Employee Motivation - Publications - Faculty & Research

November 1993 (Revised March 1997)
Case

Romeo Engine Plant

A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now is to solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Groups and Teams; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

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13 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Six Steps for Reinvigorating America

Motivates values-based capitalism and drives companies to contribute to solving social and environmental problems while also providing employees stimulating and satisfying work. Restores trust by committing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Jan 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules

Keywords: by Abigail M. Allen & Reining Petacchi

13 Aug 2007
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Trust

trusted employees and the opportunities that come with bringing in fresh talent. Q: What are you working on next? A: I continue to investigate how factors beyond the market influence strategic decisions. In more recent work, I examine how... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Service

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

traditional rating and ranking system. The new process involved informal monthly meetings between managers and their reports, and it more closely tied bonuses to business performance. Would it serve to motivate employees? Could its... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

09 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 9, 2015

instance, estimates of U.S. annual losses indicate $1 trillion paid in bribes, $270 billion lost due to unreported income, as well as $42 billion lost in retail due to shoplifting and employee theft. In this article we draw on insights... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jun 2023
Research & Ideas

Four Steps to Building the Psychological Safety That High-Performing Teams Need

environments where candor is expected and where employees can speak up without fear of retribution. When employees feel psychologically safe, they’re empowered to iterate and take risks—leading to better... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

05 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 5

2015 The Social Psychology of Good and Evil Dishonesty Explained: What Leads Moral People To Act Immorally By: Gino, F., and D. Ariely Abstract—The last two decades have witnessed what seems to be an increasing number of cases of dishonesty, from corporate corruption... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

07 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 7, 2006

how individuals think about speaking up at work, we first undertook in-depth exploratory research in a knowledge-intensive multinational corporation in which employee input was considered crucial. Qualitative data collected in 190... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 May 2023
HBS Case

How KKR Got More by Giving Ownership to the Factory Floor: ‘My Kids Are Going to College!’

workers like his father a share of the profits and get them to think like owners. The case studies, written by HBS Professor Dennis Campbell and assistant professor Ethan Rouen, describe the sea change in motivation that happens when... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

17 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 17

(1990, 1991) argument that it is top management's view of a firm's key strategic uncertainties that motivates their choice of control systems to be used interactively. Combining the process perspective of a longitudinal field study with... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 1991 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Westchester Distributing, Inc. (A)

By: Robert L. Simons and Robert Boxwell

Focuses on the three-way interaction among internal controls, employee behavior, and incentives. Salesmen are illegally providing kickbacks to customers of this beer-distribution firm. In turn, salesmen are reimbursing themselves by filing fraudulent expense reports.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Salesforce Management; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Distribution Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

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01 Aug 2023
What Do You Think?

As Leaders, Why Do We Continue to Reward A, While Hoping for B?

teamwork for the benefit of the organization but provide incentives for individual performance. Or we hope that employees will exhibit individual initiative in solving problems and dealing with unplanned situations, but we don’t recognize... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 30, 2008

payments affects criminal activity. Analysis of daily reported incidents of major crimes in twelve U.S. cities reveals an increase in crime over the course of monthly welfare payment cycles. This increase reflects an increase in crimes that are likely to have a direct... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2001 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Compensation at Level 3 Communications

Level 3's unique compensation plan rewarded managers for the firm's performance only if the firm's stock price movement exceeded that of the market. This design was intended to maximize shareholder value by tying manager's performance more closely to that of the firm,... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Telecommunications Industry

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Spring 2023
Article

Incentive Contract Design and Employee-Initiated Innovation: Evidence from the Field

By: Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani and Jee-Eun Shin

This study examines how the design of incentive contracts for tasks defined as workers’ official responsibilities (i.e., standard tasks) influences workers’ propensity to engage in employee-initiated innovation (EII). EII corresponds to innovation activities that are... View Details

Keywords: Employee-initiated Innovation; Contract Design; Rank-and-file; Extra-role Behaviors; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation and Management

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22 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 22, 2007

J. Gomes, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, and Luis M. Viceira Abstract Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

19 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

$15 Billion in Five Years: What Data Tells Us About MacKenzie Scott’s Philanthropy

public policy and management at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Brian Trelstad is the William Henry Bloomberg Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Ethan Tran is an undergraduate student at Harvard College. Disclosures:... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew Lee, Brian Trelstad, and Ethan Tran

06 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

Did You Hear What I Said? How to Listen Better

the O’Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration at HBS; Julia A. Minson, an associate professor at the Harvard Kennedy School; and Ariella S. Kristal, a postdoctoral scholar at Columbia Business School. “There’s so much work showing that when View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 2010
Article

Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give the manager, as an equilibrium outcome, interpersonal authority over employees (in a world with open disagreement). The paper thus provides... View Details

Keywords: Theory; Assets; Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Governance Controls; Power and Influence; Projects; Perspective; Employees

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