Do Managers Matter?
Bloom, Eifert, Mahajan, McKenzie, and Roberts, economists from a range of places including Stanford University and the World Bank, recently published a paper describing a field experiment they ran on a group of large Indian textile firms. Using a sampe of several dozen firms, the researchers randomly sorted those firms into one of two groups.
IN the treatment group firm managers received five months of extensive management training from a large international consulting group.
They were taught a range of operational practices that earlier research suggested might be effective. A second, control group received a shorter period of diagnostic consulting, with no training.
The results? Within the first year after treatment, productivity in the treated plants increased by 17%. One of the authors of this textbook teaches MBA students and wasa pleased to read these results..
Many of the firms treated had multiple plants. After the researchers left, what do you think they did about training in thier other plants?