Face-to-Face Communication in Organizations

Bidragets oversatte titel: Face-to-Face Communication in Organisations

Diego Battiston*, Jordi Blanes i Vidal, Tom Kirchmaier

*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

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Abstract

Communication is integral to organisations and yet field evidence on the relation between communication and worker productivity remains scarce. We argue that a core role of communication is to transmit information that helps co-workers do their job better. We build a simple model in which workers choose the amount of communication by trading off this benefit against the time cost incurred by the sender, and use it to derive a set of empirical predictions. We then exploit a natural experiment in an organisation where problems arrive and must be sequentially dealt with by two workers. For exogenous reasons, the first worker can sometimes communicate face-to-face with their colleague. Consistently with the predictions of our model we find that: (a) the second worker works faster (at the cost of the first worker having less time to deal with incoming problems) when face-to-face communication is possible,(b) this effect is stronger when the second worker is busier and for homogenous and closely-located teams, and (c) the (career) incentives of workers determine how much they communicate with their colleagues. We also find that workers partially internalise social outcomes in their communication decisions. Our findings illustrate how workers in teams adjust the amount of mutual communication to its costs and benefits.
Bidragets oversatte titelFace-to-Face Communication in Organisations
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftThe Review of Economic Studies
Vol/bind88
Udgave nummer2
Sider (fra-til)574–609
Antal sider36
ISSN0034-6527
DOI
StatusUdgivet - mar. 2021

Bibliografisk note

Published online 13 October 2020

Emneord

  • Teamwork
  • Face-to-face communication
  • Help in organisations
  • Queueing theory

Citationsformater