Drivers of effort: Evidence from employee absenteeism

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bennedsen, Morten; Tsoutsoura, Margarita; Wolfenzon, Daniel
• 署名单位: University of Copenhagen; INSEAD Business School; Cornell University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Columbia University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.12.001
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 658-684
• 关键词: family firms; Organizational structure; Employee effort

摘要

We use detailed information on individual absent spells of all employees in 4140 firms in Denmark to show large differences in average absenteeism across firms. Using employees who switch firms, we decompose days absent into an individual component (e.g., motivation, work ethic) and a firm component (e.g., incentives, corporate culture). We find the firm component explains 50%-60% of the difference in absenteeism across firms, with the individual component explaining the rest. We present suggestive evidence of the mechanisms behind the firm effect with family firm status and concentrated ownership strongly correlated with decreases in absenteeism. We also analyze the firm characteristics that correlate with the individual effect and find that firms with stronger career incentives attract lower-absenteeism employees. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.