Publications

SSRN

June 2023
Article

The Salary Taboo: Privacy Norms and the Diffusion of Information

By: Zoë Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

The limited diffusion of salary information has implications for labor markets, such as wage discrimination policies and collective bargaining. Access to salary information is believed to be limited and unequal, but there is little direct evidence on the sources of... View Details

Keywords: Search Costs; Privacy; Norms; Compensation; Financial Industry; Field Experiment; Knowledge Dissemination; Equality and Inequality; Gender; Compensation and Benefits; Societal Protocols

2023
Working Paper

Too Many Managers: The Strategic Use of Titles to Avoid Overtime Payments

By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and N. Bugra Ozel

We find widespread evidence of firms appearing to avoid paying overtime wages by exploiting a federal law that allows them to do so for employees termed as “managers” and paid a salary above a pre-defined dollar threshold. We show that listings for salaried positions... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Organizational Design; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits

September 2016 (Revised July 2017)
Supplement

Transferring Knowledge Between Projects at NASA JPL (B)

By: Dorothy Leonard and Christopher Myers

At the conclusion of the (A) case, Jennifer Trosper needed to decide whether or not to throw her support behind the training and outreach represented by the ROV-E program to build small rovers like the ones used on the surface of Mars by NASA JPL. The (B) case... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Management; Employees; Experience and Expertise; Decision Making; Aerospace Industry; United States

May–June 2013
Article

Can Global Brands Create Just Supply Chains? Response: Promoting Political Mobilization

By: Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Codes of conduct indicate that working conditions are improving overall at the factories being monitored by multinational corporations, and that these codes of conduct also create possibilities for political mobilization that can improve labor conditions more broadly. View Details

July 19, 2011
Article

Social Security Refrom Is the Key to the Debt Ceiling Debate

By: Robert C. Pozen

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Borrowing and Debt

2008
Chapter

Life-Cycle Funds

By: Luis M. Viceira

The U.S. retirement system has experienced a substantial transformation in recent years. It has evolved from a system in which employees relied mainly on Social Security and professionally managed defined benefit (DB) pension plans sponsored by their employers to... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Personal Finance; Investment Funds; Compensation and Benefits; United States

02 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 2

faced and an inability to respond effectively once they did. We focus particularly on the problems GM encountered in developing the relational contracts essential to modern design and manufacturing. We discuss a number of possible causes for these difficulties,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2010
What Do You Think?

To What Degree Does “Identity” Affect Economic Performance?

Summing Up Is "identity" a victim of competitiveness? A recent study of organizational behavior published by Timothy Kieningham and Lerzan Toksoy shows that employees' perceptions of their employers' levels of commitment to them track their own levels of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

May 2022
Article

When Harry Fired Sally: The Double Standard in Punishing Misconduct

By: Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru

We examine gender differences in misconduct punishment in the financial advisory industry. We find evidence of a “gender punishment gap”: following an incident of misconduct, female advisers are 20% more likely to lose their jobs and 30% less likely to find new jobs... View Details

Keywords: Financial Advisers; Brokers; Gender Discrimination; Consumer Finance; Financial Misconduct And Fraud; FINRA; Financial Institutions; Employees; Crime and Corruption; Gender; Prejudice and Bias; Personal Finance; Financial Services Industry

May 2019
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (D)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden

2018
Working Paper

Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment

By: Jason Acimovic, Chris Parker, David F. Drake and Karthik Balasubramanian

When workers make operational decisions, the firm's global knowledge and the workers’ domain-specific knowledge complement each other. Oftentimes workers have the final decision-making power. Two key decisions a firm makes when designing systems to support these... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Training; Performance Improvement; Money; Mobile Technology; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Services Industry

SSRN

September 2016
Supplement

ZenRecruit: Sales Coaching and Performance Reviews

By: Mark N. Roberge

Amara Kaggwa leads the small but rapidly expanding sales team at ZenRecruit, a recruiting software application used by small businesses. Armed with six months of sales performance metrics, Kaggwa is preparing for her monthly performance conversations with two... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Salesforce Management; Applications and Software; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry

May 2016
Article

When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation

By: Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen and Max Bazerman

We examine a new intervention to overcome gender biases in hiring, promotion, and job assignments: an "evaluation nudge," in which people are evaluated jointly rather than separately regarding their future performance. Evaluators are more likely to focus on individual... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Performance; Gender

April 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Monster Networking

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and David Andrew Vivero

The management at Monster.com, the leading U.S. provider of online recruitment services, must decide how to proceed with Monster Networking (MN), a new business launched in late 2003. MN helps users identify other individuals who can offer career advice. Monster.com... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Social and Collaborative Networks; Recruitment; Service Industry; Employment Industry; United States

Educators

March 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Akamai's Underwater Options (A)

By: Brian J. Hall, Houston Lane and Jonathan Lim

Akamai's stock price declines dramatically with the NASDAQ in 2000, causing virtually all employee options to go underwater. Ownership and retention incentives are largely destroyed, and employee morale falls sharply. Management weighs the pros and cons of various... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Stock Options; Attitudes; Compensation and Benefits

Educators

December 1999 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Prime Designs

By: Paul W. Marshall

A student takes the role of the father who is the CEO of a family business. A non-family manager has asked for a meeting. Agenda topics are: your son's latest proposal and managers' desire to own equity. View Details

Keywords: Labor and Management Relations; Family Ownership; Employee Stock Ownership Plan