Socializing at Work: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Manufacturing Workers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Park, Sangyoon
• 署名单位: University of Hong Kong
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20160650
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 424-455
• 关键词: workplace evidence; team incentives; personality; preferences; PSYCHOLOGY; performance

摘要

Through a field experiment at a seafood-processing plant, I examine how working alongside friends affects employee productivity and how this effect is heterogeneous with respect to an employee's personality. This paper presents two main findings. First, worker productivity declines when a friend is close enough to socialize with. Second, workers who are higher on the conscientiousness scale show smaller productivity declines when working alongside a friend. Estimates suggest that a median worker is willing to pay 4.5 percent of her wage to work next to friends.