aikyam school

Social Connection Dampening of Meritocratic Tournament Incentives

In public bureaucracies where promotions historically depended on personal connections to local supervisors, introducing objective performance rules may affect connected versus unconnected frontline workers differently.

Picture this

Imagine a competition where an athlete who is close friends with the judge previously expected to win by default; when objective stopwatches are introduced, unconnected runners sprint dramatically harder because the playing field is leveled, whereas the connected favorite experiences less incremental motivation.

What the evidence says

Meritocratic promotions increased household visits by 35% (+2.3 visits; p < 0.01) among health workers with no personal connection to the facility manager, compared to a non-significant +0.8 visits for socially connected workers (difference statistically significant at p < 0.01).

Who
N = 2,009 Community Health Workers across 372 Peripheral Health Units in Sierra Leone, categorized by baseline personal acquaintance with the facility manager.
How
Subgroup heterogeneity analysis within a randomized field experiment comparing household visit output under meritocratic promotion rules for health workers with versus without baseline social ties to the local facility in-charge.

What to do

Implement objective, rule-based promotion systems to unlock latent productivity from non-politically connected frontline public sector employees who face discretionary barriers.

From the source

"We find that the meritocratic promotions treatment leads to an increase of 2.3 visits (35%) for workers not connected to the PHU in-charge (significant at the 1% level) and an increase of 0.8 visits for workers connected to the PHU in-charge... The difference between the two estimates is statistically significant at the 1% level."

Promotions_and_Productivity_The_Role_of_Meritocracy_and_Pay_Progression.pdf

Tagged

  • Favoritism
  • Social Connections
  • Tournament Incentives

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