Monitoring, Motivation, and Management: The Determinants of Opportunistic Behavior in a Field Experiment

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2002
Volume: 92
Issue: 4
Pages: 850-873

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Economic models of incentives in employment relationships are based on a specific theory of motivation: employees are "rational cheaters," who anticipate the consequences of their actions and shirk when the marginal benefits exceed costs. We investigate the "rational cheater model" by observing how experimentally induced variation in monitoring of telephone call center employees influences opportunism. A significant fraction of employees behave as the "rational cheater model" predicts. A substantial proportion of employees, however, do not respond to manipulations in the monitoring rate. This heterogeneity is related to variation in employee assessments of their general treatment by the employer. (JEL D2, J2, L2, L8, M12)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:92:y:2002:i:4:p:850-873
Journal Field
General
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-29