Employee Motivation - Publications - Faculty & Research

31 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 31, 2018

link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54725 2018 The Oxford Handbook of Advice How the Other Half Thinks: The Psychology of Advising By: Blunden, Hayley, and Francesca Gino Abstract—This chapter integrates research on advice interactions, View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles of 2011

fact, this redundant communication works to get projects completed quickly, according to new research by Harvard Business School professor Tsedal B. Neeley and Northwestern University's Paul M. Leonardi and Elizabeth M. Gerber. The Most Powerful Workplace View Details

Keywords: by Staff

06 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Consumers Blame Business for Global Health Problems. Can Business Become the Solution?

more for sustainable goods. Almost 60 percent report that a product’s health and wellness benefits motivate purchasing decisions. And over 40 percent say that they factor a company’s social value into purchasing decisions. Millennials are... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

27 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

Harvard Business School spends a significant amount of research funds each year on the health care industry, answering questions such as: How can the business of health care be made more efficient? What can a business do to motivate View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

shareholder value is created. Every company should start with a clear purpose and set of values that go beyond making money. It is the purpose and values that motivate and unify employees worldwide, not... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

March 1987 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Au Bon Pain: The French Bakery Cafe, The Partner/Manager Program

By: W. Earl Sasser

In recent years, Au Bon Pain (ABP), a chain of upscale French bakeries/sandwich cafes based in Boston, confronted a set of human resource problems endemic to the fast food industry (i.e., a labor shortage which made it difficult to attract and maintain quality crew... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Managerial Roles; Retention; Employees; Performance Improvement; Recruitment; Problems and Challenges; Compensation and Benefits; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Boston

Citation

Educators

Purchase

11 Aug 2014
HBS Case

The Business of Behavioral Economics

probabilities, a familiar truth to anyone who has ever bought a lottery ticket. "On average people won $5, but the possibility of winning $100 was far more motivating than just giving people that $5," says John. That condition also took... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Health

28 Jun 2010
HBS Case

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Health-care reform is more than a political football. For twenty years it's been a ground-level topic of increasing importance for the administrators, physicians, nurses, and frontline employees who interact with patients every day.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

02 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 2

Publications September 2014 Organization Science Social Comparisons and Deception Across Workplace Hierarchies: Field and Experimental Evidence By: Edelman, Benjamin, and Ian Larkin Abstract—We examine how unfavorable social comparisons differentially spur View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

Command-and-control leaders are finding it difficult to motivate frontline employees and take advantage of their knowledge and wisdom. This is especially true in global organizations that require... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

28 May 2012
Research & Ideas

A Pragmatic Alternative for Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

core assets, such as brand reputation or employee morale. In the paper CSR initiatives are explored in three "theatres." Theatre 1 includes activities primarily motivated by charitable instincts, even though... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Balancing the Future Against Today’s Needs

engaged leader," he says, "out there with your people all time, spending time with both employees and customers." When Phanstiel took the reins of PacifiCare, he inherited a slow-growth company in a slow-growth industry.... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

22 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

The COVID-19 Mutiny: When Teams Leave and Take Their Clients

When the COVID-19 virus spread worldwide and normal life ground to a halt last year, we thought voluntary employee turnover would drop as well. But the opposite happened in one area: Lift outs—a group of workers who defect... View Details

Keywords: by Robin Abrahams, Boris Groysberg, and Steven L. Manchel

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

(relative to the hiring manager) influences other organizational members’ support (or lack thereof) for who is hired through perceptions of the hiring manager’s motives and morality. We apply principles derived from the literature on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Spirit at Work: The Search for Deeper Meaning in the Workplace

Beer, the School's Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration and an expert on organizational behavior. "Quite simply, without a sense of purpose, we become alienated from our work and find it harder to motivate... View Details

Keywords: by Marguerite Rigoglioso

26 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 26, 2019

gamification techniques to engage and motivate employees to learn. This study empirically examines the performance consequences of gamified training by conducting a field experiment in a professional... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

03 May 2021
What Do You Think?

Where Does CEO Activism Go From Here?

or product doing what is, on balance, good for the business? Will their identification with an issue attract more customers than it drives away? Will it attract the kind of employee who shares the values implied by the CEO’s position? Of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2015

stay grounded executives must prepare themselves to confront enormous complexities and pressures. How to Demotivate Your Best Employees (11,975) Many companies hand out awards such as "employee of the month," but do they work to... View Details

28 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World

It's that paradox—that struggle can be both something to overcome on the way to success and something to embrace for the meaning it gives our lives—that motivated Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Badaracco to take a closer look at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Sep 2009
What Do You Think?

Are Retention Bonuses Worth the Investment?

if an employer provides some special training/skill to an employee that increases his market value substantially ." Naseem Khan suggested that " a retention bonus may be doled out in lieu of base pay increases." Steve... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

Publications