Innovating Shift Work Design to Incorporate Heterogeneous Worker Preferences

Funded Research Proposal

Shifts are the dominant way to work in many contexts requiring 24/7 coverage, including call centers, police departments, and hospitals. While the detriments of shift work are well-documented both at the individual and organizational levels, its deployment is often unavoidable given round-the-clock staffing needs. We explore a potential organizational lever—incorporating heterogeneous preferences over shift design—to mitigate ramifications of shift work in the context of acute care bedside nurses. Using survey, administrative, and shift data, we examine whether and the extent to which individual choice over dimensions of their shifts mitigates the impact of shift work on work (dis)satisfaction and turnover of nurses.Read More

Leapfrogging for Last-Mile Delivery in Health Care

Funded Research Proposal

Lowering the cost and increasing the speed of last mile delivery are major challenges for the distribution channels of most industries. These challenges are even more severe in developing countries, where a large part of the population is located in rural areas, and where the lack of physical infrastructure results in a sizable part of the population residing in isolated areas, compromising their access to important services for their investment in human capital, such as timely health care.Read More