Interpersonal Communication - Publications - Faculty & Research

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

02 May 2016
Research & Ideas

Why People Don’t Vote--and How a Good Ground Game Helps

Democracy has a dirty little secret. Despite the fever pitch over presidential primaries this year, the truth is there are few people actually voting. Before the most recent round of voting, only some 11 percent of eligible Democrats voted in the primaries, and the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Communications; Communications

15 Mar 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Backhanded Compliments: How Negative Comparisons Undermine Flattery

Keywords: by Ovul Sezer, Alison Wood Brooks, and Michael I. Norton

2025
Book

Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves

By: Alison Wood Brooks

We all struggle with difficult conversations, but we're often not very good at easy ones either. Though we do it all the time, conversation is one of the most complex, demanding, and delicate of all human tasks, rife with possibilities for misinterpretation and... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Find at Harvard

Purchase

September 20, 2019
Editorial

Why Asking for Advice Is More Effective Than Asking for Feedback

By: Jaewon Yoon, Hayley Blunden, Ariella S. Kristal and A.V. Whillans

Conventional wisdom says you should ask your colleagues for feedback. However, research suggests that feedback often has no (or even a negative) impact on our performance. This is because the feedback we receive is often too vague—it fails to highlight what we can... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Advice; Advice Seeking; Feedback Culture; Advice Taking; Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Find at Harvard

Read Now

June 1979
Background Note

Developing Skill in Listening

By: Arthur N. Turner

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Find at Harvard

1981
Chapter

Explanation and Social Interaction: Some Dialogues on Dialogue

By: R. F. Kidd and T. M. Amabile

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Society

Citation

Article

The Errors of Experts: When Expertise Hinders Effective Provision and Seeking of Advice and Feedback

By: Ting Zhang, Kelly Harrington and Elad Sherf

To be effective, experts need to simultaneously develop others (i.e. provide advice and feedback to novices) and advance their own learning (i.e. seek and incorporate advice and feedback from others). However, expertise, and the state of efficacy associated with it,... View Details

Keywords: Expertise; Self-efficacy; Feedback; Perspective Taking; Cognitive Entrenchment; Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Find at Harvard

February 1997
Background Note

Principles of Effective Persuasion

Summarizes six principles of effective persuasion. A rewritten version of an earlier note. View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Educators

Purchase

October 1974 (Revised November 1975)
Background Note

Understanding and Helping Another Person

By: John J. Gabarro

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Find at Harvard

December 2015
Case

Difficult Conversations and Dealing with Challenging Situations at Work: The Friend Who Asked for Feedback

By: Boris Groysberg and Ann Leamon

Keywords: Feedback; Organization Behavior; Interpersonal Communication; Organizations

Citation

Educators

Purchase

November 2019
Case

The Boss Has the Wrong Idea: Confidential Role Material for Lee Clancy

By: Katherine Coffman, Kathleen McGinn, Judith A. Clair and Katherine Chen

“The Boss Has the Wrong Idea” is a two-person conversation exercise in which an MBA student seeks advice from a mentor in her field about how to handle an incident of workplace sexual harassment. The case consists of two confidential role materials: a role for the... View Details

Keywords: Sexual Harassment; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture

Citation

Educators

Purchase

November 2019
Case

The Boss Has the Wrong Idea: Confidential Role Material for Julia Smith

By: Katherine Coffman, Kathleen McGinn, Judith A. Clair and Katherine Chen

“The Boss Has the Wrong Idea” is a two-person conversation exercise in which an MBA student seeks advice from a mentor in her field about how to handle an incident of workplace sexual harassment. The case consists of two confidential role materials: a role for the... View Details

Keywords: Sexual Harassment; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture

Citation

Educators

Purchase

11 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Sexual Harassment: What Employers Should Do Now

reviews, should never be conducted by one person alone. “Think about it. Every major corporation does not have the CEO interviewed alone. There’s always a corporate communications person and others in the room,” she says. “How hard would... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 1972 (Revised September 1976)
Background Note

Understanding Another Person, Part II: Some Aspects of Self-Concept

By: Anthony Athos and John J. Gabarro

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Find at Harvard

18 Mar 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Thanks for Nothing: Expressing Gratitude Invites Exploitation by Competitors

Keywords: by Jeremy Yip, Kelly Kiyeon Lee, Cindy Chan, and Alison Wood Brooks

16 Mar 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Amount and Diversity of Digital Emotional Expression Predicts Happiness

Keywords: by Laura Vuillier, Alison Wood Brooks, June Gruber, Rui Sun, Michael I. Norton, Matthew James Samson, Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Paul Piff, Sarah Fan, Jordi Quoidbach, Charles Gorintin, Pete Fleming, Arturo Bejar, and Dacher Keltner

03 Nov 2022
Op-Ed

Feeling Separation Anxiety at Your Startup? 5 Tips to Soothe These Growing Pains

You’re the founder of a growing startup and it seems like just yesterday that you were a team of five, sharing a co-working space with one table and five chairs. There was an open flow of communication in the room and unless someone’s... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin