Specialized Roles and Task Allocation in Organizations

Organizations often struggle to deploy specialized expertise where it creates the most value. We argue that specialized roles help address this challenge by codifying expertise into formal positions that function as allocative infrastructure, channeling work to appropriate professionals. We test this argument in Brazilian maternity wards that introduced a new specialized nursing role. Using data on more than 15 million births and a difference-in-differences design, we show that the introduction of this role is associated with improved matching between expertise and client needs. These effects are stronger when client demand is higher, workflows are more predictable, and organizational experience is greater. A simulation analysis indicates that these improvements go beyond compositional changes, reflecting the system’s enhanced ability to route patients to appropriate providers. Improved matching is also linked to better maternal and newborn outcomes. Together, our findings extend research on task allocation by theorizing roles as allocative infrastructure and identifying organizational conditions under which specialization improves matching in professional work.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2025.20444.