"Fit" - field experimental evidence on sorting, incentives and creative worker performance
By: Kevin J. Boudreau, Karim R. Lakhani
Contributors: Lakhani, Karim R.; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 11-107; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 11-107.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2011
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 48
Description: We present the results of a 10-day field experiment in which over 500 elite software developers prepared solutions to the same computational algorithmic problem. Participants were divided into two groups with identical skills distributions and exposed to the same competitive institutional setting. The "sorted" group was composed of individuals who preferred the competitive regime instead of a team-based outside option. The "unsorted" group had population-average preferences for working in the regime or the outside option. We find this sorting on this basis of institutional preferences doubled effort and the performance of solutions-controlling for skills, monetary incentives and institutional details.
Notes: "April 2011" -- Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.