Publications

2024
White Paper

Healthy Outcomes: How Employers' Support for Employees with Caregiving Responsibilities Can Benefit the Organization

By: Joseph B. Fuller

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Performance Productivity; Employees; Human Capital

1997
Book

Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices

By: Leslie Perlow

Why do Americans work so hard? Are the long hours spent at work really necessary to increase organizational productivity? Perlow documents the work life of employees who assume that for their own success and the success of their organization they must put in extended... View Details

Keywords: Time Management; Working Conditions; Work-Life Balance; Performance Productivity

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

Educators

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

Educators

May 27, 2022
Article

How 'Digital Nomad' Visas Can Boost Local Economies

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury

More and more companies are offering their employees the option to “work from anywhere,” whether in their home office, in another state, or even halfway around the globe. A growing group of remote professionals are taking the “anywhere” in work-from-anywhere to new... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; COVID-19 Pandemic; Collaboration; Work-Life Balance; Human Resources; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

Register to Read

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

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

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

November 2009
Case

An Entrepreneur's Journey: Simi Nwogugu

By: John A. Davis and Shirley Spence

This multimedia case follows Simi Nwogugu's life from childhood in Lagos, Nigeria to Mount Holyoke and Wall Street, back to Lagos to found a chapter of Junior Achievement, through marriage and HBS to motherhood and disenchantment with opportunities for mothers in the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Customization and Personalization; Business Ventures; Nigeria; United States

Educators

Article

From Wealth to Well-Being? Money Matters, but Less than People Think

By: Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn

While numerous studies have documented the modest (though reliable) link between household income and well-being, we examined the accuracy of laypeople's intuitions about this relationship by asking people from across the income spectrum to report their own... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Work-Life Balance; Satisfaction; Income; Household

August 2020
Supplement

Sheena Gupta (B)

By: Leslie Perlow and Matthew Preble

Sheena Gupta (B) provides a brief update to how Gupta is thinking about crafting her life in context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. View Details

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

October 2009
Article

Making Time Off Predictable—and Required

By: Leslie Perlow and Jessica L. Porter

People in professional services believe a 24/7 work ethic is essential for getting ahead—and so they work 60-plus hours a week and stay tethered to their BlackBerrys. This perpetuates a vicious cycle: Responsiveness breeds the need for more responsiveness. When people... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Performance Expectations; Performance Productivity; Work-Life Balance; Service Industry

May 1990 (Revised April 1995)
Teaching Note

Karen Green, Teaching Note

By: Linda A. Hill

The video depicts Karen Green, a manager in her early thirties, on a company retreat. She is being considered for a project manager position, a promotion she does not receive. During the retreat, the circumstances that influenced the decision become evident. The... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Power and Influence

29 Aug 2024
Blog Post

Exploring Sustainable Energy: A Visit to Vestas Wind Turbine Manufacturing in Odense, Denmark

Cultural Dynamics: A Danish Approach to Work-Life Balance Beyond the impressive machinery and manufacturing prowess, this visit also gave us unique insight into the cultural dynamics that define Vestas'... View Details

September 2003
Module Note

Managing the Competing Goals of Work and Life

By: Leslie A. Perlow

Outlines how instructors can facilitate discussion within the Managing the Competing Goals of Work and Life module to encourage students to begin a process of self-assessment that focuses on personal values, career development needs, and workplace culture. View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Work-Life Balance; Value

April 2005 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Ilene Lang and the Catalyst Search (A)

By: Myra M. Hart and Laura L. Nash

Catalyst, the nonprofit organization dedicated to championing women in professional ranks, is searching for a new president--only the third in its 42-year history. Ilene Lang, a corporate executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in high-tech... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Nonprofit Organizations; Work-Life Balance; Job Search; Gender; Service Industry

27 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

IBM Finds Profit in Diversity

Like many companies, IBM took big strides to eliminate discrimination by attempting to ignore cultural, racial, and other differences among its vast worldwide workforce. That ended when Lou Gerstner became CEO. Gerstner initiated a diversity task-force initiative that... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Thomas

July 1997
Case

Graffs, The (B)

By: Carl S. Sloane and Gregory C. Rogers

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Conflict Management