We develop and test a theory examining how frictions that restrict mobility across industries and frictions constraining mobility within an industry can co-occur to effectively isolate individual human capital, ultimately changing the firm's make-versus-buy decision for human capital....

We propose a theory that emphasizes the role of managers for the production and allocation of human capital in firms. Managers invest time to train junior employees, and acquire information about the juniors' abilities that is valuable for job assignments. This dual role of managers matters...

This paper explores theoretically and empirically potentially important yet often-neglected linkage between task coordination within the organization and the structure of organization and bundling of HRMPs (Human Resource Management Practices). In so doing, we also provide fresh insights on the...

In an RCT, a large retail chain’s CEO sets new goals for the managers of the treated stores by asking them “to do what they can” to reduce the employee quit rate. The treatment decreases the quit rate by a fifth to a quarter, lasting nine months before petering out, but reappearing after a...

We critically review the emerging literature in Organizational and Personnel Economics concerning the role of managers and management practices. Our focus is on the middle managers who populate the hierarchies between top executives and front-line employees. We are especially concerned with...

Managers ("bosses") are central to the development and allocation of human capital in firms ("talent management") because they both train junior employees and acquire private information about the juniors' abilities. While a multi-divisional firm would want to allocate workers to jobs wherever...

Innovation is a key factor for survival of an organization in a global economy and market scenario. It exists in different formats and at different phases of life-cycle of a product at the micro level in an organization or in the society at the macro level. Human resources play the most...

Two decades ago, McKinsey advanced the idea that large U.S. companies are engaged in a “war for talent” and that to remain competitive they need to make a strategic effort to attract, retain, and develop the highest-performing executives. To understand the contribution of the human resources...

Innovative workplace practices based on multi-tasking and ICT that have been diffusing in most OECD countries since the 1990s have strong consequences on working conditions. Available data show together with the emergence of new organizational forms like multi-tasking, the increase in the...