Meaningfulness - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Should Share Their DEI Data (Even When It’s Unflattering)

presents disaggregated data, it’ll be obvious that you’ve massaged your data if you present it in aggregate.” Adds Balakrishnan: “Consumers are quite savvy.” You Might Also Like: Beyond the 'Business Case' in DEI: 6 Steps Toward View Details

Keywords: by Shalene Gupta

2024
Case

Christiana Figueres and the Paris Climate Negotiations (B)

By: James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Lara SanPietro and Mina Subramanian

This three-part, stop action case study, structured for classroom discussion, centers on Harvard’s Program on Negotiation 2022 Great Negotiator, Christiana Figueres, and her efforts as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Negotiation; Environmental Regulation; International Relations; Leadership

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August 2002
Article

Creativity Under the Gun

By: Teresa Amabile, Constance N. Hadley and Steven J. Kramer

If you're like most managers, you've worked with people who swear they do their most creative work under tight deadlines. You may use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur people on to great leaps of insight. You may even manage yourself this way.... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Innovation and Invention; Time Management; Working Conditions; Performance Evaluation

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26 Jun 2023
Research & Ideas

Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

ended with a satisfying conclusion. The data could prove especially meaningful at a time when marketing leaders are stretching their budgets and thinking more strategically about spending, according to recent surveys. “We ended up... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Entertainment & Recreation

06 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

How Younger Immigrants Gain an Edge in American Business

For refugees fleeing troubled regions as disparate as Afghanistan and Ukraine, finding meaningful work in the United States is not only key to their own success, but also crucial for businesses navigating labor shortages. New research... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

24 May 2021
Op-Ed

Can Fabric Waste Become Fashion’s Resource?

COVID-19 has broken fashion’s supply chain. As a result, an already wasteful industry has become more wasteful. Even before the pandemic, the global apparel industry was producing about 92 million tons of textile waste a year. That’s about one garbage truck’s worth of... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Shelly Xu; Fashion

03 Jun 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Eliciting Taxpayer Preferences Increases Tax Compliance

Keywords: by Cait Lamberton, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Michael I. Norton

06 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

and introspection because many people get into leadership roles in response to their ego needs. It enables them to transition from seeking external gratification to finding internal satisfaction by making meaningful contributions through... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2020
Working Paper

Anchors Aweigh: Analysis of Anchor Limited Partner Investors in Impact Investment Funds

By: Shawn A. Cole, T. Robert Zochowski, Fanele Mashwama and Heather McPherson

This note describes results from a survey of “anchor investors” in impact funds. Anchor investors are described as “generally the first investor to make a substantial capital commitment to a fund,” (according to the Global Impact Investing Network, “GIIN”) and their... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment Funds; Anchor Investors; Investment; Surveys; Analysis

Citation

31 Jan 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Diseconomies of Queue Pooling: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay

Keywords: by Hummy Song, Anita L. Tucker & Karen L. Murrell; Health

Research Summary

Growing as a Purposeful Leader

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Leaders today have to lead in the context of extraordinary changes and challenges. The demands of today's stakeholders have risen significantly, and what is expected of senior leaders is quickly evolving in terms of their mission (more than profit),... View Details

October 2020
Case

HOPE and Transformational Lending: Netflix Invests in Black Led Banks

By: John D. Macomber and Janice Broome Brooks

Following the killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day in 2020, the large US corporation Netflix elected to make a "transformational deposit" of $10 million into Hope Credit Union (HCU), a small Black led community development finance institution (CDFI) based in... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Rural Entrepreneurship; Economic Development; Black Entrepreneurs; Economic Growth; Credit; Banks and Banking; Entrepreneurship; Rural Scope; Development Economics; Race; Investment; Decision Making; Banking Industry

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Article

The Business Case for Investing in Physician Well-Being

By: Tait D. Shanafelt, Joel Goh and Christine A. Sinsky

Importance: Widespread burnout among physicians has been recognized for more than two decades. Extensive evidence indicates that physician burnout has important personal and professional consequences.
Observations: A lack of awareness regarding... View Details

Keywords: Physicians; Well-being; ROI; Health; Welfare or Wellbeing; Ethics; Investment Return; Health Industry

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07 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Effective Leaders Share the Spotlight with Their Teams

returns than firms with less inclusive leaders, the researchers say, providing “economically meaningful evidence that investors value inclusive CEOs.” When a company exchanged a less inclusive CEO for one who brings others into... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

24 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Passion at Work Is a Good Thing—But Only If Bosses Know How to Manage It

purpose. They want to build organizations that make a meaningful difference in the world.” At the same time, however, there may exist some nuanced differences, highlights Jachimowicz, “Leaders also recognize that employees who are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

06 Jul 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do We Pay for the Costs of Globalization?

like transportation, and develop an industry around it, with meaningful careers and a meaningful solution.” So in our small sample we have an answer to one of our questions: Should we encourage the... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett; Manufacturing

18 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

What Your Non-Binary Employees Need to Do Their Best Work

says. In fact, many traditional surveys often don’t reach enough respondents who identify as non-binary to create a meaningful sample. The research team used the platform Prolific, which specifically allowed them to recruit participants... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 May 2021
Book

Best Buy: How Human Connection Saved a Failing Retailer

difference in helping us shape our ambitious and meaningful purpose for Best Buy, a purpose that would drive our sustained success in the following years. Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from The Heart... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

September 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells, Carole A. Winkler and Benjamin Weinstock

In August 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The first major storm of protest followed the surprise election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016; many put the blame at the door of fake... View Details