Improving Workplace Climate: A Randomized Intervention on Large Corporations

Last registered on June 29, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Improving Workplace Climate: A Randomized Intervention on Large Corporations

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0007532

Initial registration date

April 13, 2021

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

April 13, 2021, 11:33 AM EDT

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

Last updated

June 29, 2022, 6:41 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Turkey

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Sule Alan

Affiliation

European University Institute

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Gozde Corekcioglu

PI Affiliation

Kadir Has University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Matthias Sutter

PI Affiliation

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2019-09-02

End date

2021-08-31

Keywords

Behavior, Firms & Productivity

Additional Keywords

workplace climate, relational climate, social skills, social networks

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Effective communication skills are essential ingredients for a healthy and cohesive work environment. This study aims to test whether reinforcing these skills via a creative training program offered to white-collar professionals improves workplace climate and enables better social interactions in large corporations. The evaluation sample contains white-collar professionals of all ranks from 20 large corporations in Turkey representing the chemistry, defense, construction, textiles, energy, and finance sectors. The intervention involves a series of workshops where a professional implementing partner uses unique interactive methods, including creative drama and role-playing, to improve social and interpersonal skills. A critical component of the intervention is a series of team exercises following workshop sessions, lasting over eight weeks, managed and monitored by the implementing partner. While the intervention targets all white-collar workers from all ranks, team and department leaders are particularly encouraged to attend.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Alan, Sule, Gozde Corekcioglu and Matthias Sutter. 2022. "Improving Workplace Climate: A Randomized Intervention on Large Corporations." AEA RCT Registry. June 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7532-1.2

Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name

Akademika Training & Consultancy

Type

private_company

URL

https://www.akademika.com.tr

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention involves a series of workshops where a professional implementing partner uses unique interactive methods, including creative drama and role-playing, to improve social and interpersonal skills. A critical component of the intervention is a series of team exercises following workshop sessions, lasting over eight weeks, managed and monitored by the implementing partner. While the intervention targets all white-collar workers from all ranks, team and department leaders are particularly encouraged to attend.

Intervention Start Date

2020-11-02

Intervention End Date

2021-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

We designed a wide range of outcomes to test the effectiveness of the training program. To construct our outcomes, we use three main data collection tools:

1) Survey questions
2) Incentivized experiments
3) Social networks

See below for a detailed explanation

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Our primary outcomes of interest can be grouped into three categories.
1) Perceived workplace climate indicators. Using a large numbers of item-response questions and we will construct following indices:

a) Behavioral (descriptive) norms
b) Workplace satisfaction
c) Meritocratic values of the firm
d) Occupational satisfaction
e) Within-department cooperation

2) Social Skills (measured via incentivized games)

a) Trust
b) Reciprocity
c) Performance sabotaging behavior
d) Inequality acceptance

3) Social Networks (Departmental Level Network Structure)

Using professional and personal support links with colleagues

a) Closeness index
b) Density index
c) Share of isolated individuals in the department

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Our secondary outcomes are:

1) Perceived Leaders' quality
2) Leaders' ability to take perspective (from the viewpoint of subordinates)
3) Prescriptive norms
4) Receiving professional support from the leader (networks)
5) Receiving personal support from the leader (networks)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

All secondary outcomes are to be used to identify/rule out various alternative mechanisms that might explain our results.
1) Perceived Leaders' quality: An index constructed using item-response questions
2) Leaders' ability to take perspective: An index constructed using item-response questions
3) Prescriptive norms: An index constructed using item-response questions about team leaders
4) Support ties: network measures

Experimental Design

The study is a clustered randomized controlled trial. The unit of randomization is corporation. Our randomization procedure assigned 10 firms to treatment and 10 to control. We stratified randomization on sector.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization was done in the office by a computer, using Stata Software. We stratified randomization on sector.

Randomization Unit

Corporation

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

20 corporations

Sample size: planned number of observations

Approximately 3000 white-collar professionals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

10 corporations treatment, 10 control

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We assume 5% significance level and 80% power. Our intracluster correlations for primary outcomes range between 0.02 and 0.05. Unit is corporation. We set the sample size per unit to 150. Given these, we will be able to detect 21% change in descriptive norms, 30% change, 26% change in workplace satisfaction, 30% change in perceived meritocratic values, 11% change in cooperation, 17% change in altruism, 28% change in the probability of receiving professional help from department leader, 31% change in the probability of receiving personal help from department leader. Note that all these values are unconditional. The actual MDEs are likely to be much lower than these values as we will be able to control for baseline values of all our primary outcomes.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB