Employee Motivation - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Jul 2009
What Do You Think?

Are You Ready to Manage in an Irrational World?

individual receives in relation to what he or she perceives and expects. Because this is highly subjective, the argument goes, generalizations (many of them currently taught in conventional courses) about how to manage are practically useless. Instead, managers should... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

change. Employee surveys, 360-degree feedback, interviews by external consultants, and even relatively honest one-to-one conversations between a key manager and the CEO (remember the courageous discussion Sherron Watkins had with Kenneth... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Get Off the Dime!

bit happy about that. I told him that I was very sorry and that we'd have a group of our people address the issues as soon as possible. He looked unimpressed even though I think it was obvious I was being sincere. "It's not as if I have never told your View Details

Keywords: by John P. Kotter & Dan S. Cohen

01 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

What it Takes to Lead Through Turmoil

When electronic component distributor Arrow decided it had to be on the Internet, it gave the Arrow.com team terrific new offices, hired young newcomers, and essentially sent a message to mainstay Arrow employees that they were now... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2011
Article

Meeting the Challenges of a Person-Centric Work Psychology

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

In this article, the authors discuss person-centric work psychology, a paradigm developed by H. M. Weiss and D. E. Rupp regarding daily work life psychology. They cited three challenges of the paradigm such as the collection, and analysis of data, the certainty of the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Social Psychology; Emotions; Perception; Motivation and Incentives

Citation

Find at Harvard

02 Mar 2020
News

Cheese Whiz

At Specialty Cheese Co. in Reeseville, Wisconsin, founder Paul Scharfman (MBA 1979) heads up a company that makes one of the state’s best-known exports: cheese. But as its name suggests, Specialty’s 250 employees manufacture products more... View Details

Keywords: manufacturing; labor; innovation; cheese; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

29 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Star Power! How to Win in Professional Services

are, after all, employees not partners; the decision and accountability ultimately accrue to the chief executive. As for the board of directors, only a stream of wrong decisions is likely to stir its concern. In contrast, in a PSF, the... View Details

Keywords: by Jay W. Lorsch & Thomas J. Tierney

15 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Rethinking E-Leadership

employees undeniable proof that the Industrial Age corporate culture is gone, and that you are creating an environment for the future. The way to do that is to blatantly and offensively break with the past through loud statements of... View Details

Keywords: by Melissa Raffoni

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Psychology, Pathology, and the CEO

without informing other departments, leading to waste and duplication. Respect among peers declined. Employees regularly went to the press to air grievances, reinforcing the BBC's culture of blame.— Rosabeth Moss Kanter BBC: In 1999, the... View Details

Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Blog

Why Does Your Company Exist?

motivating a diverse array of stakeholders. Sparked by the pandemic, employees have begun to seek greater meaning in going to work every day. In the midst of the resulting Great Resignation, companies are... View Details

02 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Spending on Happiness

happiness. We conducted a number of studies—from national surveys to a field study in which we examined how the manner in which employees at a Boston-based company spent a profit-sharing bonus impacted their long-term happiness—in which... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

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

01 Dec 2009
News

Noted & Quoted

feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself and not by external pressures.” — Professor Teresa Amabile, cited in an article noting that her research shows carrots and sticks don’t... View Details

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Pride Goeth Before a Profit

into a very powerful motivating force. In a tough economic environment, when there is little money for bonuses and a lot of concern about layoffs, Katzenbach says it becomes even more important to communicate with View Details

Keywords: by Theodore Kinni

01 Sep 2011
News

Taking That Hill

GM plant in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio, has held senior management positions at GM, TRW, MeadWestvaco, and BorgWarner and currently is a SVP at PPG Industries. Niekamp, who oversees about 4,000 employees in 18 countries in PPG’s... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Manufacturing; Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers; Retail Trade

08 May 2015
News

Adopting a common language can strengthen global companies

language must also equip their employees to work together more effectively,” she says. According to Neeley, common-language mandates tend to be poorly implemented, leaving employees feeling diminished and... View Details

03 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

5 New Year's Resolutions You Can Keep (With the Help of Behavioral Science Research)

savings plans made people less likely to save for retirement. Instead of being motivated by their peers’ admirable investment activity, they were demoralized. As writer Christian Camerota explains in an article about the research:... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

27 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

IBM Finds Profit in Diversity

understand differences among the groups and find ways to appeal to a broader set of employees and customers," according to HBS professor David A. Thomas. Since then, the number of female executives in the company has grown by 370... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Thomas

August 2020
Article

Workplace Knowledge Flows

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

We conducted a field experiment in a sales firm to test whether improving knowledge flows between coworkers affects productivity. Our design allows us to compare different management practices and to isolate whether frictions to knowledge transmission primarily reside... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Interpersonal Communication; Employees; Performance Productivity; Sales; Motivation and Incentives

Citation

Find at Harvard

Read Now

January 2011 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Development and Promotion at North Atlantic Hospital

By: Boris Groysberg, Lisa Leffert, Kerry Herman and Libby Williams

Dr. Elizabeth Harris, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology (DA) at North Atlantic Hospital (NAH), faces several significant challenges. Staff satisfaction surveys confirmed her assessment that department faculty morale was low, the tenure and promotion system was... View Details

Keywords: Training; Employees; Retention; Performance Evaluation; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase