WES

This project consists of three projects:

Project 1 - Complementarity of Performance Pay and Task Allocation

Bryan Hong, Lorenz Keung and Mu-Jeung Yang

Complementary management practices are those that are interdependent and together reinforce one another to improve overall firm performance. Research has suggested that such complementarity between different management practices is one underlying cause of differences in performance outcomes among firms. The purpose of this study is to examine the complementarity between two specific management practices: pay-for-performance and decentralization, the dispersion of decision making from a central authority to subgroups of the firm. While these practices have been empirically investigated individually, little is known about how the interaction between decentralization and pay-for-performance may affect firm performance.

Project 2 - Barbarians at the Gate: How foreign competition affects intra-organizational conflict

Bryan Hong and Romel Mostafa

 Cyert and March (1963) describe the firm as the combination of interdependent groups, which often have competing interests. It is no surprise that such competing interests can lead to conflict within firms, also referred to as intra-organizational conflict. The effects of intra-organizational conflict are well studied. Research has indicated that the time managers spend managing conflicts is substantial, suggesting the cost of conflicts within the firm are significant. Little is known about how forces outside of the firm affect the likelihood and prevalence of conflict within a firm. The purpose of this study is to estimate how one specific external force, foreign competition, affects the occurrence and frequency of intra-organizational conflict in the Canadian context. This study uses data from the Workplace and Employee (WES) survey conducted by Statistics Canada.

Project 3: Incentives as a Moderator of Conflict During Organizational Change

Bryan Hong

When a firm experiences an organizational change or restructuring, it is likely conflicts that disrupt the firm will occur. This study focuses on how organizational changes affect the prevalence of conflicts and employee grievances filed within the firm.  As a measure for organizational changes, this study employs changes in organizational structure (ex. centralization, decentralization, outsourcing) from the WES survey. This study also investigates how the presence of group level pay-for-performance incentives (ex. profit sharing plans) affect the frequency of firm conflicts.

Additional datasets: Labour Force Survey (LFS) & General Index of Financial Information (GIFI)

How are business strategy and organizational structure related? We analyze the systematic alignment between strategy and structure as well as their implications for firm performance and innovation.