Harnessing the Power of Social Incentives to Curb Shirking in Teams

Authors

Brice Corgnet, Chapman UniversityFollow
Brian C. Gunia, Johns Hopkins University
Roberto Hernán González, Chapman University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2020

Abstract

We study several solutions to shirking in teams that trigger social incentives by reshaping the workplace social context. Using an experimental design, we manipulate social pressure at work by varying the type of workplace monitoring and the extent to which employees engage in social interaction. This design allows us to assess the effectiveness as well as the popularity of each solution. Despite similar effectiveness in boosting productivity across solutions, only organizational systems involving social interaction (via chat) were at least as popular as a baseline treatment. This suggests that any solution based on promoting social interaction is more likely to be embraced by workers than monitoring systems alone.

Comments

ESI Working Paper 20-05

This paper later underwent peer review and was published as:

Recommended Citation

Corgnet, B., Gunia, B., & Hernán González, R. (2020). Harnessing the power of social incentives to curb shirking in teams. ESI Working Paper 20-05. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/298/