Work Environment - Publications - Faculty & Research

11 May 2015
Research & Ideas

A Road Map to Fix America’s Transportation Infrastructure

Any highway commuter who has wasted hours stuck in traffic can see the cracks in the United States' transportation system, as can any airline passenger who has been stranded overnight in an airport. Yet while many agree that the need for infrastructure change is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation

23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

technology, health and consumer care, and renewable energy. His scope of work to date encompasses the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Philippines, Canada, and multiple African countries. In our... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

Who will solve the great problems facing humanity, a list of critical issues that only begins with the current pandemic? In the interview below, Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses her recent book, Think Outside the Building, and her view that solutions are most likely to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Dec 2015
Op-Ed

How "New Nuclear" Power Could Save the Planet—If Regulators Would Allow It

Leaders from some 150 nations have convened in Paris this week for the COP21 conference with a singular goal: to fight the global threat of climate change. Each of them have brought to Paris their own national plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that drive... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Lassiter; Energy

05 Jun 2013
What Do You Think?

Do We Need to Extend ‘No Surprises Management?’

employees in the dark and constantly surprising them is a serious form of disrespect." Bert Baker linked it to integrity with this comment: "When I know that my manager is a person of integrity, then I know they will not surprise me My View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Market Investors Pay More for Resilient Companies

The steep market drop in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis is being used as a laboratory to study the importance of companies investing in stakeholder relations with their employees, suppliers, and customers, and how those investments could be strategic resources... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

18 Oct 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Venture Capital’s Disconnect with Clean Tech

MBA students often fall into one of two categories—those hungry to rush into careers as venture capitalists, and those eager to found a venture-funded start-up. For all of them, Harvard Business School professor Joseph Lassiter has some intriguing advice: Spend a few... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities; Financial Services

08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

Warmth and competence represent the central dimensions of group stereotypes, the majority of which are ambivalent-characterizing groups as warm but incompetent (e.g., older people, working mothers) or competent but cold (e.g., model... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Do I Dare Say Something?

Managers need to hear from the people in the organization who are closest to the work, closest to the customers—that is, from those who are in the best position to recognize problems and have new ideas. Q: What kind of work View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

02 Apr 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs?

Summing Up Are there too many "hostages" in the work force? Before turning to responses to this month's column, let me note that this marks the tenth anniversary of "What Do You Think?" I want to thank all of you for... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Stuck in Gear: Why Managers Don’t Act

For want of a better idea, many companies often rely on a tried-and-true success formula. And why not? What worked before to pull their organization into profitability will surely work again, right? Not so,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs

A few years ago anyone could become an entrepreneur. All you needed was a half-baked idea and a phone to hear offers from salivating venture capitalists. Now the environment is much more difficult. Question: Do you have what it takes to... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kuemmerle

10 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Cross-Sector Collaboration: Lessons from the International Trachoma Initiative

working paper then examines, in detail, critical elements of the partnering process: connection, congruency of mission and strategy, creation of value, and relationship management. The following excerpt describes the importance of... View Details

Keywords: by Diana Barrett, James Austin & Sheila McCarthy

16 Dec 2002
Lessons from the Classroom

Marrying Distance and Classroom Education

In an interview with HBS Working Knowledge editor Sean Silverthorne, Harvard Business School professor Dorothy Leonard and research assistant Brian DeLacey discuss their research and the recent Adult Learning Workshop held at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

19 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding Innovation: Is Your Firm Doing it Wrong?

developing nations. Their natural instinct is to throw money at innovation. But before they do that, they need to get the environment right. Ultimately, the success and failure of innovation within these firms is probably going to be... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Jan 2011
Op-Ed

Funding Unpredictability Around Stem-Cell Research Inflicts Heavy Cost on Scientific Progress

promising projects. Great people will leave basic research and move to more predictable pastures. And some great young people will decide not to go into research careers at all. The precipitous shift in the legal and regulatory View Details

Keywords: by William Sahlman; Biotechnology; Health; Pharmaceutical

02 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

The Curse of Double-Digit Growth

are not unequivocally a club that one should strive to join," writes Werker in his April 2013 working paper, Learning from Double-Digit Growth Experiences, published by the International Growth Centre at the London School of... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

25 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

A Few Firms Have Outsized Influence in D.C.

in the twisted web of Washington fundraising and lobbying that can definitively prove dollar x bought result y. Perhaps that's why there has been such little empirical research among economists on the issue. "The whole perspective of how firms influence policy... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Jun 2002
What Do You Think?

Are We Entering an Era of European Management Leadership?

Summing Up Readers of this month's column agree that there are marked differences in the social environment for management in Europe and the United States. In some parts of Europe, at least, they foster management policies that may... View Details