Distinguishing high-performing employees imposes choices on managers: Is recognition most effectively delivered publicly or privately? If delivered publicly, what setting is best? This paper broadens the accounting literature on the implications of these decisions. Via experiment, I examine how the social bond between recognized employees and those observing the recognition influences the effect of recognition visibility on employee behavior. I find that with weak social bonds, public recognition (versus private) does not result in more beneficial employee behavior. However, when social bonds are strong, employees provide greater pre-recognition effort and respond more positively to public recognition than to private recognition. Overall, my study supports the extensive use of public recognition in practice and helps clarify the collective results from prior accounting studies. My findings also have implications for implementing recognition programs - suggesting managers should consider employee relationships when deciding how and where to recognize their employees.

中文翻译：

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社会纽带在理解识别可见性的识别前后影响中的作用

区分高绩效员工给管理者带来了选择：是公开还是私下最有效地获得认可？如果公开交付，什么设置最好？本文拓宽了有关这些决策影响的会计文献。通过实验，我研究了被认可的员工和那些观察认可的人之间的社会纽带如何影响认可可见度对员工行为的影响。我发现，在社会纽带薄弱的情况下，公众认可（相对于私人）不会导致更有益的员工行为。然而，当社会纽带牢固时，员工会提供更大的预先认可努力，并且对公共认可的反应比对私人认可的反应更积极。全面的，我的研究支持在实践中广泛使用公众认可，并有助于澄清先前会计研究的集体结果。我的发现对实施认可计划也有影响——建议管理者在决定如何以及在哪里认可员工时应该考虑员工关系。