Job Assignment in Knowledge Teams

Title: Job Assignment in Knowledge Teams (w/ Jed DeVaro, Desmond Lo, and Hideo Owan)

Abstract: Using detailed project management and personnel data from a large Japanese architectural and engineering consultancy firm for over a decade, we explore the tradeoffs that underlie the assignment of projects to managers and estimate the manager effects on project profitability. Assigning a project to a more productive manager increases current profit but sacrifices the learning opportunities for other managers. In addition to the experience, the factors that impact a manager's performance include the ability to front-load the project, the number of workers that the manager knows, and the manager's current workload.