Publications

June 1990 (Revised October 1991)
Case

Lake Pleasant Bodies Case (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Presents a classic dilemma in legal ethics--the conflict between an attorney's obligations as an attorney, in this case to protect a client's confidentiality, and his or her own moral obligations as a person. An attorney must decide how to respond to the father of a... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Questionnaires; Attorney and Client Relationships; Social Psychology; Conflict Management; Legal Services Industry

09 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 9

consider several psychological factors that increase costs from performance-based pay. We examine how psychological costs from social comparison and overconfidence reduce the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2002
News

Faculty Research Symposium

and correction of such errors, Associate Professor Amy C. Edmondson studied eight teams of caregivers from two different teaching hospitals to explore how group and organizational behaviors affect error rates in administering drugs to hospitalized patients. Edmondson... View Details

October 2019
Case

How to Encourage Others to Give and When to Pass the Torch? Insights from The Philanthropy Connection

By: Christine Exley and Kathleen McGinn

This case follows the co-founder and president, Marla Felcher, of The Philanthropy Connection (TPC). TPC is a nonprofit organization that centers around collective giving: members of TPC make an annual contribution that is then distributed to select nonprofit... View Details

Keywords: Giving And Philanthropy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Motivation and Incentives; Nonprofit Organizations

June 2003
Case

Booker T. Washington High School

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Michelle Heskett

For over a decade, Principal Elsie Bailey has led a turnaround of this inner-city high school in Memphis. Although she's made progress, some problems have arisen for this "school of last resort" that deals with some of the more difficult student populations, and... View Details

Keywords: Secondary Education; Social Issues; Social Psychology; Policy; Problems and Challenges; Education Industry; Tennessee

23 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Status: When and Why It Matters

Consumers pay handsomely for products that are considered the best of the best in their league, whether they are the fastest cars, the fanciest handbags, or the finest wines. But for what, exactly, are they paying a premium? The superior quality of the product or the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

August 2011
Teaching Note

Martha Rinaldi: Should She Stay or Should She Go? (Brief Case)

By: Linda A. Hill and Mark Rennella

Teaching Note for 4310. View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Relations; Management Styles; Managing Up; Career Planning; Conflict; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence

September 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Supplement

Recruiting Andrew Yard (B)

By: Brian J. Hall, Nicole Shae Bennett and Sara del Nido

This case describes a compensation negotiation between a global HR director and a candidate for a high-level executive position. The situation becomes awkward when the candidate feels insulted because he is given a monetary incentive to join the company more quickly... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Recruitment; Negotiation Offer; Performance Effectiveness; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy

April 1993
Supplement

Prodigy Services Company (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Describes the actions taken by Prodigy executives. View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Conflict Management; Status and Position; Equality and Inequality

February 10, 2015
Article

Nonprice incentives and Energy Conservation

By: Omar Isaac Asensio and Magali A Delmas

We investigate the effectiveness of nonprice incentives to motivate conservation behavior. We test whether tailored information about environmental and health damages produces behavior change in the residential electricity sector. In a randomized controlled trial with... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Energy Conservation; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Health Disorders; Knowledge Dissemination; Behavior

2013
Article

Inflated Applicants: Attribution Errors in Performance Evaluation by Professionals

By: S. A. Swift, D. Moore, Z. Sharek and F. Gino

When explaining others' behaviors, achievements, and failures, it is common for people to attribute too much influence to disposition and too little influence to structural and situational factors. We examine whether this tendency leads even experienced professionals... View Details

Keywords: Evaluations; Correspondence Bias; Selection Decisions; Attribution; Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Performance Evaluation; Cognition and Thinking

Article

On the Origin of Shared Beliefs (and Corporate Culture)

By: Eric J. Van den Steen

This article shows how corporate culture, in the sense of shared beliefs and values, originates (often unintentionally) through screening, self-sorting, and manager-directed joint learning. It shows that such culture will be stronger among more important employees and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Employees; Decisions; Power and Influence; Performance; Perspective

Find at Harvard

December 2008
Background Note

Incentives in the NFL (Abridged)

By: Brian J. Hall, Andrew Wasynczuk, Jonathan Paul Lim, Sara del Nido and Katherine Dowd

This note briefly describes compensation and incentive issues in one of the major US professional sports leagues, the National Football League (NFL). It first provides some background information on the labor market for players and the salary cap, and then describes... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Wages; Groups and Teams; Conflict of Interests; Motivation and Incentives; Sports Industry; United States

14 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Ethics Bots and Other Ways to Move Your Code of Business Conduct Beyond Puffery

to mitigate sanctions. “Perhaps even more important in today’s environment, you are also limiting reputational risk,” Soltes says, pointing to negative news stories or error-filled posts on social media that can undermine a company’s... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 2001
Case

FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes some strategic and financial issues confronting the founder and executive director of a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving awareness of and interest in science and technology among elementary and high school students. The organization sponsors... View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Finance; Nonprofit Organizations; Cognition and Thinking; Strategy; Technology

Find at Harvard

13 Jan 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA

Keywords: by Jana Gallus, Olivia S. Jung, and Karim R. Lakhani; Aerospace

25 May 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Trust and Disintermediation: Evidence from an Online Freelance Marketplace

Keywords: by Grace Gu and Feng Zhu; Service

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

The computer age began some six decades ago with general-purpose machines with Star Wars-like names such as ENIAC and EDVAC. They were powered by vacuum tubes, big enough to fill an entire room, and developed by mathematicians under the auspices of what was then known... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Computer; Consumer Products; Technology

December 2024
Article

Public Attitudes on Performance for Algorithmic and Human Decision-Makers

By: Kirk Bansak and Elisabeth Paulson

This study explores public preferences for algorithmic and human decision-makers (DMs) in high-stakes contexts, how these preferences are shaped by performance metrics, and whether public evaluations of performance differ depending on the type of DM. Leveraging a... View Details

Keywords: Public Opinion; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making