Seminar by Subha Mani (Fordham University)

Centre for Development Economics
Department of Economics
Delhi School of Economics

ANNOUNCE A SEMINAR

by

Venue: New Seminar Room (116)

Abstract:-
We examine the effects of offering employees autonomy over non-monetary aspects of their work — an area largely overlooked in prior experimental research. We design a novel game, the Worker Autonomy Game (WAG), in which participants earn income by completing a real-effort task and decide on a contribution amount that generates additional income for their employer. We vary the degree of autonomy workers have in choosing their tasks. We find that greater task autonomy significantly improves both performance and satisfaction, with employees placing substantial value on procedural autonomy. Moreover, when employers explicitly choose to grant (or withhold) task autonomy, it triggers pronounced changes in effort and contribution: offering autonomy substantially increases both, while withholding it markedly reduces them.
Best wishes.

All are cordially invited.

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