Documents Kampkötter, Patrick 6 results

"This article contributes to the debate on the link between reciprocal motives of employees and HRM practices by studying the behavioral effects of intra-firm trainings on absence behavior and turnover probability. We apply the gift-exchange framework and offer a behavioral perspective that helps to explain why firms invest in trainings that provide mainly general skills. We argue that employees may reciprocate the gift of firm-sponsored training with higher levels of costly effort or commitment. We employ a stringent methodological approach based on panel data of a large multinational firm and find that, in contrast to human capital predictions, general trainings lead to a decrease in turnover rates. Most notably, we find the strongest effect for employees with the lowest levels of firm tenure. This is a quite novel result as this group should face the lowest separation costs, for instance, due to the accumulation of firm-specific human capital. Hence, intra-firm trainings are an important retention device, especially for newly or recently hired employees. Furthermore, a short-term decrease in absenteeism indicates a temporary, reciprocal reaction by employees."

"We investigate wage differences between newly hired and incumbent employees in identical functions using detailed personnel data from a large number of banks. We first show in a formal model of job switching that (i) incumbents earn less than new recruits when human capital is mostly general but (ii) the opposite is the case if specific human capital is sufficiently important. In the empirical analysis we find that, on average, new hires earn more than comparable incumbents but – using a novel measure for the importance of specific human capital – these wage premia indeed strongly depend on human capital specificity."

"Formal performance appraisals (PA) are one of the most important human resource management practices in companies. In this paper, we focus on the reaction of employees to these performance assessments. In particular, we investigate the effect between the incidence of being formally evaluated by a supervisor and job and income satisfaction. Building on a representative, longitudinal sample of more than 12,000 individuals from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we apply fixed effects regressions and find a significantly positive effect of PA on job satisfaction, which is driven by appraisals that are linked to monetary outcomes. Furthermore, the moderating effects of personality traits (Big Five, locus of control) on the relationship between PA and job satisfaction are explored. We find a negative interaction term between PA without any monetary consequences and both employees scoring high on openness to experience and internal locus of control. This suggests that for these employees appraisals, which induce performance monitoring without any monetary consequences, have a detrimental effect on job satisfaction rates."

" The research in this article is focused on formal performance appraisals (PA), one of the most important human resource management practices in firms. In detail, the study analyzes the effect of PAs on employees' overall job satisfaction. We are able to differentiate between appraisals that are linked to monetary outcomes, such as bonus payments and promotions, and appraisals that have no monetary consequences. Building on a representative, longitudinal sample of around 10,500 German employees, we apply fixed effects regressions that allow us to more closely estimate the causal effect of appraisals on job satisfaction compared to previous cross-sectional studies. We find a significantly positive effect of PAs on job satisfaction, which is primarily driven by appraisals linked to monetary outcomes. The results demonstrate that PAs linked to monetary outcomes are a powerful HR management tool that is appreciated by employees. Furthermore, we explore the moderating effects of personality traits (Big Five, locus of control) on the relationship between PAs and job satisfaction. The results show that if tangible benefits cannot be provided or are not tied to the assessment procedure, the use of appraisals with no monetary consequences can be detrimental for open-minded and self-determined employees, as appraisals could then potentially raise expectations that are not fulfilled. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed."

"Job rotation, i.e. a lateral transfer of an employee between jobs within a company, is frequently used as a means to develop employees, learn about their abilities as well as to motivate them. We investigate the determinants and performance effects of job rotation empirically by analyzing a large panel data-set covering the German banking and financial services sector. In particular, we study (i) how prior individual performance affects the propensity to rotate and (ii) how performance changes after the rotation. We find that while both, low- and high-performers rotate, lateral moves are more frequent among low performers. However, those having been rotated between jobs achieve a higher performance in subsequent years as compared to other non-rotating employees in a comparable position. Interestingly, this effect is driven by high performers, whereas for low performers, we find no significant relationship between job rotation and future performance. The results thus suggest that firms should focus their job rotation programs on high performers and should not expect that low performers achieve performance gains when being rotated to a different function."

"We study the performance effects of payment schemes for freelancers offering services on an online platform in an RCT. Under the initial scheme, the firm pays workers a pure sales commission. The intervention reduces the commission rate and adds a fixed payment per processed order to insure workers against earnings risk. Our experiment tests predictions from a formal model on labor supply and performance for individuals with different degrees of risk aversion and intrinsic motivation for the task. The treatment did not affect labor supply and even though the commission rate was reduced by 50% we find no sizeable loss in sales per order. However, there is strong evidence for heterogeneous treatment effects. The treatment reduced performance for less intrinsically motivated workers. For more intrinsically motivated workers, however, we observe the opposite pattern as performance increased even though commission rates were reduced."