The Real Effects of Relational Contracts.

Does the 'soft side' of management matter? Many managers assert that 'firm culture' is strongly correlated with productivity, but there are few robust tests of this assertion. In a set of field experiments, we study driver productivity within a large US logistics company that is arguably transitioni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American Economic Review Vol. 105; no. 5; pp. 452 - 457
Main Authors: Blader, Steven, Gartenberg, Claudine, Henderson, Rebecca, Prat, Andrea
Format: Article
Published: American Economic Association May2015
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        10.1257/aer.p20151002
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      tig:
        atl: The Real Effects of Relational Contracts.
      aug:
        au:
          Blader, Steven
          Gartenberg, Claudine
          Henderson, Rebecca
          Prat, Andrea
        affil:
          Department of Management and Organizations, New York University Stern School of Business, 40 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012 (e-mail: )
          Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163 (e-mail: )
          Columbia Business School, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 (e-mail: )
      su:
        Corporate culture
        Labor productivity
        Psychological contracts (Employment)
        Industrial relations
        Trucking
        Truck drivers
        Process optimization
        Lean management
      sug:
        subj:
          Corporate culture
          Labor productivity
          Psychological contracts (Employment)
          Industrial relations
          Other Support Activities for Road Transportation
          General Freight Trucking, Local
          General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Truckload
          Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Local
          Specialized Freight (except Used Goods) Trucking, Long-Distance
          Trucking
          Truck drivers
          Process optimization
          Lean management
      ab: Does the 'soft side' of management matter? Many managers assert that 'firm culture' is strongly correlated with productivity, but there are few robust tests of this assertion. In a set of field experiments, we study driver productivity within a large US logistics company that is arguably transitioning from one relational contract to another, while leaving formal practices and incentives unchanged. We find that sites under the new contract are associated with 1/8 percent higher productivity. Our findings suggest that relational contracts have a first-order effect on productivity and that they can be altered over time.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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