by HBS Working Knowledge - Publications - Faculty & Research

September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000-person global workforce, had raised concerns of... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

04 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Web Surfing Distracting Your Workers?

according to new research. The researchers found that the students facing temptation were more apt to make mistakes and were less productive By banning web surfing, employers are essentially asking their workers to resist temptation until... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

and ultimately an excellent journey to learning effective leadership skills in The Adventures of an IT Leader (Harvard Business Press). According to the novel's creators, a fictional approach allowed them to blend real-life incidents they had encountered as managers,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

14 Jun 2023
Op-Ed

Every Company Should Have These Leaders—or Develop Them if They Don't

We’ve long known that organizations require so-called flexible leaders to respond to rapid market fluctuations; the last couple of years have only emphasized that necessity. The environment we operate in—shaped by the pandemic, social... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson

03 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go?

These “frictions of geographic mobility,” as he calls them, could be solved by a work-from-anywhere approach. To be clear, this isn’t necessarily about working from home in your loungewear 20 minutes from... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?

for the pricing of bids made by its foreign subsidiaries. The company believed that its U.S.-based executives would be more effective in making pricing decisions because they had a broader purview of the company's needs. But the time... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

30 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Looking Behind Bad Decisions

African government take a stand against an effective AIDS treatment drug? The inability of government to make wise tradeoffs—give up small losses for much larger gain—has been investigated by HBS professor... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

18 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Learning in Action

well-known consultants and CAP was born. Participants come to CAP in teams of eight to twelve people with a real problem to solve. At Welch's insistence, the problems are "need to do; not nice to do." Each team works with a coach, a... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin

18 Dec 2019
Book

6 Skills That Wise Companies Harness for World-Changing Innovation

Unit. From practical wisdom to action The book expands on the authors’ original theory that companies build organizational knowledge by turning tacit knowledge, which people learn through personal... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

18 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

No More General Tso's? A Threat to 'Knowledge Recombination'

this knowledge transfer that it moves from one geography to another.” Innovation transferred There are two reasons for that delay, he says. The first is uncertainty for all involved about whether knowledge... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Food & Beverage; Accounting

13 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Experimental Researcher Helps Improve Health Care in Zambia

Sometimes big ideas start with small experiments. That's been the experience of Harvard Business School professor Nava Ashraf, whose experimental approach to research in developing countries has produced insights that have influenced government policies. Ashraf, an... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Health

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historical Perspective: Levitt Shaped the Debate

Harvard Business School professors Richard S. Tedlow and Rawi Abdelal, who provided a historical perspective on Levitt's work at the Globalization of Markets colloquium held May 28-30. The twentieth-year anniversary of the article has... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

20 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Markets or Communities? The Best Ways to Manage Outside Innovation

potential loss of secrecy. Many worry that core intellectual property (IP) might be compromised by working with outside innovators. While this is a theoretical possibility, the advantages gained in terms of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

Arthur Brooks: Spirituality and philosophy This March, I returned from my fifth trip to Dharamshala, India, to work with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. We held a conference on how leadership and happiness principles are entwined.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

The cult of the CEO is complex and persistent—and usually not good for business, says HBS professor Rakesh Khurana. Khurana recently fielded questions from HBS Working View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

08 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Silos That Work: How the Pandemic Changed the Way We Collaborate

Employers were so impressed with how smoothly their employees handled remote work during the dramatic lockdowns in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that many are going permanently remote, ditching expensive office leases and... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

10 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Being Your Own Boss Can Pay Off, but Not Always with Big Pay

areas, but there are fewer success stories today. At the macro level, the profit squeeze is just hard.” The working paper was co-written by HBS doctoral student Innessa... View Details