METHODOLOGY
We sent a 16 question management practice survey to around 40,000 US manufacturing plants in 2010 and again in 2015. These asked 8 questions about monitoring practices (how firms collect, analyze and act on data) and 8 questions about incentives (how firms hire, fire, pay and promote workers). These 16 questions were combined into a “structured management score” which ranges from 0 for firms with no formal monitoring or incentives, to 1 to firms with a heavy focus on performance monitoring and analysis, and aggressive performance based hiring, firing, pay and promotions. We found these practices are strongly correlated with superior firm performance – those adopting more structured management practices are more profitable, productive, innovative and faster growing. Below are the survey forms and summary data from the US Census.