The recency bias in the attribution of credit and blame for joint work outcomes

Abstract

In production processes within modern firms and organizations, it is often the case that individuals contribute sequentially to achieve a common goal. Does the order of contributions affect attribution of credit or blame for the outcome of a joint production process? We design an experiment in which teams of three subjects collaborate sequentially on a building task that must be completed within a given time limit. Uninvolved reviewers evaluate the builders’ performance after watching a video of the task, and decide which builder to hire. We find robust evidence of a recency bias for blame attribution: The hiring rates of the final builders are substantially lower when the team fails. However, there is no difference in hiring rates between first and last builders for successful teams. We control for perceived task difficulty, objective and subjective individual contribution perceptions, attention, and recall, none of which explain or dampen the order effect. Our findings have implications for teamwork, organizational design, and management practices of team performance evaluation.