Organizational Redesign, Information Technologies and Workplace Productivity

Using a large longitudinal, nationally representative workplace-level dataset, we explore the productivity gains associated with computer use and organizational redesign. The empirical strategy involves the estimation of a production function, augmented to account for technology use and organizational design, correcting for unobserved heterogeneity. We find large returns associated with computer use. We also find that computer use and organizational redesign may be complements or substitutes in production, and that the productivity gains associated with organizational redesign are industry-specific.

[1]  B. Burris.  Computerization of the Workplace , 1998 .

[2]  M. Hammer,et al.  REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION: A MANIFESTO FOR BUSINESS REVOLUTION , 1995 .

[3]  Maryellen R. Kelley,et al.  Productivity and Information Technology: The Elusive Connection , 1994 .

[4]  J. Tirole,et al.  Formal and Real Authority in Organizations , 1997, Journal of Political Economy.

[5]  D. Guellec,et al.  Firm Organization, Technology And Performance: An Empirical Study , 1998 .

[6]  Thomas Bailey,et al.  The Performance Effects of Modular Production in the Apparel Industry , 1996 .

[7]  Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld,et al.  The Impact on Economic Performance of a Transformation in Workplace Relations , 1991 .

[8]  Brian E. Becker,et al.  Methodological Issues in Cross‐Sectional and Panel Estimates of the Human Resource‐Firm Performance Link , 1996 .

[9]  John T. Dunlop,et al.  Diffusion and Performance of Modular Production in the U.S. Apparel Industry , 1996 .

[10]  Stephen D. Oliner,et al.  The Resurgence of Growth in the Late 1990s: Is Information Technology the Story? , 2000 .

[11]  T. C. Powell.  Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage , 1995 .

[12]  Benoit Dostie,et al.  Les rendements de la formation en entreprise , 2007 .

[13]  Jeffrey B. Arthur,et al.  Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover , 1994 .

[14]  Takao Kato,et al.  The Productivity Effects of Participatory Employment Practices: Evidence from New Japanese Panel Data , 2002 .

[15]  Philippe Aghion,et al.  Technology, Information and the Decentralization of the Firm , 2006 .

[16]  Jacek Cukrowski,et al.  Organizational Restructuring in Response to Changes in Information-Processing Technology , 1999 .

[17]  J. V. Reenen,et al.  Skill-Biased Organizational Change? Evidence from a panel of British and French establishments , 2001 .

[18]  D. Jorgenson,et al.  Raising the Speed Limit: U.S. Economic Growth in the Information Age , 2000 .

[19]  Ann P. Bartel,et al.  How Does Information Technology Affect Productivity? Plant-Level Comparisons of Product Innovation, Process Improvement, and Worker Skills , 2007 .

[20]  Stephen Bond,et al.  GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions , 1999 .

[21]  E. Brynjolfsson,et al.  Computing Productivity: Firm-Level Evidence , 2003 .

[22]  Mark A. Huselid.  The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance , 1995 .

[23]  B. Hamilton,et al.  Team Incentives and Worker Heterogeneity: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Teams on Productivity and Participation , 2001, Journal of Political Economy.

[24]  Maryellen R. Kelley,et al.  Participative Bureaucracy and Productivity in the Machined Products Sector , 1996 .

[25]  E. Brynjolfsson,et al.  Information Technology As A Factor Of Production: The Role Of Differences Among Firms , 1995 .

[26]  R. Kling,et al.  Technology, ideology and social transformation: The case of computerization and work organization , 1994 .

[27]  Dilip Mookherjee.  Decentralization, Hierarchies, and Incentives: A Mechanism Design Perspective , 2006 .

[28]  D. Jorgenson,et al.  Potential Growth of the U.S. Economy: Will the Productivity Resurgence Continue? , 2006 .

[29]  Casey Ichniowski,et al.  The Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Productivity , 1995 .

[30]  Sandra E. Black,et al.  What's Driving the New Economy?: The Benefits of Workplace Innovation , 2000 .

[31]  R. Radner.  The organization of decentralized information processing , 1993 .

[32]  T. Bailey.  Organizational Innovation in the Apparel Industry , 1993 .

[33]  P. Bolton,et al.  The firm as a communication network , 1994 .

[34]  J. Abowd,et al.  The analysis of labor markets using matched employer-employee data , 1999 .

[35]  Sandra E. Black,et al.  How to Compete: The Impact of Workplace Practices and Information Technology on Productivity , 1997, Review of Economics and Statistics.

[36]  Michael Hammer,et al.  Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate , 1990 .

[37]  E. Brynjolfsson,et al.  Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance , 2000 .

[38]  Zvi Griliches,et al.  Production Functions: The Search for Identification , 1995 .

[39]  Kieron J. Meagher.  Generalizing incentives and loss of control in an optimal hierarchy: the role of information technology , 2003 .

[40]  D. Simester,et al.  Firm-Wide Incentives and Mutual Monitoring at Continental Airlines , 2001 .