Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • October 2015
  • Article
  • Journal of Labor Economics

The Value of Bosses

By: Edward P. Lazear, Kathryn L. Shaw and Christopher Stanton
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

How and by how much do supervisors enhance worker productivity? Using a company-based data set on the productivity of technology-based services workers, supervisor effects are estimated and found to be large. Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss quality with one who is in the upper 10% of boss quality increases a team's total output by more than would adding one worker to a nine member team. Workers assigned to better bosses are less likely to leave the firm. A separate normalization implies that the average boss is about 1.75 times as productive as the average worker.

Keywords

Supervisors; Management Skills; Employees; Performance Productivity

Citation

Lazear, Edward P., Kathryn L. Shaw, and Christopher Stanton. "The Value of Bosses." Journal of Labor Economics 33, no. 4 (October 2015): 823–861.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Christopher T. Stanton

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • Winter 2022
    • Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

    Determinants of Small Business Reopening Decisions After COVID Restrictions Were Lifted

    By: Dylan Balla-Elliott, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Training, Communications Patterns, and Spillovers Inside Organizations

    By: Miguel Espinosa and Christopher T. Stanton
    • May 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Chime Solutions

    By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Jim Matheson, Christopher Stanton and Ria Mazumdar
More from the Authors
  • Determinants of Small Business Reopening Decisions After COVID Restrictions Were Lifted By: Dylan Balla-Elliott, Zoë B. Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton
  • Training, Communications Patterns, and Spillovers Inside Organizations By: Miguel Espinosa and Christopher T. Stanton
  • Chime Solutions By: Shai Bernstein, William R. Kerr, Jim Matheson, Christopher Stanton and Ria Mazumdar
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College