Work Environment - Publications - Faculty & Research

October 20, 2023
Article

How ENGOs Can Support Corporate Climate Change Efforts

Nearly half of CEOs view climate change as affecting their companies now or within the coming decade, but there is also a wide gap between what CEOs say is progress on tackling climate change and what many of their investors believe are effective actions. Companies... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Shareholder Relations

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10 Jan 2022
News

The Secret Ingredient of Thriving Companies? Human Magic.

January 1992 (Revised August 1992)
Case

Lexon Corp. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

A general manager at Lexon Computer Corp. must decide whether interception and surveillance of employees' e-mail is acceptable company practice, and whether to follow the advice of his computer operations manager who wants to fire the person who complained that the... View Details

Keywords: Information; Rights; Managerial Roles; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Ethics; Computer Industry

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12 May 2023
Video

Students Strive to Solve Climate Change

January 10, 2022
Article

The Secret Ingredient of Thriving Companies? Human Magic

By: Hubert Joly

The traditional corporate approach to motivating people has been a combination of carrots and sticks: a system of financial incentives designed to mobilize everyone around a plan designed by a few smart people at the top. Multiple studies have confirmed that, for any... View Details

Keywords: Meaning; Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Performance

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October 2014
Article

The Transparency Trap

By: Ethan Bernstein

To get people to be more creative and productive, managers increase transparency with open workspaces and access to real-time data. But less transparent work environments can yield more-transparent employees. Employees perform better when they can try out new ideas and... View Details

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March 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Office of Technology Transfer - Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences

By: Willy Shih, Sen Chai, Kamen Bliznashki and Courtney Hyland

Gordon Zong is trying to teach Chinese universities and research institutes how to do effective technology transfer and IP licensing, but he is trying to do it in an environment with weak property rights and an underdeveloped support infrastructure. As the managing... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Patents; Knowledge Management; Law Enforcement; Business and Government Relations; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

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When leaders seek out advice, they’re often told to fix themselves. But should they? Leaders are constantly being told to develop their strengths, mine their failures for insight into what to change, and work to correct real or perceived... View Details

07 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Cry in Front of Your Boss

field like social work that usually has a higher tolerance for emotional displays? “Where [reframing] really helps is if you’re in an environment where emotion isn’t acceptable,” Wolf says. “If you’re in an... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

15 Mar 2021
Blog Post

REFLECTIONS ON MY TIME AS BEI DIRECTOR

about business and environment for nearly five decades, and much of this work has been highly influential. But from my perspective, at least three things are very different now compared to when I began five... View Details

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting It Done: Improving Nonprofit Performance

easier to achieve in a for-profit organization than in a comparable nonprofit," he writes in a recent working paper, "Philanthropic Social Capital Markets and Performance-Driven Philanthropy," and the most important reason is capital. "It... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner

Research Summary

Overview

By: John Beshears

In his research, Professor Beshears shows how managers can influence the behavior of customers and employees by changing the decision-making environment to call attention to a decision, to use psychological framing to shape assessments of options, or to help... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Consumer Finance; Household Finance; Health Care; Organizational Economics; Decision Making; Economics; Negotiation; Behavioral Finance

Eugene F. Soltes

Eugene Soltes is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School where his work focuses on corporate integrity and risk management. His research utilizes data analytics to identify organizational cultures and compliance systems that can effectively... View Details

21 Mar 2024
Blog Post

SVMP Gave Me the Courage to Fail

of the student speeches at our closing ceremony. Despite my initial fears, SVMP provided me with a safe environment to grow in this regard, too. The courage to fail at leading internal case teams. At the start of the program, we were... View Details

August 2020
Teaching Note

Sesame Workshop (C): Mission Critical Responses to Global and National Crises

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim

Teaching Note for Case No. 321-016. Beginning in March 2020, Sesame Workshop navigated a global pandemic, which caused unemployment, businesses shutdowns, school closures, and remote work environments along with a racial justice crisis, with a renewed mission that led... View Details

Keywords: Pandemic; Children; Health Pandemics; Social Issues; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Education; Leadership; Education Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry

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2006
Working Paper

Defining the Attributes and Processes that Enhance the Effectiveness of Workforce Diversity Initiatives in Knowledge Intensive Firms

By: Modupe Akinola and David A. Thomas

Workforce diversity continues to be a key focus for organizations, driven by globalization of the U.S. economy and the desire for organizations to more accurately reflect the demographic diversity of the US population. Yet, most research on diversity in organizations... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Globalization; Employees; Retention; Knowledge Sharing; Research; United States

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Research Summary

Strategic Human Capital

My research focuses on the links between managerial background, job attributes, organizational/firm characteristics, and firm performance. Broadly speaking, I am interested in how a manager's skills, knowledge, connections, experiences, and other attributes... View Details

09 Mar 2021
Blog Post

New BEI Director: Lynn Schenk

Harvard Business School (HBS) has named Lynn Schenk as the new director of its Business & Environment Initiative (BEI), succeeding Jennifer Nash, who will retire at the end of March after 5 years as director. Lynn steps into this role... View Details

Research Summary

Organizational Change: The Market for Corporate Control and the Third Industrial Revolution

Michael C. Jensen is conducting research on organizational change and the corporate control market. Specifically, he is investigating the changing role of the corporation and competing organizational forms, such as leveraged buyout organizations, that are replacing... View Details