Publications

2021
Article

Nudging the Commute: Using Behaviorally-Informed Interventions to Promote Sustainable Transportation

By: Ashley Whillans, Joseph Sherlock, Jessica Roberts, Shibeal O'Flaherty, Lyndsay Gavin, Holly Dykstra and Michael Daly

Dramatic reductions in carbon emissions must take place immediately. A human-centric method of reducing environmental impacts is to “nudge” employees away from single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs) toward more sustainable commuting options. While an abundance of research... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Science; Transportation Demand Management; Commuting; Single-occupancy Vehicle Commutes; Transportation; Behavior; Change; Environmental Sustainability

2011
Working Paper

Managerial Practices That Promote Voice and Taking Charge among Frontline Workers

By: Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer and Michael W. Toffel

Process-improvement ideas often come from frontline workers who speak up by voicing concerns about problems and by taking charge to resolve them. We hypothesize that organization-wide process-improvement campaigns encourage both forms of speaking up, especially voicing... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Business Processes; Performance Improvement

SSRN

Article

Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust

By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino

One of the toughest challenges leaders face is managing diverse perspectives—and given heightened tensions over politics and movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, that’s more difficult today than ever before. At the same time, productive disagreement and... View Details

Keywords: Polarization; Employees; Perspective; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust

Register to Read

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

Can there be corporate democracy if employees can’t vote on the actions its companies take? Yes, and it’s needed now more than ever. The pandemic has brought much employee discontent and activism. Last... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

22 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity

Amabile spearheaded a study of more than 200 knowledge workers over a three-year period, asking them to keep journal entries of their successes and frustrations at work. What she found was unexpected: It wasn't recognition or awards that most ignited View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

Can Wages Buy Honesty?: The Relationship Between Relative Wages and Employee Theft

By: C. X. Chen and Tatiana Sandino

In this study we examine whether, for a sample of retail chains, high levels of employee compensation can deter employee theft, an increasingly common type of fraudulent behavior. Specifically, we examine the extent to which relative wages (i.e., employee wages... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Behavior; Compensation and Benefits; Societal Protocols

SSRN

2022
Working Paper

Feeling Seen: Leader Eye Gaze Promotes Psychological Safety, Participation, and Voice

By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Alison Wood Brooks and Ethan Burris

Psychological safety is a hallmark of effective team functioning. Although prior work shows that characteristics of the leader influence employee judgments of psychological safety (and subsequent decisions to speak up), we know very little about “the specific behaviors... View Details

Keywords: Eye Gaze; Psychological Safety; Voice; Participation; Nonverbal Behavior; Verbal Behavior; Ostracism; Conversation; Groups; Groups and Teams; Social Psychology; Safety; Leadership; Behavior

24 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

workers are mainly middle-aged, sandwich-generation women: 72 percent of part-timers were female, and 65 percent were 35 and older. “The single-biggest driver of that is caregiving obligations,” Fuller says. Nearly all, or 91 percent, of part-time View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

06 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

After Germanwings, More Attention Needed on Employee Mental Health

stress. (The company's approaches to wellness are described in Johnson & Johnson: The Promotion of Wellness.) General Mills offers mindfulness training with on-site meditation to help employees focus as... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Air Transportation

28 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

How Workplace Wellness Programs Can Give Employees the Energy Boost They Need

strategy to improve performance and drive bottom-line results. You Might Also Like: Your Best Employees Are Burning Out: A Framework for Retaining Talent Are Your Employees Passing Up Incentives? Try View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson

July 2023
Article

The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

Offices are social places. Employees and managers take breaks together and talk about family and hobbies. In this study, we show that employees’ social interactions with their managers can be advantageous for their careers, and that this phenomenon contributes to the... View Details

Keywords: Career; Promotions; Social Interactions; Networking; Interpersonal Communication; Familiarity; Equality and Inequality; Gender

Purchase

05 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

of.” The index ranks the 50 best companies along several dimensions, including promoting from within, career stability, and providing early experiences that allow employees to get better jobs with future... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

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

2021
Case

Starbucks: Opposing a Local Tax to Address Homelessness while Promoting Social Justice

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

In 2018, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted 9-0 for a tax that would require companies whose annual revenue surpassed $20 million to pay the city $275 per employee per year. The tax money would then be used to combat homelessness in Seattle. In response,... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; City; Welfare; Wealth and Poverty; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Seattle

Purchase

17 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Business Should Support Employees Who Are Caregivers

Companies with care cultures: Understand their employees’ evolving caregiving needs. They routinely survey their employees and evaluate the company’s demographics, so they can offer meaningful benefits and policies. They View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

03 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Desperate for Talent? Consider Advancing Your Own Employees First

Job openings in the United States continue to hover at record high levels, exacerbated by the Great Resignation and a sputtering emergence from the pandemic. Competition remains fierce among companies struggling to find qualified workers. Yet many employers,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

27 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Managers, Your Employees Don’t Want to Be Facebook ‘Friends’

and beliefs online with the wrong colleague may expose employees to career consequences, such as not being hired or promoted and being discriminated against.” Workers are wary of friending bosses Across four... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Kim Raczka

1988
Chapter

Promoting Career-Enhancing Relationships in Organization: The Role of the Human Resource Professional

By: D. A. Thomas and Kathy E. Kram

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Employee Relationship Management