This dissertation takes an employee-oriented approach to the within-firm OM decisions and investigates the effects of interventions focusing on employees on the process outcomes. Through a series of three essays, we handle three management tools; rank-based performance feedback, knowledge transfer via the adoption of best practices, and algorithmic real-time feedback and coaching; each has potential adverse effects on employees yet could be very rewarding once successfully implemented. We seek to gain a profound understanding of employee behavior and stimulate engagement, thereby fostering more efficient and productive systems. In the first chapter, we conduct a series of experiments to study the impact of three different types of relative performance feedback (RPF) on middle-ranked workers' output on a skill-based task. We find that receiving any type of feedback reduces performance compared to no feedback. We conduct mediation analysis and show that receiving feedback changes employees' feelings associated with general performance, which explains the performance reduction. Aligned with theory, delivering feedback increases the focal employee's social comparison involvement (SCI), which measures the focal individual's tendency to compare themselves to others while performing the task, and their shame. The second chapter concentrates on enhancing performance through fostering internal knowledge transfer and promoting the adoption of best practices. Through a series of experiments, we assess the effects of providing performance feedback in conjunction with best practices on knowledge-seeking behavior, best practice adaptions, and operational performance. Our study poses an exciting finding by showing that RPF's previously documented negative effect on middle-ranked workers could be mitigated, and performance improvement could be attained when combined with best practices. The concluding chapter focuses on the effect of using algorithmic feedback and coaching as management tools in service operations within call center environments. Companies are deploying artificial intelligence applications into service settings in a variety of ways, from automating agent tasks to replacing human servers altogether. This study examines how artificial intelligence-based feedback (AI) impacts customer service agent employee productivity as measured by three key performance indicators: call-handle time, customer satisfaction, and call service quality. Our field partner, a North American outsourced call center deployed the AI software to monitor calls during a bill collection campaign and provide visible cues to remind agents of their service script requirements. In this way, the AI acts as a real-time supervisor, assessing agent performance and offering real-time feedback during and after the call. Using international call center data, we provide evidence that agents with access to the AI feedback are indeed more likely to comply with scripts and in so doing, deliver increased operational efficiency with lower call handle time. Moreover, calls conducted with AI feedback show an increase in two service quality metrics not commonly associated with technology-assisted communication: respect and rapport. In summary, through three studies, we offer theoretical and practical implications about the use and challenges associated with various management tools and provide ways to improve employee behavior to stimulate engagement and foster more efficient and productive systems.

It is sometimes said that money speaks louder than words, and in a world where financial decisions are a major driving force, it is interesting to explore how monetary incentives influence our decision making. Some argue that intrinsic motivation is sufficient to be able to measure prosocial decision-making, but what happens when we add monetary incentives to experiments that might otherwise be conducted with hypothetical scenarios? In this study, we conduct an online experiment with 1002 participants to explore if decision making changes when monetary incentives are introduced. The experiment includes five different social dilemmas involving distributions of money between participants. There are two conditions where one group makes hypothetical decisions and the other group receives money based on their decisions (i.e., is incentivized). Furthermore, we investigate if income, age and gender affect prosocial behavior. Our results suggest that both conditions show similar effects on prosocial behavior which implies that usage of either one of the two conditions will generate an equivalent outcome. The effects from household income, age and gender were significant in some social dilemmas, but the effect was not practically relevant for this study. We believe our results may be useful to include in the discussion of whether or not monetary incentives and hypothetical decisions generate similar results when studying prosocial behavior in decision making in experiments.

Unerwartete Veränderungen sind allgegenwärtig und können den Nutzen einer gerade geplanten Aktion verändern. Die Bewertung der optimalen Reaktion braucht Zeit. Währenddessen können überholte Aktionen ausgeführt werden. Bei Blickbewegungen verhindert die Sakkadenhemmung die Ausführung überholter Aktionen. Existiert ein analoger Mechanismus für Handbewegungen? Wir haben Signaturen der Sakkadenhemmung definiert: Signifikante Hemmung, zeitlicher Vorrang, eine vollständige Aktualisierung der Bewegung und Salienzabhängigkeit. In drei Online-Experimenten konnten wir diese Signaturen in Handbewegungen finden. In unseren Studien tippten Versuchspersonen auf ihren Smartphones schnell auf eine Reihe von Bewegungszielen, während wir entweder relevante (Positionsveränderungen) oder irrelevante (Helligkeitsveränderungen) Ereignisse präsentierten. Wir beobachteten verringerte Tippraten nach relevanten und irrelevanten Ereignissen (Signifikante Hemmung). Die Hemmung endete gleichzeitig mit dem Beginn der aktualisierten Bewegungen (Zeitlicher Vorrang). Aktualisierte Bewegungen spiegelten keine Zwischenziele wider (Vollständige Aktualisierung). Im Vergleich der drei Experimente bestätigten wir, dass der Kontrast einer irrelevanten Veränderung, nicht ihr Ort, die Hemmung nach irrelevanten Veränderungen steuert (Salienzabhängigkeit). Wir wiederholten zwei dieser Experimente in unserem Labor, wo wir zusätzliche technische Messungen durchführten. Wir fanden heraus, dass wir die Signaturen der motorischen Hemmung mit einer Verzögerung in unseren Online-Experimenten messen können. Frühe Wahrnehmungsmechanismen können spätere Prozesse unterstützen. Während ein schnelles Signal zur Hemmung bevorstehender Handlungen nicht direkt zu einer Bewegungsaktualisierung beiträgt, unterdrückt es die Folgen veralteter und unvollständiger Bewegungspläne. Dies verdeutlicht das empfindliche Gleichgewicht zwischen schnellen, automatischen und langsamen, bewussten Reaktionen. / Unexpected changes can change the utility of a currently planned action. It takes time to evaluate the optimal action. During that delay, outdated actions might be executed, requiring corrections. Saccadic Inhibition is a perceptually driven mechanism that inhibits upcoming movements after salient changes in the oculomotor system. Does an analog mechanism assist in preventing outdated limb movements? We defined key behavioral signatures of Saccadic Inhibition: Significant inhibition, temporal precedence, a complete movement update, and saliency dependence. In three online experiments, we confirmed that these signatures also exist in hand movements. In our online studies, participants rapidly tapped on a series of movement targets on their smartphones while we presented either relevant (changes in the location of the target) or irrelevant (changes in the brightness of the background or the target) events. We observed reduced tapping rates after relevant and irrelevant events (significant inhibition). The offset of inhibition aligned with the onset of updated movements (temporal precedence). Updated movements did not reflect intermediate targets (complete movement update). Finally, across the three experiments, we confirmed that the visual contrast of an irrelevant change, not its location, drives inhibition after irrelevant changes (saliency dependence). We repeated two experiments in our laboratory, combining online data collection with additional measurements on the mobile device. This replication confirmed that motor inhibition can be measured in online experiments with a temporal delay. This replication lays the foundation for continued online research into motor control mechanisms. This work shows how a fast perceptual mechanism can support deciding about an upcoming action. While a rapid signal to inhibit upcoming actions does not contribute directly to a movement update, it suppresses the consequences of outdated and incomplete movement plans.

No description available.

Der Prozess der lexikalischen Selektion, d.h. die Auswahl der richtigen Wörter zur Übermittlung einer intendierten Botschaft, ist noch nicht hinreichend verstanden. Insbesondere wurde kaum erforscht, inwiefern Bedeutungsaspekte, welche in sensomotorischen Erfahrungen gründen, diesen Prozess der Sprachproduktion beeinflussen. Die Rolle dieser Bedeutungsaspekte wurde mit zwei Studien untersucht, in denen Probanden Sätze vervollständigten. In Studie 1 wurde der visuelle Eindruck der Satzfragmente manipuliert, so dass die Sätze auf- oder absteigend am Bildschirm erschienen. In Studie 2 mussten die Probanden Kopfbewegungen nach oben oder unten ausführen, während sie die Satzfragmente hörten. Wir untersuchten, ob räumliche Aspekte der produzierten Wörter durch die räumlichen Manipulationen sowie die räumlichen Eigenschaften der präsentierten Satzfragmente beeinflusst werden. Die vertikale visuelle Manipulation in Studie 1 wirkte sich nicht auf die räumlichen Attribute der produzierten Wörter aus. Die Kopfbewegungen in Studie 2 führten zu einem solchen Effekt – bei Kopfbewegungen nach oben waren die Referenten der produzierten Wörter weiter oben im Raum angesiedelt als nach Bewegungen nach unten (und anders herum). Darüber hinaus war dieser Effekt stärker, je ausgeprägter die interozeptive Sensibilität der Probanden war. Zudem beeinflussten die räumlichen Aspekte der Satzfragmente die räumlichen Eigenschaften der produzierten Wörter in beiden Studien. Somit zeigt diese Arbeit, dass in der Erfahrung basierende Bedeutungsanteile, welche entweder in Sprache eingebettet sind oder durch körperliche Aktivität reaktiviert werden, die Auswahl der Wörter beim Sprechen beeinflussen und dass interindividuelle Unterschiede diesen Effekt modulieren. Die Befunde werden in Bezug zu Theorien der Semantik gesetzt. Darüber hinaus wird das Methodenrepertoire erweitert, indem mit Studie 3 ein Ansatz für die Durchführung von Online-Sprachproduktionsexperimenten mit Bildbenennung vorgestellt wird. / The process of lexical selection, i.e. producing the right words to get an intended message across, is not well understood. Specifically, meaning aspects grounded in sensorimotor experiences and their role during lexical selection have not been investigated widely. Here, we investigated the role of experientially grounded meaning aspects with two studies in which participants had to produce a noun to complete sentences which described sceneries. In Study 1, the visual appearance of sentence fragments was manipulated and they seemed to move upwards or downwards on screen. In Study 2, participants moved their head up- or downwards while listening to sentence fragments. We investigated whether the spatial properties of the freely chosen nouns are influenced by the spatial manipulations as well as by the spatial properties of the sentences. The vertical visual manipulation used in Study 1 did not influence the spatial properties of the produced words. However, the body movements in Study 2 influenced participants’ lexical choices, i.e. after up-movements the referents of the produced words were higher up compared to after downward movements (and vice verse). Furthermore, there was an increased effect of movement on the spatial properties of the produced nouns with higher levels of participants’ interoceptive sensibility. Additionally, the spatial properties of the stimulus sentences influenced the spatial properties of the produced words in both studies. Thus, experientially grounded meaning aspects which are either embedded in text or reactivated via bodily manipulations may influence which words we chose when speaking, and interindividual differences may moderate these effects. The findings are related to current theories of semantics. Furthermore, this dissertation enhances the methodological repertoire of language production researchers by showing how language production studies with overt articulation in picture naming tasks can be run online (Study 3).