The Effects of Reward Type and Relative Performance Information on Budget Slack and Performance

To motivate effort, organizations commonly use budget-based tangible rewards (e.g., gift cards, merchandise) in lieu of or in addition to cash rewards and they can distribute tangible rewards to employees either directly (employees are given merchandise directly) or indirectly (via a redeemable points program). In conjunction with various budget-based financial rewards, employees can receive feedback about how they performed relative to other employees. However, employees can intentionally misstate their expected performance (i.e., create budget slack) when participating in the budgeting process, impairing the usefulness of budgets for planning and motivation. This dissertation investigates the effects of different types of budget-based rewards (cash, tangible, or redeemable points) on budget slack creation and performance, and whether relative performance information [RPI] moderates these effects. As predicted, results from an experiment completed by 166 undergraduate students show that participants eligible to earn redeemable points create less slack (i.e., set more difficult performance budgets) than those eligible for cash or direct tangible rewards. Further, RPI provides participants with a descriptive norm that slack creation is socially acceptable, resulting in more slack. Although I do not find support for the predicted indirect relationship between reward type or RPI on performance via their effects on budget slack, I do find that the provision of RPI has a direct positive effect on performance. Finally, supplemental analysis shows that those provided with RPI and cash rewards outperform all others. These results suggest that firms choosing to provide budget-based tangible rewards and allowing employees to participate in the budgeting process should consider using a redeemable points system rather than providing rewards directly to eligible employees. Further, before deciding whether to provide RPI to employees, firms should weigh the positive direct effects of RPI on performance against its negative effects on budget slack creation. Last, if a firm does choose to provide employees with RPI because of its positive effects on employee effort, firms may be well-advised to offer employees budget-based cash rewards instead of budget- based tangible rewards or budget-based points rewards

Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships

The living tree sloths Choloepus and Bradypus are the only remaining members of Folivora, a major xenarthran radiation that occupied a wide range of habitats in many parts of the western hemisphere during the Cenozoic, including both continents and the West Indies. Ancient DNA evidence has played only a minor role in folivoran systematics, as most sloths lived in places not conducive to genomic preservation. Here we utilize collagen sequence information, both separately and in combination with published mitochondrial DNA evidence, to assess the relationships of tree sloths and their extinct relatives. Results from phylogenetic analysis of these datasets differ substantially from morphology-based concepts: Choloepus groups with Mylodontidae, not Megalonychidae; Bradypus and Megalonyx pair together as megatherioids, while monophyletic Antillean sloths may be sister to all other folivorans. Divergence estimates are consistent with fossil evidence for mid-Cenozoic presence of sloths in the West Indies and an early Miocene radiation in South America

Tournament Group Identity And Performance: The Moderating Effect Of Winner Proportion

Tournament incentives are common in organizations, and how characteristics of the tournament group (e.g., tournament group identity) and the tournament incentives (e.g., winner proportion) affect tournament performance are of both practical and theoretical importance. We conduct two experiments in which participants compete for tournament rewards against others in their group. In both experiments, we manipulate the strength of participants\u27 identity with their fellow group members and whether the tournament has a small winner proportion with a single reward or a large winner proportion with multiple rewards. In Experiment 1, we find increasing tournament group identity leads to higher other-regarding preference. We also find other-regarding preference decreases competitiveness more in a large winner proportion tournament compared to a small winner proportion tournament. In Experiment 2, we find increasing tournament group identity decreases performance in a real-effort task under a large winner proportion tournament, but it has no effect on performance under a small winner proportion tournament. Together, the two experiments suggest that increasing tournament group identity increases other-regarding preference, and other-regarding preference has a larger negative impact on competitiveness and hence, tournament performance when the winner proportion is large than when it is small. Our results highlight for managers the importance of considering group identity when determining tournament winner proportions

The Effects Of Tangible Rewards Versus Cash Rewards In Consecutive Sales Tournaments: A Field Experiment

We investigate the effects of tangible versus cash rewards in a repeated tournament setting. Firms frequently use tangible rewards to motivate employees, but minimal research has examined their effects relative to cash rewards. We conducted a field experiment at a rug wholesaler that held two consecutive sales tournaments for its retailers. The top three retailers in each tournament received either cash rewards or tangible rewards (gift cards) to be distributed to sales staff. We do not find significant effects of reward type in the first tournament. However, in the second tournament, retailers eligible for tangible rewards significantly outperformed those eligible for cash rewards, and this effect is driven by Tournament One losers. Our results are consistent with the theory that Tournament One losers competing for tangible rewards increased sales effort in the second tournament significantly more than their counterparts competing for cash rewards. Our results have practical and theoretical implications

The interactive effect of reward type and taxation on employee effort

Firms are increasingly using performance-contingent tangible rewards (e.g., gift cards) to motivate employee effort. We use an experiment to examine whether the effort effects of tangible rewards versus cash rewards depend on whether the rewards are subject to taxation. Consistent with affective valuation theory, we find that the motivational disadvantage of tangible rewards versus cash rewards is greater when rewards are subject to taxation than when rewards are not subject to taxation. Specifically, while we find no difference in effort between the two reward types when rewards are not taxed, we find that participants exert more effort to earn cash rewards than tangible rewards when rewards are taxed. Our study informs compensation designers of the greater adverse effects of taxation on tangible relative to cash rewards, which highlights the usefulness of techniques such as ‘grossing up’ tangible rewards or using cash- tangible reward combinations to mitigate the negative effects of taxation on tangible rewards

BEAST_protein_Xenarthra

xml file to run BEAST under fossilized birth death process with xenarthran proteomic dat

Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships.

The living tree sloths Choloepus and Bradypus are the only remaining members of Folivora, a major xenarthran radiation that occupied a wide range of habitats in many parts of the western hemisphere during the Cenozoic, including both continents and the West Indies. Ancient DNA evidence has played only a minor role in folivoran systematics, as most sloths lived in places not conducive to genomic preservation. Here we utilize collagen sequence information, both separately and in combination with published mitochondrial DNA evidence, to assess the relationships of tree sloths and their extinct relatives. Results from phylogenetic analysis of these datasets differ substantially from morphology-based concepts: Choloepus groups with Mylodontidae, not Megalonychidae; Bradypus and Megalonyx pair together as megatherioids, while monophyletic Antillean sloths may be sister to all other folivorans. Divergence estimates are consistent with fossil evidence for mid-Cenozoic presence of sloths in the West Indies and an early Miocene radiation in South America

protein_mtDNA_morphology_sloths_MRB

nexus file containing protein and mtDNA data plus the morphological character dataset from Varela et al., 2019

combined_protein_mtDNA_xenarthra_bradypus_constraint_beast

maximum clade credibility chronogram from beast analysis of xenarthran proteomic and mitochondrial genome data