Worker reciprocity and the returns to training: Evidence from a field experiment

Abstract

Do reciprocal workers have higher returns to employer-sponsored training? Using a field experiment with random assignment to training combined with survey information on workers' reciprocal inclinations, the results show that reciprocal workers reciprocate employers' training investments by higher post-training performance. This result, which is robust to controlling for observed personality traits and worker fixed effects, suggests that individuals reciprocate the firm's human capital investment with higher effort, in line with theoretical models on gift exchange in the workplace. This finding provides an alternative rationale to explain firm training investments even with risk of poaching.

Affective commitment through further training: the roles of firm provision and employee participation

“…Second, due to the possibility that employees with higher affective commitment tend to participate in further training or work in organizations with higher support for further training, the positive relation of further training and affective commitment could be the result of reverse causation. Indeed, Sauermann (2015) measures the degree of worker reciprocity and shows that the positive relation of firm-sponsored training and employee performance is relevant for reciprocal employees in particular. Accordingly, Non (2020) shows some evidence for a positive link between employees' degree of reciprocity and likelihood of participation in training.…”

On-the-Job Training and Intra-Family Dynamics

“…In the context of firm-sponsored trainingLeuven et al (2005) find a positive correlation between reciprocal attitudes (lower wage demands or greater effort) and OJT , using data on a large multinational company based in Germany,Kampkötter and Marggraf (2015) found that participation in on-the-job training courses lead to lower turnover and lower absenteeism. Using a field experiment,Sauermann (2019) shows that assignment to a training program in a firm induced higher returns through higher effort, which he interprets as reciprocative behavior from workers to the firm.…”