The Effects of Performance Pay on Task Scheduling
Abstract
Performance pay is typically considered one of the most effective compensation schemes by encouraging workers to increase their effort (working harder). Analyzing millions of records of radiological diagnoses from radiologists working across the US, we investigate how performance pay induces workers also to attempt to work smarter by altering their task sequencing strategies.
Bio
Maria Ibanez is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She received her doctorate from Harvard Business School, where she also served as Teaching Fellow for the Analytics program for entering MBA students and for the core Technology and Operations Management course, which is taught in the Required Curriculum of the MBA program. Prior to joining HBS, she earned a Master of Science in Applied Economics from Marquette University, worked in finance, and conducted research at the University of Chicago.
Her research investigates how to improve performance by designing data-driven systems that lead individuals to make better decisions. In doing so, her research seeks to help individuals improve how they exercise discretion and increase their productivity. With a primary focus on healthcare, she collaborates with organizations to understand their work and to develop implementable solutions for relevant challenges. Combining operations management with economic theory and the psychology of decision-making, she analyzes large-scale field data to identify causal relationships that generate new scholarly insights regarding the connections between operational factors, decision-making, and performance.
