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Dynamic delegation in promotion contests
I study how organizations assign tasks to identify the best candidate to promote among a pool of workers. Task allocation and workers’ motivation interact through the organization’s promotion decisions. The organization designs the workers’ careers to both screen and develop talent. When only non-routine tasks are informative about a worker’s type and non-routine tasks are scarce, the organization’s preferred promotion system is an index contest. Each worker is assigned a number that depends only on his own type. The principal delegates the non-routine task to the worker whose current index is the highest and promotes the first worker whose type exceeds a threshold. Each worker’s threshold is independent of the other workers’ types. Competition is mediated by the allocation of tasks: who gets the opportunity to prove themselves is a determinant factor in promotions. Finally, features of the optimal promotion contest rationalize the prevalence of fast-track promotion, the role of seniority, or when a group of workers is systemically advantaged.
Date:
11 June 2024, 12:45
Venue:
Nuffield College, New Road OX1 1NF
Venue Details:
Chester Room or https://zoom.us/j/92241183272?pwd=NzBhTVg1d1g5Sm1NRnQ4cU1iS1NmZz09
Speaker:
Theo Durandard (University of Illinois)
Organising department:
Department of Economics
Part of:
Economic Theory Workshop
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Edward Valenzano
