Publications

Educators

March 2014
Article

Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Work/life balance is at best an elusive ideal and at worst a complete myth, today's senior executives will tell you. But by making deliberate choices about which opportunities they'll pursue and which they'll decline, rather than simply reacting to emergencies, leaders... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Management Teams

01 Jun 2013
News

Lab Work

After 16 years at the Australian technology-transfer organization UniQuest, managing director David Henderson (MBA 1989) is moving on to new challenges. Looking back on the experience of shepherding technologies from the university to the... View Details

Keywords: immunology; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

August 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 1: Managing Organizational Tensions

By: Robert Simons

This module reading lays the foundation for executing strategy using performance measurement and control systems. Properly applied, these systems can overcome the organizational blocks that impede the potential of all people who work in modern organizations. This... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Performance Measurement; Profit Planning; Organization Design; Profitable Growth; Management Attention; Organizational Conflict; Human Behavior; Strategy; Ethics; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Design; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance; Measurement and Metrics

This study provides a comprehensive model of an agent’s behavior in response to multiple sales management instruments, including compensation, recruiting/termination, and training. The model takes into account many of the key elements that constitute a realistic... View Details

08 Jul 2015
What Do You Think?

Do Americans Work Too Much and Think About Work Too Little?

Summing Up Is Our Thinking About Work Outmoded? In spite of contrary evidence, there is still a popular belief that working more hours produces more results. People too often assume that being "at... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

Research Summary

Helping at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile

This research focuses on collaboration and helping in creative project teams. Colin Fisher (UCL), Julianna Pillemer (NYU Stern School), and I developed a multi-year research program examining help received and given, including successful and unsuccessful helping... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Helping; Creativity; Creative Industries

November 2021
Article

The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

By: Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim and Byoung G. Park

This study provides a comprehensive model of an agent’s behavior in response to multiple sales management instruments, including compensation, recruiting/termination, and training. The model on agents’ behavior takes into account many of the key elements that... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Compensation and Benefits; Resignation and Termination; Training; Behavior; Analysis

Read Now

01 Jun 2004
News

Working the Street

my time with the companies I worked for,” says Timken, who envisions returning to business (perhaps in Europe, perhaps with a start-up) when he retires from the El Monte force in ten years. “But when I... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; tattoo; removal; program; Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities; Government

TeachingInterests

Managing Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei

Managing Service Operations (MSO) focuses on how firms can deliver excellent service while achieving business success. This involves a deep understanding of customers, competitors, and the firm's internal mechanisms.

Career Focus

Managing Service... View Details

July–August 2020
Article

Sarcasm, Self-Deprecation, and Inside Jokes: A User's Guide to Humor at Work

By: Brad Bitterly and Alison Wood Brooks

Humor is widely considered essential in personal relationships, but in leaders, it’s seen as an ancillary behavior. Though some leaders use humor instinctively, many more could wield it purposefully. Humor helps build interpersonal trust and high-quality work... View Details

Keywords: Managing People; Humor; Leadership; Relationships

Read Now

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 05 Nov 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Product Management 101

A growing number of HBS graduates are product managers. Among MBA Class of 2013 and 2014 alumni, an estimated 5% work in product management in tech companies; another 6% are founders of tech startups who typically spend a majority of their time on product development.... View Details

23 Dec 2013
News

We can work it out

January 2012
Article

How Leaders Kill Meaning at Work

By: Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

Senior executives routinely undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees in four avoidable ways. This article is based on analysis of hundreds of work diaries from professionals describing everyday events that... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Creativity; Performance Productivity; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation Strategy; Performance; Strategic Planning; Leading Change; Balanced Scorecard; Mission and Purpose

Read Now

February 2024
Teaching Note

Accelerating with Caution: Forecasting and Managing birddogs' Growth (A) and (B)

By: Mark Egan

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 224-023 and 224-024. As 2017 was drawing to a close, birddogs’ founder and CEO, Peter Baldwin, was working with his CFO Jack Sullivan to prepare for 2018. A nascent direct-to-consumer apparel brand, birddogs had carved its niche in men’s... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Forecasting Demand; Financial Constraints; Apparel; Startups; Corporate Finance; Forecasting and Prediction; Working Capital; Financing and Loans; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Demand and Consumers; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States