Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers,
University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics

No 11-15: International Differences in Subjective Performance Evaluation,Compensation and Career Dynamics in a Global Company

Nikolaj Halse (), Valérie Smeets () and Frédèric Warzynski ()
Additional contact information
Nikolaj Halse: Novo Nordisk
Valérie Smeets: Institut for Økonomi - Nationaløkonomi, Postal: Hermodsvej 22, lokale FH329, 8230 Åbyhøj, Danmark
Frédèric Warzynski: Institut for Økonomi - Nationaløkonomi, Postal: Hermodsvej 22, lokale FH322, 8230 Åbyhøj, Danmark

Abstract: In this paper, we use confidential personnel records from a large multinational firm to study the differences in subjective performance evaluation and their consequences across countries. We focus our analysis on three different sets of countries: Europe (where the headquarter is established), U.S. and Asia (Japan and China). We try to understand why performance evaluation is distributed differently across countries, and how these differences affect wage growth, the size of the bonus and promotion decisions. We find that evaluations tend to be better on average at the headquarter, but also that wages, bonuses and promotion decisions are less sensitive to performance, therefore diminishing the strength of the incentive mechanism behind performance evaluation. We document how learning about managerial ability occurs through repeated observations. We then discuss the long run implications of these differences on career dynamics and the policy implications for the firm if it wants to implement a consistent human resource policy across countries.

Keywords: No; keywords

JEL-codes: A10

31 pages, October 1, 2011

Full text files

11-15_vasfwa.pdf PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Helle Vinbaek Stenholt ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:10:51.