Deadlines, Workflows, Task Sorting, and Work Quality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Balasubramanian, Natarajan; Lee, Jeongsik; Sivadasan, Jagadeesh
• 署名单位: Syracuse University; Drexel University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2663
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1804-1824
• 关键词: time pressure; INNOVATION; PRODUCTIVITY; deadlines; incentives

摘要

Deadlines are often used to manage the time of valuable human capital. In this multimethod paper, we propose a theoretical framework grounded in a formal model that encapsulates the key drivers and consequences of deadline-related time pressures on workflows, task sorting, and work quality. We use large-scale data on patent filings, along with insights from primary data collection, to test our hypotheses. In line with our predictions, we find clustering of patent filings around month-ends, with month-end applications being more complex than those filed on other days. Consistent with time pressure reducing work quality, we find that work quality is lower for tasks completed at month-ends, more so for process measures of quality than for outcome measures. Calibration of our model to the data allows us to shed light on the benefits of deadlines and suggests small levels of task acceleration but potentially larger working capital-related benefits for law firms.