More text added... Subject: How Surveillance Changes Behavior: A Restaurant Workers Case Study - NYTimes.com
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/how-surveillance-changes-behavior-a -restaurant-workers-case-study/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130827&_r=0 http://tinyurl.com/l3udz8b The paper, "Cleaning House: The Impact of Information Technology Monitoring on Employee Theft and Productivity," is the work of three academics: Lamar Pierce, an associate professor at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis; Daniel Snow, an associate professor at the Marriott School at Brigham Young University; and Andrew McAfee, a research scientist at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers measured the impact of software that monitors employee-level theft and sales transactions, before and after the technology was installed, at 392 restaurants in 39 states. The restaurants were in five "casual dining" chains. The paper does not name the five, but it cites examples of the casual dining category including Applebee's, Chili's and Olive Garden. Employee theft and fraud is a big problem, estimated at up to $200 billion a year across the economy. In the restaurant industry, analysts estimate the losses from employee theft at 1 percent of revenue. That does not seem like a lot, but restaurant profit margins are slender, typically 2 to 5 percent. So cutting down on theft can be an important contributor to a restaurant's financial health. ooooooo.... The impact, the researchers say, came not from firing workers engaged in theft, but mostly from their changed behavior. Knowing they were being monitored, the servers not only pulled back on any unethical practices, but also channeled their efforts into, say, prompting customers to have that dessert or a second beer, raising revenue for the restaurant and tips for themselves. "The same people who are stealing from you can be set up to succeed," said Mr. Pierce of Washington University. In the research, the data sets were sizable. For example, there were more than 630,000 transactions by servers tracked and collected each week over the course of the project. But more significant, the researchers say, is what the data analysis might contribute to fields of study like social psychology and behavioral economics - and the business discipline of human resources management. In human resources, much emphasis is placed on employee selection: if you pick the right people, they will do the right thing. Instead, this research suggests that the surveillance effect on employee behavior is striking. "What's surprising is the weird effectiveness of the intervention, once the monitoring technology is in place," said Mr. McAfee of M.I.T. Not surprisingly, NCR is delighted by the results. "It validates the customer data we've seen," said Jeff Hindman, a vice president at NCR. "But this is done by outside experts with the academic standards and statistical rigor they bring to the analysis." _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list Futurework@lists.uwaterloo.ca https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
