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| Type | Working Paper |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | The value of top-down communication for organizational performance |
| Organization Unit | |
| Authors |
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| Language |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Series Name | Working paper series / Department of Economics |
| Number | 157 |
| ISSN | 1664-7041 (P) 1664-705X (E) |
| Number of Pages | 36 |
| Date | 2014 |
| Abstract Text | We design a laboratory experiment to identify causal performance effects of top-down communication between managers and their subordinates. Our focus lies on communication that resolves uncertainty about the work environment but does not provide task-specific knowledge. Recent articles in the business press report a lack of such communication in real-world organizations and associate it with reduced organizational performance. Our results confirm this observation. We find that top-down communication is a profitable way for managers to increase employee performance in the presence of uncertainty. Specifically, we show that non-communication is the worst option for managers. However, 50 percent of our experimental managers use top-down communication too restrictively. Overall, managers forego 30 percent of their potential profits through non-communication. We show that organizations can overcome this problem by adopting automated information procedures, which are equally effective. |
| Free access at | Official URL |
| Official URL | http://www.econ.uzh.ch/static/wp/econwp157.pdf |
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| Keywords | Communication procedures, non-instrumental-information, employee motivation, Organisationstheorie, Organisation, Effizienz, Motivation |