Effective workplace management plays a crucial role in determining employee performance, retention, and subsequently, overall firm performance. While conventional management strategies often emphasize hierarchical relationships, peer-to-peer management, or "managing across," represents a promising yet largely unexplored approach. This study aims to investigate the impact of peer-to-peer management training on various employee outcomes and identify the conditions under which the intervention proves most effective.
The primary research questions are the following: 1) Can peer-to-peer management training enhance collaboration and improve relationships among co-workers in the same workplace? 2) What effects does peer-to-peer management training have on employee performance, retention, and team dynamics? 3) Under what circumstances and for which employees is the training most impactful?
To address these questions, we plan to conduct a randomized controlled trial involving approximately 3,500 workers across around 100 stores of a multinational spa chain. The stores will be randomly allocated into two groups, with one group receiving peer-to-peer management training and the other serving as a control group. The peer-to-peer management training is particularly designed to equip employees with the necessary skills to effectively manage their peer relationships, promoting cooperative teamwork, efficient conflict resolution, and mutual support. The training materials will be delivered online via the firm's e-learning portal.
By combining survey data collected before and after the training with administrative data on worker collaboration, performance, and retention, we will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the training intervention. The insights derived from this study will make a significant contribution to our understanding of peer management practices and their influence on both employee outcomes and firm performance.