Middle Managers, Personnel Turnover, and Performance: A Long-Term Field Experiment in a Retail Chain

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Friebel, Guido; Heinz, Matthias; Zubanov, Nikolay
• 署名单位: Goethe University Frankfurt; University of Cologne; University of Konstanz
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2020.3905
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 211-229
• 关键词: organizations; Randomized controlled trial (RCT); insider econometrics; Goal setting; COMMUNICATION; hr; personnel turnover and firm performance

摘要

In a randomized controlled trial, a large retail chain's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sets new goals for the managers of the treated stores by asking them to do what they can to reduce the employee quit rate. The treatment decreases the quit rate by a fifth to a quarter, lasting nine months before petering out, but reappearing after a reminder. There is no treatment effect on sales. Further analysis reveals that treated store managers spend more time on human resources (HR) and less on customer service. Our findings show that middle managers are instrumental in reducing personnel turnover, but they face a trade-off between investing in different activities in a multitasking environment with limited resources. The treatment does produce efficiency gains. However, these occur only at the firm level.