Publications

November 2018 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Universal Basic Income, Job Guarantees, or None of the Above?

By: William R. Kerr, Reilly Kiernan and Jordan Bach-Lombardo

How can policymakers and business leaders address AI and automation's potential for widespread labor market displacement? This case examines potential policy responses, looking closely at the United States' existing social safety net and the impacts of implementing... View Details

Keywords: UBI; Job Guarantee; Managing The Future Of Work; EITC; Employment; Labor; Social Issues; Income; Government and Politics; Policy; Problems and Challenges

Web

how to get local responsibility on the part of those engaged in operating different arms of the system,” wrote Charles E. Perkins, President of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad.²⁵

October 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Background Note

Modern Automation (B): Robotics

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

Driven largely by advances in perception and situational awareness, robots in the 2010s were gaining functionality that allowed them to be applied to fundamentally new types of work. The expanding range of new tasks that could be completed by machines had significant... View Details

Keywords: Robotics; Artificial Intelligence; Future Of Work; Technology Commercialization; Information Technology; Commercialization; Employment; AI and Machine Learning

2020
Working Paper

Inventing the Endless Frontier: The Effects of the World War II Research Effort on Post-War Innovation

By: Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat

During World War II, the U.S. government launched an unprecedented effort to mobilize science for war: a newly-established Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) entered thousands of R&D contracts with industrial and academic contractors, spending one to... View Details

Keywords: World War II; Vannevar Bush; OSRD; Mission-oriented R＆D; Direction Of Innovation; Geography Of Innovation; Technology Clusters; U.S. Innovation System; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges; War; History; Government Administration; United States

SSRN

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May 2019 (Revised February 2022)
Background Note

The Gig Economy: Leasing Skills to Pay the Bills

By: Joseph Fuller, William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

This primer provides a comprehensive exploration into the gig economy and how it is reshaping global business. It shows how the Uber driver, the freelancing programmer in India, and the independent corporate consultant are all different variants of the modern-day gig... View Details

Keywords: Gig Economy; COVID-19 Pandemic; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Labor; Strategy; Management; Globalization; North America; Europe; United States; United Kingdom

January 2020 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Freelancer, Ltd.

By: Christopher Stanton, Karim R. Lakhani, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Jin Hyun Paik and Nina Cohodes

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Freelancers; Platforms; Digital Labor; Labor; Human Resources; Management; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Industry; Australia; United States; Philippines

November 2020
Teaching Note

Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr and Bailey McAfee

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 820-104. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Human Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Transformation; Human Resources; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

January 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

AT&T Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr

By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning in the mid-1910s, the company began changing from manually operated switchboards to mechanical switching systems that... View Details

Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

September 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Collage.com: Scaling a Distributed Organization

By: Christopher Stanton and Shikhar Ghosh

Kevin Borders and Joe Golden, co-founders and co-CEOs of Collage.com, must decide how to grow their custom photo-products startup in the face of fierce competition. From 2011 through 2016, the business evolved from a hobby to a startup with $22 million in revenue and... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Employees; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry

2022
White Paper

The American Opportunity Index: A Corporate Scorecard of Worker Advancement

By: Matt Sigelman, Joseph Fuller, Nik Dawson and Gad Levanon

The American Opportunity Index: A Corporate Scorecard of Worker Advancement is a new effort to give companies and other stakeholders a set of robust tools that measure how well major employers are doing in fostering economic mobility for workers and how they could do... View Details

Keywords: Upward Mobility; Career Advancement; Personal Development and Career; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Wages; Human Capital; Recruitment

Read Now

May 2019
Background Note

Geographic Inequality Primer

By: William Kerr, Joseph Fuller, Manjari Raman and Donald Maruyama

There are large and persistent divides between urban centers and rural areas in America due in part to structural causes. This primer focuses on the demographic differences between urban and rural areas within the United States and the unique challenges facing rural... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Rural; Development; Equality and Inequality; Demographics; Rural Scope; Urban Scope; Development Economics; Problems and Challenges; Globalization; United States

September 2019
Technical Note

Care Economy in the U.S. (Primer)

By: Joseph B. Fuller, William R. Kerr, Manjari Raman and Carl Kreitzberg

This case describes how caregiving responsibilities influence American employees, firms, and the broader economy. It details how sociodemographic trends in the late 20th century transformed the way that Americans balance their personal and professional lives, analyzing... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Demographics; Labor; Health Care and Treatment; Family and Family Relationships; Strategy; Management; United States

May 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Background Note

Managing Talent Pipelines in the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman and Carl Kreitzberg

In the face of a rapidly-changing economy, organizations that wish to compete in the future of work must develop strategies for acquiring, retaining, and developing talent for their organizations. This primer reviews the major trends shaping jobs, workplaces, and... View Details

Keywords: Future Of Work; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Demographics; Labor; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Quality; Supply Chain