Professional Identity - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 6

residential real estate and away from more productive investments. Third, the cost of professional investment management is too high, which drains talent from other industries. The financial sector could promote the health and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Current working papers

Organizational restructuring: the influence of formal and informal structure on tie formation. This paper considers how changes in formal structure and a key element of informal structure – the embeddedness of employee... View Details

22 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Salespeople Struggle at Leading

success—strategies that could be applied in a variety of business departments. 1. Managers must assume a new professional identity. It’s crucial for managers to acknowledge they are shedding one professional... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers

the same thing: A significant percentage of customers preferred the revamped product, even if it was identical or worse than an unchanged counterpart. In one study, the researchers asked participants to sample two gummy candies, and they... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Consumer Products; Retail

May 2024
Case

Choosing the Course of Passion: Brooke Boyarsky Pratt at knownwell

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Alexis Lefort

Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS ’13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years,... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Career; Career Planning; Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Mission and Purpose; Identity; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Industry; United States

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15 Nov 2022
Op-Ed

Why TikTok Is Beating YouTube for Eyeball Time (It’s Not Just the Dance Videos)

to create social media, whose audiences voluntarily gave up their privacy. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat require you to sign in, making your identity known to the platform. Users’ interests can be inferred from the interests of their... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

04 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life

conclusion that many marketing professionals are likely to resist: There is a vital interplay between the challenge a brand faces and the culture of the corporation that owns it. When brand and culture fall out of alignment, both brand... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Food & Beverage

07 Jun 2021
Book

9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

and Beyond F. Warren McFarlan Making the Ask One of the hardest questions to address is do you ask a prospective donor for a specific dollar number and if so, how high should that number be? (For the record, professional fundraisers say... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

as identity work and show how subtle forms of gender bias in the culture and in organizations interfere with the identity work of women leaders. Based on this insight, we revisit traditional approaches to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Managers, Your Employees Don’t Want to Be Facebook ‘Friends’

online—and which we don’t. First, the research team looked at 2014 Pew Research Center survey data, showing that two-thirds of professionals on Facebook say they’ve connected with colleagues online. Next, they surveyed 513 full-time View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Kim Raczka

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

differences in either the quality or the nature of the output. But when a benchmarker like Hackett extends this methodology to support services or shared service departments, it assumes (without explicitly stating) that such departments are all offering View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

10 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Key to Doing Your Best at Work? Be Yourself

John, the charismatic chief marketing officer of Netflix (once described by Buzzfeed as the “coolest” person to ever go onstage at an Apple event). Research shows being true to who you are leads to greater professional performance and... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

06 Mar 2020
Book

A Great Teacher's Lessons for Leading

educators, teachers, and role models. They see themselves as administrators and their identity is not based on teaching. All I am inviting them to do is to reflect and ask themselves how their day would unfold differently if they saw... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

including the potential to transform a business sector. The top-rated teams have the chance to present their ideas in front of a panel of judges, each of whom has achieved aesthetic star power in their own professional domain. This year’s... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

10 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

police, telling these kids what to do.” That observation led to another insight: Tutors, charged with pushing behavioral standards associated with a college-bound, middle-class, professional culture, were questioning their role in the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

Kanter says. Gibson, who was not well-known in Miami when she began her startup quest, came across financial and real estate professionals who had never known someone like her. They had trouble seeing a Black woman as someone who could... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

Linda Hill's book for the star performer-turned-new-manager, Becoming a Manager: Mastery of a New Identity appeared a decade ago to much acclaim. Much of the original book is still fresh today. But a new edition, Becoming a Manager: How... View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

working parents and eldercare providers) or those interested in similar topics (baking or jigsaw puzzles) share information, recipes, items for sale or barter, and the like. Keep such forums tied to the organization’s identity and... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

also attempting to raise awareness about gender inequality for early- and mid-career professionals as well as women at the senior executive level. Although significant progress has been made over the past 50 years, women still hold only a... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders

The U.S. Army is one of the best training institutions in the world, says HBS professor Scott A. Snook, a retired Army colonel. How does the Army develop leaders? Snook discusses his new book, Making Sense of Officership: Developing a View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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