Cooperation and Organizational Adaptation: Evidence from a Quick-Service Restaurant Chain

Abstract

How do organizations adapt to take advantage of new opportunities for growth? We study the role of cooperation between managers and workers – long held as a key determinant of firm performance – in fostering this adaptation. In the context of a large fast food chain in Colombia, we examine a growth opportunity created by the (staggered) adoption of a leading food delivery platform. In addition to sales, we observe two key variables in the administrative data that measure manager-worker cooperation: managers’ decisions to train workers in specific job roles, and worker (re)scheduling. We focus on common identity as a driver of workplace cooperation – in particular, the gender balance across managers and workers, which we show varies idiosyncratically across the chain’s stores and over time. Stores in which managers and workers identify predominantly with the same gender: 1) indeed report higher levels of manager-worker cooperation; 2) have more broadly trained workers (who can more easily be reallocated); 3) reallocate workers more intensively following the introduction of the delivery platform; and 4) realize more than three times the sales gains compared to stores with male managers and a large share of female workers. Stores with female managers and a large share of male workers perform just as well as these gender-balanced stores, consistent with our findings that female managers tend to emphasize practices that foster cooperation and are more responsive to the scheduling constraints of both male and female workers.