986).
Findings
Results surfaced helpful organizational (e.g. provision of work tools, financial assistance, supportive policies and engagement and wellness initiatives) and team level actions (i.e. use of technology-based communication tools, open virtual door policy, effective performance management system, employee care practices and team engagement activities). Actions that were perceived as not helpful include inadequate technological infrastructure, poor communication, insufficient training, punitive policies/practices and leadership issues at the organizational level as well as unresponsive colleagues and ineffective implementation of policies/processes at the level of teams. Employees reported being able to build on savings, becoming more productive and having greater work–life balance amid hybrid work. However, they continue to be challenged by blurred boundaries and inability to disconnect from work similar to when work was done remotely and now with sustaining momentum given the shifts on where they do their work.
Practical implications
The findings of this study may guide programs and initiatives of human resource management practitioners and organizational leaders as they support employees in navigating through hybrid work.
Originality/value
The research expands extant knowledge on practices and experiences in hybrid work (Gifford, 2022). It also contributes to studies on human resource management that are nuanced based on where work is performed (Ng and Stanton, 2023) or with emerging work arrangements.
... Working in lockdown eliminated commutes, and many professionals dedicated this time to doing more work (Curtis 2019;Bloom, Davis, and Barrero 2020), which could have positive implications for audit quality. Indeed, prior research provides evidence that working from home can lead to increases in performance and work satisfaction (Bloom, Liang, Roberts, and Ying 2015). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented challenges to the audits of public companies. Audit firms, in response, dedicated significant resources to maintain high-quality audit procedures. We leverage a difference-in-differences design to examine the effects of the pandemic on audit outcomes. Despite audit firm efforts, we find evidence of a decline in audit quality in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, in the early days of the pandemic, the SEC made available a unique one-time, 45-day extension to file the audited annual report. In this time period, we observe a significant increase in the likelihood of delayed filings, including those attributed to the auditors’ work. Our study informs regulators and audit firms about the broad impact of an unprecedented stressor on the audit process and on the efficacy of remote work.
JEL Classifications: M4; M41; M42.
... Hence, the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated digital adoption, which could lead to productivity gains in the future. Prior research has also demonstrated the potential productivity gains from moving to remote work (Bloom 2014;Bloom, Liang et al. 2015) and that employees place a high value on working remotely (Mas andPallais 2017, 2020). ...
This study aims to identify and analyse the main determinants of enterprise resilience and productivity recovery. The report undertakes a literature review and data analysis to provide insights into how businesses can boost their productivity and resilience.
... These radical changes in the work environment have had both advantages and disadvantages. Employees find WfH advantageous as it allows them to spend more time with their families, reduce commuting time, encourages their creativity and helps avoid workplace stress [4]. During the covid19 closure process, people have started to spend time on various social media platforms during the mandatory time at home. ...
During the COVID19 Pandemic process, countries entered the process of closure and people could not leave their homes. In this process, many employees had to continue their work from their homes. Thus, a new “work from home” (WorkforHome- WfH) process has begun. People have inadvertently adapted to the process of working from home. In this process, they expressed their feelings and thoughts with social media tools. This study, it was aimed to analyze how people view working from home as a result of life returning to normal. In our study, Twitter, was selected and tweets titled “HomeforWorkCovid” on Twitter were analyzed. As a method, “socialbearing.com” site using Natural Language Processing Method was chosen. Between 18-26 October 2022, 13,085,737 views and 1614 most popular English tweets were recorded on the site. According to the analysis results of these tweets, the Positive Emotion Score of 44.8%, the Negative Emotion Score of 34.2% and the Neutral Emotion Score of 21.7% of the users were found to be 44.8% while working from home during Covid. The study is thought to be important in terms of shedding light on people's thoughts about working from home after the Pandemic.
Keywords: Sentiment Analysis, Work for Home, Tweets Analysis, Data Scraping.
... Our work makes significant contributions to three distinct literatures. First, by providing the first evidence on the crime consequences of the shift to remote and hybrid work, we make a key contribution to the literature studying the economic and societal consequences of the rise of WFH (Bloom et al., 2015;Barrero et al., 2021;Hansen et al., 2023), and in particular work on the implications of the consequent change in the spatial distribution of economic activity (De Fraja et al., 2021;Delventhal and Parkhomenko, 2020;Delventhal et al., 2022;De Fraja et al., 2022b). Existing work has shown the consequences of this change for inequality (Althoff et al., 2022;De Fraja et al., 2023), and the labor market (Bamieh and Ziegler, 2022) which we build on to consider the effects on crime. ...
We examine the impact of the working from home (WFH) shift on neighborhood-level burglary rates, employing detailed street-level crime data and a neighborhood WFH measure. We find a one
standard deviation increase in WFH (9.5pp) leads to a persistent 4% drop in burglaries. A spatial search model identifies two deterrence channels: occupancy, as burglars avoid occupied houses, and “eyes on the street”. We provide evidence supporting both channels. Despite crime displacement to low WFH areas offseting 30% of the burglary reduction, a hedonic pricing model reveals significant willingness to pay for high WFH areas, especially those with high ex-ante burglary risk.
This chapter explores the impact of remote and hybrid work arrangements, the effectiveness of mindfulness for authentic leadership in these settings, and gendered implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. The shift to remote work has resulted in increased productivity and employee satisfaction, with a significant percentage of workers preferring flexible options. Mindfulness for authentic leadership can support effective communication, work–life balance, and employee well-being in remote and hybrid work environments. However, the effectiveness of mindfulness practices may vary based on individual and organizational factors. COVID-19 disproportionately affected women, who faced increased childcare and educational responsibilities while juggling their professional roles. These challenges highlight existing gender inequalities and may have long-term implications for women's well-being and career advancement. Addressing such gendered impacts is crucial for promoting equitable outcomes in the workplace and society. The chapter also explores the impact of remote and hybrid work on leadership styles and compares the flexible, inclusive, and humanistic approach of mindful authentic leadership with traditional autocratic approaches. Remote work settings often align with flexible and inclusive leadership styles that prioritize employee well-being and empowerment. Mindful authentic leadership, characterized by self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing of information, and internalized moral perspective, is compatible with the demands of remote work. In contrast, organizations that insist on in-person work may adhere to autocratic leadership styles that prioritize control and organizational goals over employee well-being. Embracing a mindful authentic leadership approach to remote and hybrid work can support employees’ potential and contribute to a positive organizational culture.
Digital technology is reshaping workplaces by enabling spatial separation of offices, known as telework, or remote intelligence (RI) and by facilitating automation of service sector tasks via artificial intelligence (AI). This paper is the first attempt to empirically investigate whether AI and RI are complements or substitutes in the service sector. It uses a worker‐level panel of surveys collected from around 10,000 workers from pre‐COVID‐19 pandemic to late 2022. We find preliminary evidence that suggests that AI and RI are complements rather than substitutes. The evidence comes first from the positive correlation of investments in AI‐promoting and RI‐promoting software at the firm and worker level, and second from the positive correlation of workers' expectations regarding telework and software automation. The evidence is far from definitive but suggests that the complement‐substitution question is a fruitful line for future research.
La préparation des analyses ergonomiques est une étape cruciale en bureau d’études, durant laquelle est pratiquée l’ergonomie de conception et où l’activité future est anticipée au travers d’outils de simulation. Dans ce contexte, l’enjeu est de définir le meilleur niveau de représentativité de la situation simulée afin d’assurer une haute valeur écologique de l’analyse. L’étape de préparation est d’autant plus complexe à maîtriser lorsqu’elle doit fédérer, en bureau d’études, des acteurs-métiers non sensibilisés aux analyses ergonomiques, à leur intérêt et à leur impact sur les produits conçus. Or, il peut arriver que les entreprises soient conduites à adapter des processus de préparation des analyses ergonomiques, du fait de circonstances inattendues. Ceci a été le cas lors de la crise sanitaire liée à la COVID-19 qui a entraîné un changement inopiné et brutal des organisations de travail dans de nombreuses entreprises, tous secteurs confondus : ralentissement ou arrêt de production, télétravail de masse, rupture des échanges physiques touchant aussi bien le flux de personnes que le flux de matériels, etc. Cette crise majeure a fait vaciller des écosystèmes jusque-là considérés comme fiables et stables. Elle a aussi permis, par effet de résilience, de mettre en place de nouveaux modes de travail en s’adaptant. Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons au bureau d’études « maintenabilité » dans le secteur industriel aéronautique. Nous comparons l’organisation déployée et les protocoles associés pour préparer des analyses ergonomiques évaluant l’activité de maintenance, avant et pendant la crise sanitaire, notamment lors du premier confinement imposé de mars à avril 2020. Nous identifierons ce qui a été positif, utile et pérennisable pour l’après-crise et qui a concouru à rendre les préparations d’analyses ergonomiques plus efficaces et efficientes au sein d’un bureau d’études où les acteurs-métiers ne sont pas tous spécialisés en ergonomie.
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked increased interest in telework as a means of reducing the spread of the virus and maintaining social distance. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to generate a bibliometric analysis of research progress and trends in telework over the past 20 years. METHOD: A search of key terms was conducted in the Social Science Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index categories for documents published on telework from 2000–2023. A total of 3,446 studies were analyzed using VOSviewer for co-citation, co-word, and cluster analysis. RESULTS: Bibliometric analysis revealed that telework research has experienced a significant increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of publications in 2022 being more than 15 times higher than that in 2019. The analysis revealed that the most commonly researched areas related to telework were applied psychology, management and business. The knowledge base focuses on the antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences of telework, and the research primarily centers around seven directions of well-being, mental health, and work-family conflict. A conceptual framework for telework research and suggestions for future investigation are proposed based on the results of the bibliometric analysis. CONCLUSION: This study provides an overview of telework research over the past two decades, highlighting the current status and hot topics in the field. It calls for wider and more active participation of researchers globally to advance the understanding of telework.
During the initial years of the 1990s, there was an expectation that the practice of working from home (WFH) would become a customary mode of work, offering advantages to organizations in terms of job performance and employee contentment. The concept of working from home (WFH) has gained significant traction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because to its potential to ensure the continuity of organizations under certain circumstances. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of remote work arrangements implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on the various dimensions of employee well-being in Botswana. Specifically, the case of the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) will be utilized as a focal point for analysis. The study utilized a descriptive qualitative research approach, including in-depth interviews to collect data from a sample of 18 employees of BURS who were engaged in remote work during the COVID-19 lockdown. The researchers employed a non-probability sampling technique and conducted a theme analysis to analyze the data. The findings of the research suggest that working from home (WFH) offers several advantages, including the ability to sleep for extended periods and enhanced concentration. Additionally, the flexibility and autonomy provided by working from home allow individuals to avoid distractions commonly encountered in open-office environments. However, the study also highlights certain challenges associated with WFH, such as disruptions caused by family members and feelings of isolation. The study suggests the need for further research to be conducted on the effects of remote employment in Botswana. This research would provide valuable insights for policymakers in navigating the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
Gifts are important instruments for forming bonds in interpersonal relationships. Our study analyzes the phenomenon of gift contagion in online groups. Gift contagion encourages social bonds by prompting further gifts; it may also promote group interaction and solidarity. Using data on 36 million online red packet gifts on a large social site in East Asia, we leverage a natural experimental design to identify the social contagion of gift giving in online groups. Our natural experiment is enabled by the randomization of the gift amount allocation algorithm on the platform, which addresses the common challenge of causal identification in observational data. Our study provides evidence of gift contagion: On average, receiving one additional dollar causes a recipient to send 18 cents back to the group within the subsequent 24 hours. Decomposing this effect, we find that it is mainly driven by the extensive margin: more recipients are triggered to send red packets. Moreover, we find that this effect is stronger for “luckiest draw” recipients, suggesting the presence of a group norm regarding the next red packet sender. Finally, we investigate the moderating effects of group- and individual-level social network characteristics on gift contagion as well as the causal impact of receiving gifts on group network structure. Our study has implications for promoting group dynamics and designing marketing strategies for product adoption.
This paper was accepted by Axel Ockenfels, behavioral economics and decision analysis.
Funding: T. Liu was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72222005] and Tsinghua University [Grant 2022Z04W01032]. J. Tang was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholar [Grant 61825602].
Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4906 .
This study explored impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on creativity and productivity and how personality variables moderated these impacts. Two online self-report surveys were conducted. 863 (spring 2020) and 421 (spring 2021) participants were asked how the corona crisis affected their creativity and productivity. In addition, personality variables, namely the Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism), as well as interpersonal trust, need for cognition, risk-taking, and life satisfaction, were assessed. As a result of the crisis, the group of participants appeared more creative in 2020, while no significant group effect of the pandemic was found for productivity. In 2021, however, the crisis had a negative impact on creativity and productivity. In 2020, predictors for an improved creativity were openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and life satisfaction; predictors for improved productivity were conscientiousness, negative interpersonal trust, and life satisfaction. In 2021, only life satisfaction predicted improved creativity, while improved productivity was predicted by conscientiousness, negative neuroticism, and life satisfaction. At its beginning, the COVID-19 pandemic had, on average, a positive effect on creativity and a neutral one on productivity. Later, the impact turned negative on both creativity and productivity. Here, lower life satisfaction was particularly relevant.
In the era of networking and information technology, ongoing advancement of the new business pattern "Internet+ " has enabled the Internet to permeate all facets of rural residents' production and life, with profound effects on their daily choices. Can the Internet continue to help people get out of poverty by making rural households less poor? To test the consequences of the Internet usage on farming people’s relative poverty as well as its internal mechanisms of action, we use data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2016 and 2018, employing the model of probit as well as the mediation impact theories. The results are as follows: (1) In terms of comparison to farmers who refrain from using the Internet, farmers who do use the Internet have lower levels of objective and subjective relative poverty. Regarding the marginal effects, each extra Internet use metric, a farmer’s likelihood of falling into objective and subjective relative poverty is reduced by 3.84% and 2.67%, respectively. (2) Farmers' use of the Internet concerning their business activities has the most prominent effect on their relative poverty alleviation. (3) The poverty alleviation effect of the Internet varies by region, gender, and age. (4) Human capital, social capital, and non-agricultural employment help alleviate the relative poverty of farm households using the Internet. According to these results, the Communist Party of China may be able to minimize relative rural poverty by strongly investing in information infrastructure, offering online training for residents, and stimulating rural human capital. Those findings convey indispensable theoretical suggestions and pragmatic support for generating an everlasting mechanism to lessen relative poverty and accomplish the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
We present a two‐area endogenous growth model where abstract knowledge flows at no cost across space but tacit knowledge arises from the interaction among researchers and is hampered by distance. Digital communication reduces this “cost of distance” and reinforces productive specialization, leading to an increase in the system‐wide growth rate but at the cost of more inequality within and across areas. These results are consistent with evidences on the rise in the concentration of innovative activities, income inequality, and skills and income divergence across US urban areas.
We study the impact of work from home (WFH) on subjective well‐being during the Covid period, where self‐selection of individuals into telework is ruled out, at least part of the time, by stay‐at‐home orders. We use a difference‐in‐differences approach with individual fixed effects and identify the specific impact of switching to telecommuting, separately from any other confounding factor. In particular, our identification strategy avoids the influence of interpersonal heterogeneity by exploiting the multiple entries into WFH, by the same individuals, at different times. On average over the period, switching to WFH, especially full‐time, worsens mental health. We also find a positive but imprecisely measured impact of part‐time WFH on life satisfaction. However, this hides a dynamic evolution, whereby the initial deterioration gives place to an adaptation process after a couple of months. We also uncover a particularly pronounced fall in subjective well‐being of women with children, especially in the first months; this could be associated with home‐schooling.
Transportability is a structural causal modeling approach aimed at “transporting” a causal effect from a randomized experimental study in one population to a different population where only observational data are available. It allows for extracting much more value from randomized control trials because under some conditions, it allows the estimation of causal effects in a target population where replicating the experiment is difficult, costly, or impossible. Despite the enormous economic and social benefits of transportability, it has thus far seldom been implemented in practice, likely because of the lack guidelines for applying transportability theory in practice and on handling the statistical challenges that might arise. Using a practical problem as an illustration—estimating the effect of telecommuting on worker productivity—we attempt to offer a detailed procedure for transporting a causal effect across different populations, and we discuss some practical considerations for its implementation, including how to conceptualize causal diagrams, determine the feasibility of transport, select an appropriate diagram, and evaluate its credibility. We also discuss the current limitations, challenges, and opportunities for future research on transportability that would make it more amenable for broad practical use.
Schedule control and supervisor support for family and personal life may help employees
manage the work-family interface. Existing data and research designs, however, have made
it difficult to conclusively identify the effects of these work resources. This analysis utilizes
a group-randomized trial in which some units in an information technology workplace were
randomly assigned to participate in an initiative, called STAR, that targeted work practices,
interactions, and expectations by (1) training supervisors on the value of demonstrating
support for employees’ personal lives and (2) prompting employees to reconsider when
and where they work. We find statistically significant, although modest, improvements in
employees’ work-family conflict and family time adequacy, and larger changes in schedule
control and supervisor support for family and personal life. We find no evidence that this
intervention increased work hours or perceived job demands, as might have happened
with increased permeability of work across time and space. Subgroup analyses suggest the
intervention brought greater benefits to employees more vulnerable to work-family conflict.
This study uses a rigorous design to investigate deliberate organizational changes and their
effects on work resources and the work-family interface, advancing our understanding of the
impact of social structures on individual lives.
Performance rankings are a very common workplace management practice. Behavioral theories suggest that providing performance rankings to employees, even without pecuniary consequences, may directly shape effort due to the rank's effect on self-image. In a three-year randomized control trial with full-time design where I vary (i) whether to privately inform employees about their performance rank; and (ii) whether to give benchmarks, i.e. data on current performance required to be in the top 10%, 25%, and 50%. The salespeople's compensation is only based on absolute performance via a high-powered commission scheme in which rankings convey no direct additional financial benefits. There are two important innovations in this experiment. First, prior to the start of the experiment all salespeople were told their performance ranking. Second, employees operate in a multi-tasking environment where they can sell multiple brands. There are four key results: First, removing rank feedback actually increases sales performance by 11%, or 1/10th of a standard deviation. Second, only men (not women) change their performance. Third, adding benchmarks to rank feedback significantly raises performance, but it is not significantly different from providing no feedback. Fourth, as predicted by the multi-tasking model, the treatment effect increases with the scope for effort substitution across furniture brands as employees switch their effort to other tasks when their rank is worse than expected.
This paper analyzes a marked change in the evolution of the U.S. wage structure over the past fifteen years: divergent trends in upper-tail (90/50) and lower-tail (50/10) wage inequality. We document that wage inequality in the top half of distribution has displayed an unchecked and rather smooth secular rise for the last 25 years (since 1980). Wage inequality in the bottom half of the distribution also grew rapidly from 1979 to 1987, but it has ceased growing (and for some measures actually narrowed) since the late 1980s. Furthermore we find that occupational employment growth shifted from monotonically increasing in wages (education) in the 1980s to a pattern of more rapid growth in jobs at the top and bottom relative to the middles of the wage (education) distribution in the 1990s. We characterize these patterns as the %u201Cpolarization%u201D of the U.S. labor market, with employment polarizing into high-wage and low-wage jobs at the expense of middle-wage work. We show how a model of computerization in which computers most strongly complement the non-routine (abstract) cognitive tasks of high-wage jobs, directly substitute for the routine tasks found in many traditional middle-wage jobs, and may have little direct impact on non-routine manual tasks in relatively low-wage jobs can help explain the observed polarization of the U.S. labor market.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from 732 medium-sized firms in the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level productivity, profitability, Tobin's Q, and survival rates. Management practices also display significant cross-country differences, with U.S. firms on average better managed than European firms, and significant within-country differences, with a long tail of extremely badly managed firms. We find that poor management practices are more prevalent when product market competition is weak and/or when family-owned firms pass management control down to the eldest sons (primogeniture).
This national benchmarking report of the U.S. telecommunications services industry traces the tumultuous changes in management and workforce practices and performance in the sector over the last 5 years. This is a follow-up report to our 1998 study. At that time, when the industry was booming, we conducted a national survey of establishments in the industry. In 2003, we returned to do a second national survey of the industry, this time in a sector that was recovering from one of the worst recessions in its history.
We present evidence from a firm level experiment in which we engineered an
exogenous change in managerial compensation from fixed wages to performance
pay based on the average productivity of lower-tier workers. Theory suggests that
managerial incentives affect both the mean and dispersion of workers’ productivity
through two channels. First, managers respond to incentives by targeting their
efforts towards more able workers, implying that both the mean and the dispersion
increase. Second, managers select out the least able workers, implying that
the mean increases but the dispersion may decrease. In our field experiment we
find that the introduction of managerial performance pay raises both the mean
and dispersion of worker productivity. Analysis of individual level productivity
data shows that managers target their effort towards high ability workers, and
the least able workers are less likely to be selected into employment. These results
highlight the interplay between the provision of managerial incentives and earnings
inequality among lower-tier workers.
We examine the effects of urban form and public transit supply on the commute mode choices and annual vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) of households living in 114 urban areas in 1990. The probability of driving to work is lower the higher are population centrality and rail miles supplied and the lower is road density. Population centrality, jobs-housing balance, city shape, and road density have a significant effect on annual household VMTs. Although individual elasticities are small absolute values (≤0.10), moving sample households from a city with the characteristics of Atlanta to a city with the characteristics of Boston reduces annual VMTs by 25%. Copyright (c) 2005 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Because minorities typically fare poorly on standardized tests, job testing is thought to pose an equality-efficiency trade-off:
testing improves selection but reduces minority hiring. We develop a conceptual framework to assess when this trade-off is
likely to apply and evaluate the evidence for such a trade-off using hiring and productivity data from a national retail firm
whose 1,363 stores switched from informal to test-based worker screening over the course of one year. We document that testing
yielded more productive hires at this firm—raising mean and median tenure by 10% or more. Consistent with prior research,
minorities performed worse on the test. Yet, testing had no measurable impact on minority hiring, and productivity gains were
uniformly large among minority and nonminority hires. These results suggest that job testing raised the precision of screening
without introducing additional negative information about minority applicants, most plausibly because both the job test and
the informal screen that preceded it were unbiased.
The authors combine measures of urban form and public transit supply for 114 urbanized areas with the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey to address two questions: (1) How do measures of urban form, including city shape, road density, the spatial distribution of population, and jobs-housing balance affect the annual miles driven and commute mode choices of U.S. households? (2) How does the supply of public transportation (annual route miles supplied and availability of transit stops) affect miles driven and commute mode choice? The authors find that jobs-housing balance, population centrality, and rail miles supplied significantly reduce the probability of driving to work in cities with some rail transit. Population centrality and jobs-housing balance have a significant impact on annual household vehicle miles traveled (VMT), as do city shape, road density, and (in rail cities) annual rail route miles supplied. The elasticity of VMT with respect to each variable is small, on the order of 0.10-0.20 in absolute value. However, changing several measures of form simultaneously can reduce annual VMT significantly. Moving the sample households from a city with the characteristics of Atlanta to a city with the characteristics of Boston reduces annual VMT by 25 percent.
Economic models of incentives in employment relationships are based on a specific theory of motivation. Employees are 'rational cheaters,' who anticipate the consequences of their actions and shirk when the perceived marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost. Managers respond to this decision calculus by implementing monitoring and incentive pay practices that lessen the attraction of shirking. This 'rational cheater model' is not the only model of opportunistic behavior, and indeed is viewed skeptically by human resource practitioners and by many non-economists who study employment relationships. We investigate the 'rational cheater model' using data from a double-blind field experiment that allows us to observe the effect of experimentally-induced variations in monitoring on employee opportunism. The experiment is unique in that it occurs in the context of an ongoing employment relationship, i.e., with the firm's employees producing output as usual under the supervision of their front-line managers. The results indicate that a significant fraction of employees behave roughly in ccordance with the 'rational cheater model.' We also find, however, that a substantial proportion of employees do not respond to manipulations in the monitoring rate. This heterogeneity is related to employee assessments about their general treatment by the emp loyer.
In this paper, we exploit establishment-level data to examine the relationship between microeconomic productivity dynamics and aggregate productivity growth. After synthesizing the evidence from recent studies, we conduct our own analysis using establishment-level data for U.S. manufacturing establishments as well for selected service industries. The use of longitudinal micro data on service sector establishments is one of the novel features of our analysis. Our main findings are summarized as follows: (i) the contribution of reallocation of outputs and inputs from less productive to more productive establishments plays a significant role in accounting for aggregate productivity growth; (ii) for the selected service industries considered, the contribution of net entry (more productive entering establishments displacing less productive exiting establishments) is dominant; (iii) the contribution of net entry to aggregate productivity growth is disproportionate and is increasing in the horizon over which the changes are measured since longer horizon yields greater differentials from selection and learning effects; (iv) the contribution of reallocation to aggregate productivity growth varies over time (e.g. is cyclically sensitive) and industries and is somewhat sensitive to subtle differences in measurement and decomposition methodologies.
This paper studies the implications for inflation dynamics of introducing non-price competition into a New Keynesian model featuring both nominal rigidities, which are in the form of staggered prices, and real rigidities, which are in the form of strategic complementarities in price setting. Under very general assumptions, we show that the presence of non-price competition among firms dampens the overall degree of real rigidities in the economy, thereby increasing the sensitivity of inflation to movements in real marginal costs. Because of this property, our analysis provides additional insights to the existing theories on real rigidities, showing that the strong linkage between real rigidities and the sensitivity of inflation to real marginal costs that has been found in previous works is not robust across alternative assumptions about inter-firms competition.
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips stock price has been predicted using the difference between core and headline CPI in the United States. Linear trends in the CPI difference allow accurate prediction of the prices at a five to ten-year horizon.
We analyze the consequences of control on motivation in an experimental principalagent game, where the principal can control the agent by implementing a minimum performance requirement before the agent chooses a productive activity. Our results show that control entails hidden costs since most agents reduce their performance as a response to the principal?s controlling decision. Overall, the effect of control on the principal?s payoff is nonmonotonic. When asked for their emotional perception of control, most agents who react negatively say that they perceive the controlling decision as a signal of distrust and a limitation of their choice autonomy. (JEL D82, Z13)
This paper analyzes a marked change in the evolution of the U.S. wage structure over the past fifteen years: divergent trends in upper-tail (90/50) and lower-tail (50/10) wage inequality. We document that wage inequality in the top half of distribution has displayed an unchecked and rather smooth secular rise for the last 25 years (since 1980). Wage inequality in the bottom half of the distribution also grew rapidly from 1979 to 1987, but it has ceased growing (and for some measures actually narrowed) since the late 1980s. Furthermore we find that occupational employment growth shifted from monotonically increasing in wages (education) in the 1980s to a pattern of more rapid growth in jobs at the top and bottom relative to the middles of the wage (education) distribution in the 1990s. We characterize these patterns as the %u201Cpolarization%u201D of the U.S. labor market, with employment polarizing into high-wage and low-wage jobs at the expense of middle-wage work. We show how a model of computerization in which computers most strongly complement the non-routine (abstract) cognitive tasks of high-wage jobs, directly substitute for the routine tasks found in many traditional middle-wage jobs, and may have little direct impact on non-routine manual tasks in relatively low-wage jobs can help explain the observed polarization of the U.S. labor market.
Economic models of incentives in employment relationships are based on a specific theory of motivation: employees are "rational cheaters," who anticipate the consequences of their actions and shirk when the marginal benefits exceed costs. We investigate the "rational cheater model" by observing how experimentally induced variation in monitoring of telephone call center employees influences opportunism. A significant fraction of employees behave as the "rational cheater model" predicts. A substantial proportion of employees, however, do not respond to manipulations in the monitoring rate. This heterogeneity is related to variation in employee assessments of their general treatment by the employer. (JEL D2, J2, L2, L8, M12)
The theories of supermodular optimization and games provide a framework for the analysis of systems marked by complementarity. We summarize the principal results of these theories and indicate their usefulness by applying them to study the shift to ‘modern manufacturing’. We also use them to analyze the characteristic features of the Lincoln Electric Company's strategy and structure.
In this paper we analyze the behavioral consequences of control on motivation. Wenstudy a simple experimental principal-agent game, where the principal decides whethernhe controls the agent by implementing a minimum performance requirement before the agent chooses a productive activity. Our main finding is that a principal's decisionnto control has a negative impact on the agent's motivation. While there is substantial individual heterogeneity among agents, most agents reduce their performance as a response to the principals' controlling decision. The majority of the principals seem to anticipate the hidden costs of control and decide not to control. In several treatmentsnwe vary the enforceable level of control and show that control has a non-monotonic effect on the principal's payoff. In a variant of our main treatment principals can also set wages. In this gift-exchange game control partly crowds out agents' reciprocity. The economic importance and possible applications of our experimental results are further illustrated by a questionnaire study which reveals hidden costs of control in various real-life labor scenarios. We also explore possible reasons for the existence of hidden costs of control. Agents correctly believe that principals who control expect to get less than those who don't. When asked for their emotional perception of control, most agents who react negatively say that they perceive the controlling decision as a signal of distrust and a limitation of their choice autonomy.
Much of the theory in personnel economics relates to effects of monetary incentives on output, but the theory was untested because appropriate data were unavailable. A new data set for the Safelite Glass Corporation tests the predictions that average productivity will rise, the firm will attract a more able workforce, and variance in output across individuals at the firm will rise when it shifts to piece rates. In Safelite, productivity effects amount to a 44-percent increase in output per worker. This firm apparently had selected a suboptimal compensation system, as profits also increased with the change.
Over the last decade the World Management Survey (WMS) has collected firm-level management practices data across multiple sectors and countries. We developed the survey to try to explain the large and persistent total factor productivity (TFP) differences across firms and countries. This review paper discusses what has been learned empirically and theoretically from the WMS and other recent work on management practices. Our preliminary results suggest that about a quarter of cross-country and within-country TFP gaps can be accounted for by management practices. Management seems to matter both qualitatively and quantitatively for performance at the level of the firm and the nation. Competition, governance, human capital, and informational frictions help account for the variation in management. We make some suggestions for both policy and future research.
Schedule control and supervisor support for family and personal life may help employees
manage the work-family interface. Existing data and research designs, however, have made
it difficult to conclusively identify the effects of these work resources. This analysis utilizes
a group-randomized trial in which some units in an information technology workplace were
randomly assigned to participate in an initiative, called STAR, that targeted work practices,
interactions, and expectations by (1) training supervisors on the value of demonstrating
support for employees’ personal lives and (2) prompting employees to reconsider when
and where they work. We find statistically significant, although modest, improvements in
employees’ work-family conflict and family time adequacy, and larger changes in schedule
control and supervisor support for family and personal life. We find no evidence that this
intervention increased work hours or perceived job demands, as might have happened
with increased permeability of work across time and space. Subgroup analyses suggest the
intervention brought greater benefits to employees more vulnerable to work-family conflict.
This study uses a rigorous design to investigate deliberate organizational changes and their
effects on work resources and the work-family interface, advancing our understanding of the
impact of social structures on individual lives.
In an effort to cut costs and improve worker morale, corporations are increasingly turning to telecommuting. Conflicting reports exist though on the effects that working outside the office has on productivity which directly affects a company's bottom line. This study explores these controversies using an experimental approach. Creative and dull individual tasks were used to mimic two extreme work climates. Results of this study indicate that the telecommuting environmental effects may have positive implications on productivity of creative tasks but negative implications on productivity of dull tasks.
Ctrip is a $437 million Chinese on-line travel services company with a scientific, data driven approach to management. The case explores Ctrip's founding and early growth, its expansion into multiple market segments including hotel reservations, air ticketing, leisure travel, and corporate travel, and the sources of its competitive advantage. The firm's culture, organization and call center operations are described in detail, as are its decision-making and business processes. At the end of the case, executives are considering whether Ctrip should actively pursue either the budget or luxury travel segments, which would mean shifting attention from the company's core customer base of Frequent Independent Travelers.Learning Objective: The case has three main purposes. First, it helps students understand some of the distinctive challenges of the Chinese marketplace and how those challenges can be overcome. Ctrip was founded in 1999 at a time when the Chinese travel industry was fragmented; the key players were either state-owned enterprises or small, local travel agencies. Ctrip grew quickly by consolidating the business, broadening geographical coverage, and offering superior service. Second, the case includes a detailed description of the company's scientific approach to management, which help students better understand its elements and key components: data-driven decision making, experimentation, process analysis, and a non-hierarchical, learning oriented culture. Third, the case presents students with a dilemma faced by many growing companies - deciding if and when to expand into new market segments that are likely to require different capabilities because they appeal to a different customer base (in this case, either budget or luxury travelers rather than Ctrip's traditional Frequent Independent Travelers).
This is a study of factors responsible for the wide cross-sectional differences in the past and current rates of use of hybrid seed corn in the United States. Logistic growth functions are fitted to the data by states and crop reporting districts, reducing differences among areas to differences in estimates of the three parameters of the logistic: origins, slopes, and ceilings. The lag in the development of adaptable hybrids for particular areas and the lag in the entry of seed producers into these areas (differences in origins) are explained on the basis of varying profitability of entry, "profitability" being a function of market density, and innovation and marketing cost. Differences in the long-run equilibrium use of hybrid corn (ceilings) and in the rates of approach to that equilibrium (slopes) are explained, at least in part, by differences in the profitability of the shift from open pollinated to hybrid varieties in different parts of the country. The results are summarized and the conclusion is drawn that the process of innovation, the process of adapting and distributing a particular invention to different markets and the rate at which it is accepted by entrepreneurs are amenable to economic analysis.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Many critics of free-market liberalism argue that higher product-market competition and the "Anglo-Saxon" management practices it stimulates increases productivity only at the expense of employees' work-life balance (WLB). The empirical basis of these claims is unclear. To address this issue we use an innovative survey tool to collect the first international data on management practices and work-life balance practices, surveying 732 medium sized manufacturing firms in the US, France, Germany and the UK. We find that WLB outcomes are significantly associated with better management, so that well run firms are both more productive and better for their employees. After controlling for management practices, however, we find no additional relationship between WLB and productivity. WLB practices are also not reduced by tougher competition, suggesting no deleterious effect of competition on employees' working environment. Finally, looking at multinationals we find that US subsidiaries in Europe adopt the superior management practices of their US parent firms but the local WLB practices of their European competitors.
A long-standing question is whether differences in management practices across firms can explain differences in productivity,
especially in developing countries where these spreads appear particularly large. To investigate this, we ran a management
field experiment on large Indian textile firms. We provided free consulting on management practices to randomly chosen treatment
plants and compared their performance to a set of control plants. We find that adopting these management practices raised
productivity by 17% in the first year through improved quality and efficiency and reduced inventory, and within three years
led to the opening of more production plants. Why had the firms not adopted these profitable practices previously? Our results
suggest that informational barriers were the primary factor explaining this lack of adoption. Also, because reallocation across
firms appeared to be constrained by limits on managerial time, competition had not forced badly managed firms to exit. JEL Codes: L2, M2, O14, O32, O33.
This study documents the rapid growth in home-based wage and salary employment and the sharp decline in the home-based wage penalty in the United States between 1980 and 2000. These twin patterns, observed for both men and women in most occupation groups, suggest that employer costs of providing home-based work arrangements have decreased. Consistent with information technology (IT) advances being an important source of these falling costs, I find that occupation-gender cells that had larger increases in on-the-job IT use also experienced larger increases in the home-based employment share and larger declines in the home-based wage penalty.
In this paper we propose a variance estimator for the OLS estimator as well as for nonlinear estimators such as logit, probit and GMM. This variance estimator en- ables cluster-robust inference when there is two-way or multi-way clustering that is non-nested. The variance estimator extends the standard cluster-robust variance es- timator or sandwich estimator for one-way clustering (e.g. Liang and Zeger (1986), Arellano (1987)) and relies on similar relatively weak distributional assumptions. Our method is easily implemented in statistical packages, such as Stata and SAS, that already o�er cluster-robust standard errors when there is one-way clustering. The method is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo analysis for a two-way random ef- fects model; a Monte Carlo analysis of a placebo law that extends the state-year e�ects example of Bertrand et al. (2004) to two dimensions; and by application to studies in the empirical literature where two-way clustering is present.
This paper calculates indices of central bank autonomy (CBA) for 163 central banks as of end-2003, and comparable indices for a subgroup of 68 central banks as of the end of the 1980s. The results confirm strong improvements in both economic and political CBA over the past couple of decades, although more progress is needed to boost political autonomy of the central banks in emerging market and developing countries. Our analysis confirms that greater CBA has on average helped to maintain low inflation levels. The paper identifies four broad principles of CBA that have been shared by the majority of countries. Significant differences exist in the area of banking supervision where many central banks have retained a key role. Finally, we discuss the sequencing of reforms to separate the conduct of monetary and fiscal policies. IMF Staff Papers (2009) 56, 263–296. doi:10.1057/imfsp.2008.25; published online 23 September 2008
Three experiments examine what is widely reported to be one of the most common forms of interference in open-plan office environments—the effect of background noise. Experiment 1 investigates whether office noise (with or without speech) is disruptive to two office-related tasks: memory for prose and mental arithmetic. The results show that whereas office noise with speech disrupts performance on both tasks, office noise without speech disrupts performance on the mental arithmetic task only. Experiment 2 investigates the memory for prose task more closely by varying the duration and the meaning of the background noise. Experiment 3 examines whether the meaning of speech is important to the disruption of a mental arithmetic task. The results show that both speech and office noise can disrupt performance on memory for prose and mental arithmetic tasks, and the effect is independent of the meaning of the irrelevant speech. These results are presented and interpreted in light of current research and theories regarding the effect of background noise.
[Excerpt] American society has changed dramatically over the past half century. Women have entered the labor force in growing numbers and families have increasingly relied on more than one earner to make ends meet. And yet, children still need to be taken to the doctor and elderly parents still need care. Moreover, more adults older than 25 are attending school. Because these changes have caused many workers to face conflicts between their work and their personal lives, they also inspire a need and desire for more flexibility in the workplace. Flexible workplace arrangements can be in terms of when one works, where one works, or how much one works (including time off after childbirth or other life events). They include a variety of arrangements such as job sharing, phased retirement of older workers, and telecommuting, that allow workers to continue making productive contributions to the workforce while also attending to family and other responsibilities. This report presents an economic perspective on flexible workplace policies and practices. The first section reports some of the changes in the U.S. workforce that have increased the need for flexibility in the workplace. • Women comprise nearly one-half of the labor force; in nearly one-half of households all adults are working. • In 2008, approximately 43.5 million Americans served as unpaid caregivers to a family member over the age of 50. Nearly one-fifth of employed people were caregivers who provided care to a person over age 50. • The increasing demand for analytical and interactive skills—those largely obtained through post-secondary education—means it is all the more important and common for individuals to pursue additional education while also working. The second section examines the current state of flexible work arrangements and reports that many employers have adapted to the changing realities of American workers. • Overall, over one-half of employers report allowing at least some workers to periodically change their starting and quitting times. However, less than one-third of full-time workers report having flexible work hours, and only 39 percent of part-time workers do. This discrepancy between the employer and employee reports may be due to differences in data collection or because more employers would be willing to accommodate the needs of individual workers but these workers are not aware of it. • Less-skilled workers have less workplace flexibility in terms of the scheduling of when they work than do more highly-skilled workers. • Flexibility in where to work is less common: only about 15 percent of workers report working from home at least once per week. • Finally, most employers offer at least some workers the ability to return to work gradually after a major life event such as the birth or adoption of a child, although job sharing appears less widespread. The report concludes with a discussion of the economic benefits of workplace flexibility arrangements. • Almost one-third of firms cite costs or limited funds as obstacles to implementing workplace flexibility arrangements. However, the benefits of adopting such management practices can outweigh the costs by reducing absenteeism, lowering turnover, improving the health of workers, and increasing productivity. • The costs and benefits of adopting flexible arrangements differ across industries and employers of different sizes. • Because many employers may not have accurate information about the costs and benefits of workplace flexibility practices and because some of the benefits may extend beyond the individual employer and its workers, wider adoption of such policies and practices may well have benefits to more firms and workers, and for the U.S. economy as a whole. • A factor hindering a deeper understanding of the benefits and costs of flexibility is a lack of data on the prevalence of workplace flexibility arrangements, and more research is needed on the mechanisms through which flexibility influences workers’ job satisfaction and firm profits to help policy makers and managers alike.
We present evidence on whether workers have social preferences by comparing workers' productivity under relative incentives,
where individual effort imposes a negative externality on others, with their productivity under piece rates, where it does
not. We find that the productivity of the average worker is at least 50 percent higher under piece rates than under relative
incentives. We show that this is due to workers partially internalizing the negative externality their effort imposes on others
under relative incentives, especially when working alongside their friends. Under piece rates, the relationship among workers
does not affect productivity. Further analysis reveals that workers internalize the externality only when they can monitor
others and be monitored. This rules out pure altruism as the underlying motive of workers' behavior.
We study subjects who were asked to fill letters into envelopes with a remuneration independent of output. In the "pair" treatment, two subjects worked at the same time in the same room, and peer effects were possible. In the "single" treatment, subjects worked alone, and peer effects were ruled out. We find evidence of peer effects in the pair treatment because the standard deviations of output are smaller within pairs than between pairs. Moreover, average output is higher in the pair treatment: thus, peer effects raise productivity. Finally, low-productivity workers are the most sensitive to the behavior of peers.
We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from 732 medium-sized firms in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level productivity, profitability, Tobin's Q, and survival rates. Management practices also display significant cross-country differences, with U.S. firms on average better managed than European firms, and significant within-country differences, with a long tail of extremely badly managed firms. We find that poor management practices are more prevalent when product market competition is weak and/or when family-owned firms pass management control down to the eldest sons (primogeniture). (c) 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology..
We document several empirical regularities regarding the evolution of urban structure in the largest U.S. metropolitan areas over the period 1980-90. These regularities relate to changes in resident population, employment, occupations, as well as the number and size of establishments in different sections of the metropolitan area. We then propose a theory of urban structure that emphasizes the location and internal structure decisions of firms. In particular, firms can decide to locate their headquarters and operation plants in different regions of the city. Given that cities experienced positive population growth throughout the 1980s, we show that firm fragmentation produces the diverse set of facts documented in the article. Copyright © (2009) by the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.
This paper empirically assesses the wage effects of the Job Corps program, one of the largest federally funded job training
programs in the U.S. Even with the aid of a randomized experiment, the impact of a training program on wages is difficult
to study because of sample selection, a pervasive problem in applied microeconometric research. Wage rates are only observed
for those who are employed, and employment status itself may be affected by the training program. This paper develops an intuitive
trimming procedure for bounding average treatment effects in the presence of sample selection. In contrast to existing methods,
the procedure requires neither exclusion restrictions nor a bounded support for the outcome of interest. Identification results,
estimators, and their asymptotic distribution are presented. The bounds suggest that the program raised wages, consistent
with the notion that the Job Corps raises earnings by increasing human capital, rather than solely through encouraging work.
The estimator is generally applicable to typical treatment evaluation problems in which there is nonrandom sample selection/attrition.
We investigate how and why the productivity of a worker varies as a function of the productivity of her co-workers in a group production process. In theory, the introduction of a high productivity worker could lower the effort of incumbent workers because of free riding; or it could increase the effort of incumbent workers because of peer effects induced by social norms, social pressure, or learning. Using scanner level data, we measure high frequency, worker-level productivity of checkers for a large grocery chain. Because of the firm‘s scheduling policy, the timing of within-day changes in personnel is unsystematic, a feature for which we find consistent support in the data. We find strong evidence of positive productivity spillovers from the introduction of highly productive personnel into a shift. A 10% increase in average co-worker permanent productivity is associated with 1.7% increase in a worker’s effort. Most of this peer effect arises from low productivity workers benefiting from the presence of high productivity workers. Therefore, the optimal mix of workers in a given shift is the one that maximizes skill diversity. In order to explain the mechanism that generates the peer effect, we examine whether effort depends on workers’ ability to monitor one another due to their spatial arrangement, and whether effort is affected by the time workers have previously spent working together. We find that a given worker’s effort is positively related to the presence and speed of workers who face him, but not the presence and speed of workers whom he faces (and do not face him). In addition, workers respond more to the presence of co-workers with whom they frequently overlap. These patterns indicate that these individuals are motivated by social pressure and mutual monitoring, and suggest that social preferences can play an important role in inducing effort, even when economic incentives are limited.
This study uses detailed time diaries from household surveys for 1975 and 1981 to examine how changes in the use of time on the job affect earnings. Among nonunion workers, the marginal minute of break time apparently increases earnings, but not as much as does the marginal minute of work time. Among union workers, additional time in unscheduled breaks appears to be associated with significantly higher earnings, though other break time is not. The author concludes that further growth in on-the-job leisure would reduce productivity, that monitoring workers would yield returns to the firm, but that entirely eliminating breaks would be counterproductive. (Abstract courtesy JSTOR.)
Standard real business cycle models must rely on total factor productivity (TFP) shocks to explain the observed comovement of consumption, investment, and hours worked. This paper shows that a neoclassical model consistent with observed heterogeneity in labor supply and consumption can generate comovement in the absence of TFP shocks. Intertemporal substitution of goods and leisure induces comovement over the business cycle through heterogeneity in the consumption behavior of employed and unemployed workers. This result owes to two model features introduced to capture important characteristics of U.S. labor market data. First, individual consumption is affected by the number of hours worked: Employed agents consume more on average than the unemployed do. Second, changes in the employment rate, a central factor explaining variation in total hours, affect aggregate consumption. Demand shocks--such as shifts in the marginal efficiency of investment, as well as government spending shocks and news shocks--are shown to generate economic fluctuations consistent with observed business cycles.
Much of the theory in personnel economics relates to effects of monetary incentives on output, but the theory was untested because appropriate data were unavailable. A new data set for the Safelite Glass Corporation tests the predictions that average productivity will rise, the firm will attract a more able workforce, and variance in output across individuals at the firm will rise when it shifts to piece rates. In Safelite, productivity effects amount to a 44-percent increase in output per worker. This firm apparently had selected a suboptimal compensation system, as profits also increased with the change.
Do "Anglo-Saxon" management practices generate higher productivity only at the expense of lousywork-life balance (WLB) for workers? Many critics of "neo-libéralisme sauvage" have argued thatincreased competition from globalisation is damaging employees' quality of life. Others have arguedthe opposite that improving work-life balance is actually a competitive tool that companies can useto raise productivity. We try to shed some empirical light on these issues using an innovative surveytool to collect new data on management and work-life balance practices from 732 medium sizedmanufacturing firms in the US, France, Germany and the UK. First, we show that our measure ofwork-life balance is a useful summary of a range of policies in the firm - family-friendly policies,flexible working, shorter hours, more holidays, subsidised childcare, etc. We show that this worklifebalance measure is significantly associated with better management. Firms in environments thatare more competitive and/or who are more productive, however, do not have significantly worsework-life balance for their workers. These findings are inconsistent with the view that competition,globalisation and "Anglo-Saxon" management practices are intrinsically bad for the work-lifebalance of workers. On the other hand, neither are these findings supportive of the optimistic "winwin"view that work-life balance improves productivity in its own right. Rather we find support for a"hybrid" theory that work-life balance is a choice for managers that is compatible with low or highproductivity.