Publications

May 2006
Article

The Changing Structure of the Legal Services Industry and the Careers of Lawyers

By: George P. Baker and Rachel Parkin

Keywords: Change; Law; Employees; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Structure; Legal Services Industry

October 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

MacTemps: Building Commitment in the Interim Workforce

MacTemps is a provider of temporary workers skilled in computer graphics and database management. Unlike many temporary agencies that treat temps as a commodity, MacTemps has attempted to build relationships with temps through offering benefits and training. This case... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Organizational Design; Personal Development and Career; Information Technology Industry; Employment Industry

Profile

Jamira Cotton

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? My undergraduate education in engineering shaped my ability to think analytically about solving rigorous problems. Additionally, while serving clients at McKinsey I constantly learned to apply this problem solving rigor... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Entrepreneurship

01 Sep 2014
News

Clubs Hopping

GLOBAL NETWORKS Whether in Boston or Beijing, HBS Career & Professional Development office hears the same question from alumni: “What’s next for me?” CPD staff have been traveling the world to show alumni the career resources available to help answer that question.... View Details

29 Jun 2021
News

Procter & Gamble’s Lean Innovation Transformation

Keywords: Health and Personal Care Stores; Health and Personal Care Stores; Health and Personal Care Stores; Health and Personal Care Stores

30 Dec 2015
News

SimpliSafe’s Success Awakens Sleeping Giant

Keywords: technology-based security business; alarm systems; Personal Services; Personal Services; Personal Services; Personal Services

15 Aug 2015
News

Victoria Tsai: Skin Secrets of a Geisha

Keywords: beauty products; Health and Personal Care Stores; Health and Personal Care Stores; Health and Personal Care Stores; Health and Personal Care Stores

December 2023
Case

Gabriela Santana Goldstein

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Gabriela Santana Goldstein was pursuing her passion, working as the Head of Business for a telehealth startup, when her father went into sudden cardiac arrest and family duty called. The case discusses Goldstein’s difficult decision to leave her dream job, and her path... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Decisions; Health Industry; United States; Boston; New York (city, NY)

February 2021 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Muhammad Ali: Changing The World

By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer

This case describes the rise of Cassius Clay, who later called himself Muhammad Ali, from the poor streets of Louisville, Kentucky to international fame. The case describes how Ali won a gold medal in the Olympics, three heavyweight boxing titles, and became a role... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Mission and Purpose; Personal Characteristics; Religion; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Success; Power and Influence; Personal Development and Career; Sports Industry

June 2007 (Revised January 2008)
Case

The Vanguard Group, Inc. in 2006 and Target Retirement Funds

By: Luis M. Viceira

The Vanguard Group is one of the largest asset managers in the U.S., with over $1 trillion in assets, ninety percent of which are mutual fund assets, and more than 12,000 employees at year-end 2006. Vanguard has built a strong reputation as the manager of reference for... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Personal Finance; Brands and Branding; Retirement; Trust; Financial Services Industry; United States

March 2020
Article

Explaining the Persistence of Gender Inequality: The Work-family Narrative as a Social Defense Against 24/7 Work Culture

By: Irene Padavic, Robin J. Ely and Erin M. Reid

It is widely accepted that the conflict between women’s family obligations and professional jobs’ long hours lies at the heart of their stalled advancement. Yet research suggests that this “work-family narrative” is incomplete: men also experience it and nevertheless... View Details

Keywords: 24/7 Work Culture; Hegemonic Narrative; Social Defense; Work-family Conflict; Systems-psychodynamic Theory; Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Organizational Culture

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November 2009 (Revised March 2011)
Case

New York Life and Immediate Annuities

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and John T. Gourville

By positioning Immediate Annuities as "guaranteed lifetime income," New York Life has built itself a $1.4 billion per year business by 2009. However, to make Immediate Annuities a mainstream financial product for retirees, New York Life must understand why many... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Personal Finance; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Retirement; Salesforce Management; Insurance Industry

17 Sep 2014
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpen Your Negotiation Skills

No business skill may be as important to success as negotiation. We negotiate everything: agreements with partners and vendors, in-scope/out-of-scope parameters around important projects, and our own compensation and job responsibilities, to name just a few. If we... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

11 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Neuroeconomics: Eyes, Brain, Business

The children's classic The Polar Express tells the fanciful story of a young boy's journey to the North Pole on a train filled with chocolate and candy. But when Warner Brothers released a $165 million computer-animated version of the tale, many critics described the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

1 Sep 1979
Conference Presentation

Rape and Physical Attractiveness: Judgements Concerning the Likelihood of Victimization

By: W. DeJong, Teresa M. Amabile and M. L. Stubbs

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Attitudes; Safety; Personal Characteristics

September 16, 2022
Article

3 Workplace Biases that Derail Mid-Career Women

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Mid-career women are often surprised by the levels of bias and discrimination they encounter in the workplace, especially if they’ve successfully avoided it earlier in their careers. After speaking to 100 senior women executives, the authors identified three distinct... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Prejudice and Bias; Gender

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Article

Joy and Rigor in Behavioral Science

By: Hanne K. Collins, Ashley V. Whillans and Leslie K. John

In the past decade, behavioral science has seen the introduction of beneficial reforms to reduce false positive results. Serving as the motivational backdrop for the present research, we wondered whether these reforms might have unintended negative consequences on... View Details

Keywords: Open Science; Pre-registration; Exploration; Confirmation; False Positives; Career Satisfaction; Science; Research; Personal Development and Career; Satisfaction; Diversity

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2021
Working Paper

Information Avoidance and Image Concerns

By: Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

A rich literature finds that individuals avoid information, even information that is instrumental to their choices. A common hypothesis posits that individuals strategically avoid information to hold particular beliefs or to take certain actions--such as behaving... View Details

Keywords: Image Motivation; Self-image; Information; Behavior; Identity; Personal Characteristics

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August 2018
Case

Christine Lagarde (A): A French Prime Minister Calls

By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop

This case covers formative events and influences in Christine Lagarde’s childhood and her trajectory from studying political science and law to heading the world’s largest law firm. As she prepares to transition back to practice in 2005, the new Prime Minister of... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Decision Making