What makes a boss? Evidence from the career trajectories of 70,000 employees in a multinational firm

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What is the nature and role of bosses in organizations? I analyse panel data at the employee-level from a multinational firm operating in 114 countries for the period 2011-2019. To identify the role of bosses, I exploit variation in manager-employee matches generated by two rotation policies that induce exogenous matching between them. Preliminary findings show that senior managers are more likely to reward high performance and fire poor performers. This suggests that managers are evaluated and held accountable for selecting and retaining top talent. I propose to explore next how the ability of managers to select talent is affected by the labor market regulations of the different countries in which the firm operates.