Using individual vs. group evaluation to incentivize effort for heterogenous groups

This study uses an analytical model to examine how individual and group performance evaluations affect motivation among agents with different abilities. While group evaluations encourage collaboration, they also introduce uncertainty. The results reveal a non-monotonic relationship between the weight assigned to group evaluations and motivation: motivation increases at moderate weights but decreases when the weight is too low or high. The study also identifies the optimal weighting between evaluation types to maximize motivation and examines factors influencing these allocations. These insights demonstrate how evaluation design shapes effort incentives and inform performance measurement and assessment practices in organizational and educational contexts.