ABSTRACT
Firms increasingly use employee recognition and disclose recognized performance to motivate employees. In this paper, we investigate how disclosed best performance interacts with recognition scope (same-rank versus multiple-rank recognition) in influencing the subsequent motivation of unrecognized lower-rank employees. We predict and find that a higher level of disclosed best performance from a recognized higher-rank employee in multiple-rank recognition motivates unrecognized lower-rank employees more in the subsequent period, compared to a higher level of disclosed best performance from a recognized peer in same-rank recognition. The results contribute to accounting research on employee recognition by identifying a potential benefit of including employees with different career stages in a recognition program to sustain employee motivation.
