Strategic incentives to human capital

Gambardella, Alfonso; Panico, Claudio; Valentini, Giovanni

doi:10.1002/smj.2200

Cited by 107 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…We contribute to an emerging literature on the challenges of managing human capital in organizations (Frank & Obloj, ; Gambardella et al, ). Specific to star employees, research argues that competition among stars for within‐group status can reduce a group’s effectiveness (Groysberg, Polzer, & Elfenbein, ), and that stars can garner the bulk of organizational resources, which limits capability development of others (Kehoe & Tzabbar, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s temporary absence for organizational performance

Chen

Garg

2018

Strategic Management Journal

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Research Summary: While research has focused primarily on stars as individual contributors, we examine organizational situations where stars must work closely with non‐stars. We argue that, in such situations, building teamwork around a star is an exercise in learning under complexity. In response, organizations prioritize interactions involving the star to simplify learning. This simplification, however, creates organizational myopia. We claim that a star’s temporary absence helps the organization overcome myopia by triggering a search for new routines. When he returns, the organization may combine these new routines with pre‐absence routines to improve teamwork and performance. We exploit injuries to star players in the National Basketball Association as an exogenous shock and find that on average, teams perform better after a star’s return than before his absence. Managerial Summary: This study examines the effect of the temporary absence of a star employee on organizational performance. We find evidence that a star employee’s temporary absence helps the organization overcome an over‐reliance on the star and improve teamwork. Improved teamwork, in turn, enables the organization to perform better upon the star’s return than it did prior to his absence. This result suggests that organizations might want to revisit the tendency to view stars as too valuable to lose, even for a short time. In particular, organizations may want to pull stars from ongoing projects and encourage them to attend professional development programs. A star’s temporary absence and return from such a program improves not only the star’s skills but also the organization’s teamwork.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s temporary absence for organizational performance

Chen

Garg

2018

Strategic Management Journal

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“…The two kinds of considerations are similar in importance when no salary cut is involved, but private benefits become even more salient when a salary cut is required (in line with Hypothesis 2). Our study has important implications for strategic human capital management (Coff, 1997;Gambardella, Panico, & Valentini, 2015). A key observation is that employees participating in corporate social initiatives often do not do so for purely prosocial reasons: They might have mixed motives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Taking a hit to save the world? Employee participation in a corporate social initiative

Bode

Singh

2018

Strategic Management Journal

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Research Summary: Companies often justify their corporate social initiatives by citing talent management benefits. We examine the extent of, and the reasons for, employee interest in such an initiative in a global management consulting firm. We find a large fraction of employees to be interested in participation in the initiative even when participation requires a personal sacrifice in the form of a salary cut. However, this interest is driven not just by prosocial motivation: Expectations regarding private benefits, such as improved career prospects from new skills acquired, also play a role. Considerations of social impact and private benefits are equally salient when no salary cut is required, but private considerations become more prominent when participating employees are asked to accept a salary cut. Managerial Summary: Many companies are moving from stand‐alone corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects to social initiatives integrated into strategy. Providing employees with the opportunity to participate in such initiatives is said to help attract, motivate and retain talent. In this study, carried out in collaboration with a management consulting firm, we examine how much and why employees value participation in a corporate social initiative. Based on interviews and survey data, we find that employees are not only interested in, but often even willing to accept, a temporary salary cut for the opportunity. However, altruistic motivation is not the only driver of this interest: Employees also expect and value the possibility that the experience would lead to private benefits, such as developing skills likely to enhance their career prospects.

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“…Additional research aimed at a better understanding of how firms and employees can achieve outcomes closer to the first-best, by utilizing a portfolio incentives is warranted. Specifically, how can companies better use nonpecuniary benefits, which are often valued by skilled individuals (Agarwal and Ohyama, 2013;Gambardella et al, 2013;Rynes, Schwab, and Heneman, 1983) and results in entrepreneurship (Shane, Locke, and Collins, 2003)? We note that such research need not only relate to the goal of keeping the employees within the firm.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, Carnahan, Agarwal, and Campbell (2012) find that differences in compensation dispersion among firms is associated with employee mobility, with high performing employees transitioning to firms with high wage dispersion and low performing employees transitioning to firms with compressed wages. Gambardella, Panico and Valentini (2013) focus on non-monetary incentives, and note that the ability to motivate or attract skilled employees also depends on strategic decisions of the firms regarding the provision of nonpecuniary benefits. They show that firms with assets that motivate skilled employees (e.g., cutting edge equipment, an open environment for research) do not need to offer large degrees of autonomy.…”

Section: Causes Of Employee Mobility and Employee Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employee Mobility and Entrepreneurship A Virtual Special Issue [1]

Agarwal

Gambardella²,

Olson

2016

Strategic Management Journal

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Strategic incentives to human capital

Cited by 107 publications

References 46 publications

Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s temporary absence for organizational performance

Dancing with the stars: Benefits of a star employee’s temporary absence for organizational performance

Taking a hit to save the world? Employee participation in a corporate social initiative

Employee Mobility and Entrepreneurship A Virtual Special Issue [1]

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