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Firing Threats and Tenure: Incentive effects and impression management

Author

Listed:
  • Brice Corgnet

    (Chapman University)

  • Roberto Hernán-Gonzalez

    (Universidad de Granada)

  • Stephen Rassenti

    (Economic Science Institute, Chapman University)

Abstract

We study the effect of firing threats and tenure in a virtual workplace that reproduces features of existing organizations. We show that organizations in which bosses can fire up to one third of their workforce produce twice more than organizations for which firing is not possible. Firing threats sharply decrease on-the-job leisure activities. Nevertheless, organizations endowed with firing threats significantly underperformed those using individual incentives. Our analysis also indicates that, in the presence of firing threats, employees engage in impression management activities in order to be seen as hard-working individuals. These results are consistent with the predictions of our theoretical model in which workers aim at signaling a high level of intrinsic motivation to increase their chance of obtaining tenure. Finally, we show that production levels dropped substantially under tenure while on-the-job leisure surged.

Suggested Citation

  • Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán-Gonzalez & Stephen Rassenti, 2013. "Firing Threats and Tenure: Incentive effects and impression management," Working Papers 13-15, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:chu:wpaper:13-15
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    Cited by:

    1. Corgnet, Brice & Gómez-Miñambres, Joaquín & Hernán-González, Roberto, 2018. "Goal setting in the principal–agent model: Weak incentives for strong performance," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 311-326.
    2. repec:clg:wpaper:2013-22 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán-González, 2019. "Revisiting the Trade-off Between Risk and Incentives: The Shocking Effect of Random Shocks?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1096-1114, March.
    4. Brice Corgnet & Ludivine Martin & Peguy Ndodjang & Angela Sutan, 2015. "On the Merit of Equal Pay: When Influence Activities Interact with Incentive Setting," Working Papers 15-09, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firing threats; tenure; incentives; impression management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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