Harm - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

How to Demotivate Your Best Employees

came habitually late," Larkin says. Ultimately, the researchers concluded that rewarding one behavior sometimes can "crowd out" intrinsic motivation in another. Rewards that work Despite the fact that this particular award brought more View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Service

05 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

feel malicious envy, they engage in counterproductive work to harm other people,” Brooks says. “They tend to undermine others and try to slow them down.” Revealing failures won’t tarnish your image The HBS team set out to test for levels... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 Jul 2021
Book

Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

actions. As a whole, are those impacts positive or negative? Ultimately, if a company is making a bad impact, however unintended, Sucher and Gupta say the public looks to a company to own up to the harm it has caused, starting with a... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

17 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

If the CEO’s High Salary Isn't Justified to Employees, Firm Performance May Suffer

disclosures are not made with proper context, they could ignite worker backlash and harm productivity. “When you hear the amount that a CEO makes, it is going to seem outrageous. People are going to react with passion,” Rouen says. “So,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

must decide whether to extend this relationship through some formal contractual arrangement. Humana's two divisions transacted extensively with one another before its spin-off, and abruptly cutting these ties risked doing long-term harm... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

22 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make

Professor Amy C. Edmondson, who studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Incidents that almost result in loss or harm often pass unnoticed, in part because workers worry about being associated with vulnerability or... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Health

18 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

The Cost of Leaning In

However, the Forced treatment revealed a different story. Forcing men to negotiate every time was neither harmful nor helpful, the researchers found. But when women workers were forced to always negotiate, there were more instances where... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

example by giving rewards for both individual and team performance. Without direct oversight, “Relationships can all too readily slide into cutthroat competition or totally collusive bonding. Either extreme will harm the firm's... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

recommendations from watchdogs like CharityWatch, which tend to give higher ratings to charities with low overhead costs. But that can lead to a harmful cycle in which charities keep their overhead costs unreasonably low in order to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Dec 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Financing Innovation

Keywords: by William R. Kerr & Ramana Nanda

Web

Dean Srikant Datar Statements & Speeches | About

bigotry are ones we must decry; they contradict our values, undermine our mission, and harm our community. Published June 2, 2021 Dean Srikant Datar’s 2021 Graduation Address and Presentation of Alumni Achievement Awards At the 2021... View Details

09 Apr 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

The Dark Side of Performance Bonuses

carefully, can open a box full of unintended consequences that ultimately harm rather than help the organization. The financial crisis of 2008 was partially fueled by origination bonuses paid to bank loan officers who were incented to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Dying to Lead: How Reaching the Top Can Kill You Sooner

about these findings? Yes and no, says Nicholas. While the harmful effects of GE’s high-level jobs may appear worrisome to people currently working in the upper ranks of their companies, not every organization or industry may see the same... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

01 Sep 2023
News

3-Minute Briefing: Frances Haugen: (MBA 2011)

systems-based, not dependent on one person. That was a beautiful and liberating thing to hear. A big part of my advocacy is cultivating an ecosystem of accountability around social media safety. The goal of Beyond the Screen is to bring together NGOs, academics,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; whistle blower; Facebook; leadership; social media

19 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

What Motivates People to Give Generously—and Why We Sometimes Don't

of as dual-motive behaviors, which have some benefit to others but also some benefit to the self. Public radio is a good example, where you receive a tote bag in exchange for a pledge to the station. There was quite a bit of research on this, but it was inconsistent... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint, HBS Alumni Bulletin

17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

personally profit by violating the law or by harming or misleading others. The stakes can be enormous, especially when a big transaction or career-making decision is involved. This means people in business often face much larger... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

harm businesses more than help. Certainly, when a great match happens it can be magic, but just like any marriage, one should not enter the relationship rashly. When thinking about whether or not you need a cofounder, consider: How could... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

27 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

The Hidden Cost of a Product Recall

quantify the innovation risks and opportunities that recalls pose in one of the most R&D-intensive industries, medical technology. Product failures in medtech, where the cost to bring a device to the market can top $90 million, can not only hobble a firm, but cause... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Auto; Medical Devices & Supplies

02 Mar 2009
Research & Ideas

When Goal Setting Goes Bad

in many cases goals do more harm than good. Worse, they can cause real damage to organizations and individuals using them. "We argue that the beneficial effects of goal setting have been overstated and that systematic View Details