ABSTRACTDistinguishing high-performing employees imposes choices on managers: Is recognition most effectively delivered publicly or privately? If delivered publicly, what setting is best? This paper broadens the accounting literature on the implications of these decisions. Via experiment, I examine how the social bond between recognized employees and those observing the recognition influences the effect of recognition visibility on employee behavior. I find that with weak social bonds, public recognition (versus private) does not result in more beneficial employee behavior. However, when social bonds are strong, employees provide greater pre-recognition effort and respond more positively to public recognition than to private recognition. Overall, my study supports the extensive use of public recognition in practice and helps clarify the collective results from prior accounting studies. My findings also have implications for implementing recognition programs—suggesting managers should consider employee relationships when deciding how and where to recognize their employees.

中文翻译：

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社会纽带在理解识别可见性的识别前后效果中的作用


摘要区分高绩效员工给管理者带来了选择：公开还是私下进行认可最有效？如果公开交付，什么设置最好？本文拓宽了有关这些决策影响的会计文献。通过实验，我研究了被认可的员工和观察认可的人之间的社会联系如何影响认可可见度对员工行为的影响。我发现，由于社会纽带较弱，公共认可（相对于私人认可）不会带来更有益的员工行为。然而，当社会纽带很强时，员工会付出更大的预先认可努力，并对公共认可做出比私人认可更积极的反应。总体而言，我的研究支持在实践中广泛使用公众认可，并有助于澄清先前会计研究的集体结果。我的发现对于实施表彰计划也有影响——建议管理者在决定如何以及在哪里表彰员工时应考虑员工关系。