IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v227y2023ics0165176523001404.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

It does not matter how hard you work: The importance of task allocation for worker productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Sheveleva, Lena
  • Jones, Melanie
  • Harris, Irina

Abstract

Using detailed high-frequency administrative data from a large retailer with an online presence in the UK we explore the determinants of worker productivity in a warehouse decant process. We distinguish between worker characteristics, time-specific effects, and task allocation as determinants of productivity and find a dominant role of the latter. This raises concerns about the assumption of random or identical task allocation made in studies when tasks are unobserved. This is especially relevant in the presence of output-related reward systems when workers will have an incentive to influence task allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheveleva, Lena & Jones, Melanie & Harris, Irina, 2023. "It does not matter how hard you work: The importance of task allocation for worker productivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:227:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523001404
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176523001404
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111115?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity; Task allocation;

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:227:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523001404. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.