Primary Task Completed by Employees
The Employees on each team will complete the same task. The task consists of deciding how to use individual resources (expressed as points), which affect each Employee’s individual and team output. Employees will complete this task for one period.
Each Employee begins the period with 50 points from each of two pools of resources – which will be referred to as “A” and “B.” Points can be used in any proportion the Employee chooses to either:
1. Increase their own total output or
2. Increase the total output of another member (or other members) of their team of their choosing.
Points used are converted into output points based on a multiplier.
Specifically, A points used to increase an Employee’s own total output have a multiplier of 2.0 and therefore generate output of 2 points per point used in this manner. A points used to increase the total output of another member of an Employee’s team have a multiplier between 1.5 and 2.5, which will be randomly determined separately for any Employee who chooses to use points in this way.
B points used to increase an Employee’s own total output have a multiplier of 1.0. B points used to increase the total output of another member of an Employee’s team have a multiplier between 0.5 and 1.5, which will be randomly determined separately for any Employee who chooses to use points in this way.
The output generated by the use of each A and B point is summarized below:
| Resource (point) type: | Output generated per point if used to increase the Employee’s own total output: | Randomly determined output generated per point if used to increase the total output of another member of the Employee’s team: |
| A | 2.0 points | Between 1.5 and 2.5 points |
| B | 1.0 points | Between 0.5 and 1.5 points |
To illustrate, suppose on a given team that Employee 1 chooses to use 35 A points and 35 B points to increase their own total output, and chooses to use their remaining points (15 of each type) to increase the output of Employees 2, 3, and 4 (i.e., 5 points of each type used to increase the output of each of these other Employees). Employee 1’s decision would have the following effects on their own total output and the output of their teammates:
Effect on Employee 1’s total output:
| Resource (point) type: | Points used to increase own total output: | Output generated: |
| A | 35 | (35 × 2 = ) 70 points |
| B | 35 | (35 × 1 = ) 35 points |
| Total | (70 + 35 = ) 105 points |
*Suppose also that Employees 2, 3, and/or 4 use a total of 12 points to increase the total output of Employee 1, and that these points generate output of 10 points. Employee 1’s total output would include these 10 points.
Effect of points used by Employee 1 to increase the total output of Employees 2, 3, and 4:
| Resource (point) type: | Points used to increase total output: | Output generated: |
| A | 5 | Between 7.5 and 12.5 points |
| B | 5 | Between 2.5 and 7.5 points |
| Total | Between 10 and 20 points |
Recall that the output generated per point used to increase the output of another Employee is randomly determined separately for any Employee who chooses to use points in this way and ranges between 1.5 and 2.5 for A points and 0.5 and 1.5 for B points.
Suppose, for example, that the random draw results in multipliers of 1.5 for A points and 0.8 for B points. In that case, the points used by Employee 1 would generate the following output for teammates:
| Points used and output generated for: | ||||||||
| Employee 2 | Employee 3 | Employee 4 | ||||||
| Resource type: | Points: | Output generated: | Points: | Output generated: | Points: | Output generated: | ||
| A | 5 | 7.5 points | 5 | 7.5 points | 5 | 7.5 points | ||
| B | 5 | 4.0 points | 5 | 4.0 points | 5 | 4.0 points | ||
| Total | 11.5 points | 11.5 points | 11.5 points | |||||
If an Employee uses points to increase the total output of another Employee (or other Employees) on the team, those other Employee(s) will learn :
1. Someone used points to increase their total output on their behalf.
2. How many points were used in this manner.
3. How much output was generated by these points.
However, they will never learn who increased their total output. Additionally, the Employee will learn how much output was generated for the benefit of their teammate(s) by any points they choose to use in this manner.
All of this information will be provided at the end of the study, along with feedback about what their total output was and their resulting compensation.