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 … that treated store managers spend more time on HR and less on customer service. Our findings show that middle managers are …

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 …

randomized controlled trial. Consistent with standard practice for training investments within firms, we asked middle managers … or favoritism. Instead, consistent with the fact that supervisor turnover comes at a large effort cost to middle managers … due to gaps in coverage and onboarding, middle managers prioritized retention over productivity impacts. Indeed, treated …