Don't Ask Me If You Will Not Listen: The Dilemma of Consultative Participation

Don't Ask Me If You Will Not Listen: The Dilemma of Consultative Participation

We study the effect of consultative participation in an experimental principal-agent game, where the principal can consult the agent's preferred option regarding the cost function of the transfer to be implemented in the final stage of the game. We show that consulting the agent was beneficial...

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Veröffentlicht in:Management science 2014-03, Vol.60 (3), p.560-585
Hauptverfasser: Corgnet, Brice, González, Roberto Hernán
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Ability
Adaptation to change
Agency theory
Analysis
Business administration
Confounding (Statistics)
Cost function
Cost functions
Cotton
Decision making
Decision making models
Delegation of authority
Economics and Finance
Effects
Emotional expression
Emotions
Employee motivation
Employees
Empowerment
Endowments
Game theory
Humanities and Social Sciences
Management science
Methods
Organizational behavior
Organizational behaviour
participative decision making
principal-agent model
Principal-agent theory
Psychological stress
Questionnaires
Studies
Total quality management
Transfer
Wages
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Zusammenfassung:We study the effect of consultative participation in an experimental principal-agent game, where the principal can consult the agent's preferred option regarding the cost function of the transfer to be implemented in the final stage of the game. We show that consulting the agent was beneficial to principals as long as they followed the agent's choice. Ignoring the agent's choice was detrimental to the principal because it engendered negative emotions and low levels of transfers. Nevertheless, the majority of principals were reluctant to change their mind and adopt the agent's proposal. Our results suggest that the ability to change one's own mind is an important dimension of managerial success. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1786 . This paper was accepted by Teck-Hua Ho, behavioral economics.
ISSN:0025-1909
1526-5501
DOI:10.1287/mnsc.2013.1786