Working Paper: NBER ID: w22383
Authors: Susan Payne Carter; Whitney Dudley; David S. Lyle; John Z. Smith
Abstract: Despite the importance placed on supervision in the workplace, little is known about the effects of a boss’ leadership quality on labor market outcomes such as employee job retention. Using plausibly exogenous assignment of junior officers to bosses in the U.S. Army, we find positive retention effects for those assigned to immediate and senior bosses who are good leaders. These effects are strongest for officers with high SAT scores. Junior officers who share the same home geographic region, high SAT, and undergraduate institution as their bosses who also have strong leadership qualities retain at the highest rates.
Keywords: leadership; employee turnover; U.S. Army; retention; junior officers
JEL Codes: J01; J08; J24; J53; J63
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| strong leadership of immediate boss (M54) | retention rates (M51) |
| strong leadership of senior boss (M54) | retention rates (M51) |
| strong leadership of immediate boss + strong leadership of senior boss (M54) | retention rates (M51) |
| strong leadership of immediate boss + strong leadership of senior boss (M54) | retention rates for junior officers with high SAT scores (I21) |
| same census division boss (C80) | retention rates (M51) |
| high SAT scores of boss + strong leadership of immediate boss (M54) | retention rates (M51) |
| high SAT scores of boss + strong leadership of senior boss (M54) | retention rates (M51) |