Social-cue as Nudge to Deter Workplace Sabotage

Abstract:Sabotage is the destructive act in which people can damage the performance of their rival in competitions. Organizations try to deter sabotage with both costly incentives and logistically problematic punishments since such an act damages the organization objectives and reduces morale. In this study we experimentally investigate whether the implementation of visual social cue (in terms of showing an image of a pair of eyes) can deter sabotage behavior. We implement a 2×2 factorial design in a contest experiment in which subjects are either under the social cue treatment or not, versus they can implement a multiplicative costly sabotage or not. We find that the social cue significantly decreases sabotage; however, it also decreases contest effort. Moreover, the effect of the social cue is heterogenous across gender.