Publications

03 Jan 2018
News

Finding Faith in an NFL Locker Room

of family members, taking care of bills, managing personal relationships, balancing work-life with family. You've got a lot of players who are married, that have children. And spend a lot of time away from... View Details

July–August 2020
Article

Make the Most of Your Relocation

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury

Although the COVID-19 crisis has halted travel in recent months, geographic mobility has become critical for managers and knowledge workers hoping to advance in today’s globalized economy, and that trend is unlikely to reverse. Geographic mobility can pay off... View Details

Keywords: Relocation; Mobility; Personal Development and Career; Geographic Location; Work-Life Balance

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September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Compilation

Time Distribution and Interaction Patterns for PEARL Project Team: Work Patterns at Ditto (D)

By: Leslie A. Perlow

Provides data to enable students to analyze how software engineers spend their time. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Time Management; Work-Life Balance; Information Technology Industry

Career Coach

Doug Lester

expertise in helping the people he coaches craft a work-life narrative that is relevant and compelling to networks, future colleagues and key decision-makers. He coaches students and alumni with a wide variety of interests, with an... View Details

Keywords: Auto/Transportation/Logistics; Consumer Products; Education; Emerging Markets; Entertainment / Media; Entrepreneurship; Government; Health Care; Hospitality; Insurance; Publishing / Communications / Advertising; Real Estate; Retail; Social Enterprise; Technology

Web

Collections | Working Knowledge

Collections Featured Topics Managing the Business Essential insights on credit access, resilience, remote work, CEO tips, #MeToo lessons, and tech strategies for competitive leadership. Career and Workplace Get expert insights on workplace challenges and career... View Details

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Secret to Success: Go for “Just Enough”

"Success has always been an American preoccupation, but the definition of success takes on a new urgency today, when every conventional measure of success seems to have a faster burn rate than ever before," say Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson. The HBS faculty... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Nash & Howard Stevenson

November 2018 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Mellody Hobson at Ariel Investments

By: Francesca Gino and Lakshmi Ramarajan

In 2018, Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, the largest minority-owned investment firm in the United States, was considering how best to divide her time and use her position and personal characteristics to push for positive change at her firm and in... View Details

Keywords: Female Protagonist; African-American Protagonist; Investment Management; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Work-Life Balance; Financial Services Industry; Chicago

Career Coach

Annette Rodriguez-Ferrer

equity, managing career transitions and juggling work-life balance. She also has an expertise in coaching C-level executives of private equity backed businesses, given her years as an investor. Additionally, Annette has a passion for... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products; Entrepreneurship; Impact Investing; Financial Services (All); Investment Banking; Financial Services (All); Investment Management; Financial Services (All); Private Equity; Financial Services (All); Health Care; Retail; Startup - Founder; Entrepreneurship; Startup - Joiner; Entrepreneurship

August 2020
Case

Sheena Gupta (A)

By: Leslie Perlow and Matthew Preble

Sheena Gupta (A) is a first-person narrative of a Harvard Business School alumna (class of 2008) who has thoughtfully and purposefully crafted the various components of her life in a way that aligns with her personal values and needs. Gupta shares her life story, and... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance

July 2012
Case

Revenue Solutions, LLC

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Ari Wasserman and Nick Esayian were both dissatisfied with their future prospects in their current careers. Wasserman, who managed an infomercial business for a direct response consumer marketing company, wanted more flexibility and ownership. Esayian was the CEO of... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Partners and Partnerships; Small Business; Israel; United States

10 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID's Surprising Toll on Careers of Women Scientists

COVID-19 is claiming an unexpected career toll among scientific researchers, and particularly on women, new research shows. If you are female, have young children, or work in a lab, you are more likely to feel the career-crunching effects dealt by the pandemic,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Pharmaceutical; Biotechnology; Health

22 Nov 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Explaining the Persistence of Gender Inequality: The Work-Family Narrative as a Social Defense against the 24/7 Work Culture

Keywords: by Irene Padavic, Robin J. Ely, and Erin M. Reid

24 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Who Sets Your Benchmarks?

Editor's note:When it comes to improving your leadership abilities, Professor Robert Steven Kaplan is a big believer in starting with a look in the mirror. In fact, he wrote a book on that subject: What To Ask The Person In The Mirror: Critical Questions For Becoming A... View Details

January–February 2024
Article

The Challenge of Maintaining Passion for Work over Time: A Daily Perspective on Passion and Emotional Exhaustion

By: Joy Bredehorst, Kai Krautter, Jirs Meuris and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Passion for work is highly coveted, but many employees report struggling to maintain their passion over time. In the current research, we explain the challenge of pursuing passion by conceptualizing passion as an attribute with temporal variation. Viewed through a... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Work-Life Balance; Employees; Emotions

February 2014
Article

Toward a Model of Work Redesign for Better Work and Better Life

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Erin L. Kelly

Flexible work accommodations provided by employers purport to help individuals struggling to manage work and family demands. The underlying model for change is accommodation—helping individuals accommodate their work demands with no changes in the structure of work or... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Work-Life Balance

May 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Carol Fishman Cohen: Professional Career Reentry (A)

By: Myra M. Hart, Robin J. Ely and Susan Wojewoda

Explores the career challenges facing highly successful women who leave the full-time workforce for several years to manage family commitments. Carol Cohen is a 1985 Harvard MBA who has professional line experience in a manufacturing environment, followed by a... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships

2024
White Paper

Hidden Workers: The Case for Caregivers

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman and Francis Hintermann

Keywords: Labor; Work-Life Balance; Selection and Staffing; Retention

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October 2013
Article

Shattering the Myth of Separate Worlds: Negotiating Non-Work Identities at Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid

How much of our self is defined by our work? Fundamental changes in the social organization of work are destabilizing the relationship between work and the self. As a result, parts of the self traditionally considered outside the domain of work, i.e., "non-work"... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Diversity; Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Work-Life Balance