Honoring ethical behavior with awards - the effect on productivity

Last registered on January 18, 2019
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Honoring ethical behavior with awards - the effect on productivity
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003793
Initial registration date
January 15, 2019

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 18, 2019, 3:22 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Germany
Region
NRW

Primary Investigator

Name
Charlotte Ulonska
Affiliation
Universität zu Köln
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-01-20
End date
2019-02-28
Keywords
Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
awards, ethical behavior, productivity, donation, laboratory experiment
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Companies are continuously striving to design effective incentive schemes that motivate employees to provide high levels of effort at low costs. Companies can choose between monetary incentives and a great variety of non-monetary incentives. One of these incentives are awards which can be used to honor several kinds of behavior. In this study it is tested if the handing out of awards for ethical behavior changes participants’ subsequent productivity level. Ethical behavior is measured with a donation decision. The experiment will be conducted in the laboratory.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ulonska, Charlotte. 2019. "Honoring ethical behavior with awards - the effect on productivity." AEA RCT Registry. January 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3793-1.0
Former Citation
Ulonska, Charlotte. 2019. "Honoring ethical behavior with awards - the effect on productivity." AEA RCT Registry. January 18. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3793/history/40298
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In a controlled laboratory environment, the participants are asekd to make a donation decision to a big German charity. The top donors will receive an award. Non-winners will be informed that others received an award. The award is not announced but comes as a surprise. After that, the participants are asked to work on a simple real-effort task (decoding task). At the end, participants have to fill out a small questionnaire to gather data for control variables.
Intervention Start Date
2019-01-20
Intervention End Date
2019-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
productivity in the real-effort task (number of decoded tables)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Recruiting: Participants will be recruited via ORSEE
Duration: Max. 45 minutes
1. task: donation decision (participants decide how much of a given endowment they want to donate; they can keep the rest for themselves)
2. award conferment
3. real-effort task (decoding task)
4. small questionnaire
random assignment, between-subject design, payment in cash after the experiment
Experimental Design Details
Earnings: 4 € show up fee, max. 4 € donation task (depending on behavior), 4 € real-effort task (fixed payment)

The experiment for the treatment group will comprise four parts:

1. Subjects will make a donation decision to measure ethical behavior. The participants can decide how much of a given endowment (4 €) they want to donate to a big German charity organization (Ärzte ohne Grenzen). They can keep the rest of the amount for themselves. They receive a short summary of the activities of Ärzte ohne Grenzen. The participants are informed that they can name their e-mail adress at the end of the experiment if they want to get a proof that the donation is carried out.
2. After all participants made their decision there will be a small break in which an award will be distributed. The top donors will receive an award. The award will consist of a printed certificate handed out to the winners by the experimenter. Non-winners will receive a printed information that others in the experiment got an award as they donated more. This ensures that not only the award receivers know that awards were distributed but also the non-receivers. The award will contain the company logo of Ärzte ohne Grenzen and words of recognition. It will not be revealed how much the participants donated exactly.
3. The participants will work on a real-effort task. They are asked to decode as much tables as they can within 5 minutes. The task will be simple so that solving will not depend on the participants’ abilities. Participants will be paid according to a fixed wage (4 €). The task will be similar to the task of Charness, Masclet, Villeval (2014).
4. Participants are asked to fill out a small questionnaire to gather data for control variables (including: age, gender, field of study, previous donation behavior, attitude toward winning and recognition)

The control group will also make the donation decision and work on the real-effort task, but they will not receive an award.
Randomization Method
Randomization via ORSEE
Randomization Unit
Experimental sessions
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
4 experimental sessions (2 treatment, 2 control)
Sample size: planned number of observations
22 participants per session (+2 reserve candidates), 88 participants in total
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
22 participants per session (+2 reserve candidates), 88 participants in total
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials