Creating Leadership Pathways For Low-income Workers

The differences in managerial practices partly explain the lower levels of productivity and high levels of abuse present in manufacturing. In the developing world, productivity, wages, and worker retention remain extremely low. To address this issue, we developed a screening questionnaire and analysis algorithm that identifies and trains potential supervisorial candidates. We conducted RCTs in Indian garment factories, which employ 45 million people, to understand whether building pathways to leadership for blue-collar workers can improve firm productivity and reduce workplace harassment.

How can we identify and train workers to be good managers in a way that is cost-effective and easy to adapt, particularly for low-margin, labor-intensive manufacturing firms in developing countries?

Over three years, we conducted extensive research in Indian garment factories through two large-scale randomized controlled trials. Our efforts focused on identifying managerial skills crucial for productivity in low-income contexts and highlighting their undervaluation in the labor market due to measurement challenges. Paired with our soft skills training program for supervisors and mid-level managers, the training includes topics like communication, self-esteem, gender sensitivity, problem-solving, work planning, and harassment prevention. We are also creating mobile applications: one for screening and identifying managerial candidates’ skills and deficiencies and another for targeted training. Developed with a human-centered design, we are piloting the apps in their factories and plan to adapt them for broader use.