Does granting managerial autonomy in exchange for accountability mitigate gaming?
研究纽约市公立学校的赋权区改革，发现授予校长自主权以换取问责制能减少努力替代和摘樱桃两种博弈行为，但效果受组织资源影响。
Abstract To improve organizational performance, the doctrine of performance management states that managers need to be granted autonomy in exchange for accountability for results. However, managers are often held accountable without autonomy in practice. The accountability pressure often causes gaming behaviors. How does granting managerial autonomy in exchange for accountability affect gaming behaviors? To address this question, we investigated how a performance management reform in New York City public schools, the Empowerment Zone, affected two types of gaming behaviors: effort substitution and cream skimming. Utilizing a difference‐in‐differences estimation strategy over multiple periods, we find that the Empowerment Zone experiment mitigates effort substitution and cream skimming in public schools, but the effect is modified by organizational resources. The findings show the potential of fully implementing performance management doctrine in mitigating gaming and suggest that human resources are crucial for realizing the potential.