Project Assignments When Budget Padding Taints Resource Allocation

  • Authors:
  • Anil Arya;Brian Mittendorf

  • Affiliations:
  • The Ohio State University, 2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210;Yale School of Management, 135 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520

  • Venue:
  • Management Science
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

This paper shows that rotation programs can be an effective response to concerns of employee budget padding. Rotation programs naturally create a “portfolio” of assignments for each manager, and the resulting diversification can reduce the downside of resource rationing. In particular, the production versus rents trade-off linked with adverse selection problems can be more efficiently carried out when the firm faces two managers with average information advantages, rather than one with a large advantage and one with a small advantage. Roughly stated, rotation of project assignments is a way of smoothing information across managers. On the other hand, if a firm places a premium on treating different types of projects in distinct ways, specialized assignments can be preferred due to the ability to confine project types to individual managers.