Publications

March 30, 2022
Article

To Retain Employees, Support Their Passions Outside Work

By: Lauren C Howe, Jon M. Jachimowicz and Jochen I. Menges

With more and more people quitting, leaders need to find new ways to boost retention. One under-recognized way to keep employees on board is to give them the flexibility and resources they need to pursue their out-of-work passions. Drawing on their research, the... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Employees; Retention; Interests; Work-Life Balance; Human Resources; Strategy

30 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Readers Ask: I Need Tips for Working at Home

flexibility in this timeframe and might start demanding flexible work as a long-term solution. Doesn’t making employees work remotely save on... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

03 Apr 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Working (From Home) During a Crisis: Online Social Contributions by Workers During the Coronavirus Shock

Keywords: by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Wesley W. Koo, and Xina Li

14 Sep 2023
Research & Ideas

Working Moms Are Mostly Thriving Again. Can We Finally Achieve Gender Parity?

McGinn also found that fathers are beginning to recognize the toll of parenting on work and the need for more flexible work-life balance. But there’s a catch. “From our data—and it looks like other scholars... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

2023
Working Paper

The Effects of Inconsistent Work Schedules on Employee Lateness and Absenteeism

By: Caleb Kwon and Ananth Raman

Problem Definition: Employee lateness and absenteeism pose challenges for businesses, particularly in the retail industry, where punctuality is vital for optimal store operations and customer service. This paper relates employee lateness and absenteeism with... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Employees; Human Capital; Retail Industry

SSRN

06 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

Does Hybrid Work Actually Work? Insights from 30,000 Emails

ideal solution, according to a new working paper, might be a compromise: Hybrid schedules in which employees roughly split their workweeks between the home and office appear to work best. These schedules... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

include an "insurance policy" that pays one party a sum tied to the future realized value of the firm. This sort of arrangement sometimes appears in mergers in the form of "earn-out provisions" and "collars."... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

2020
White Paper

Building the On-Demand Workforce

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, James Palano, Allison Bailey, Nithya Vaduganathan, Elizabeth Kaufman, Renée Laverdière and Sibley Lovett

The right talent, in the right place, at the right time, is the equation for success in today’s world. In an era of technological change, demographic shifts, and economic uncertainty, companies can enhance their ability to compete by building a flexible... View Details

Keywords: Future Of Work; On-demand Economy; Workforce; On-demand Workforce; Competitive Advantage; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment

24 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

How Much Will Remote Work Continue After the Pandemic?

Are remote workers less productive? While past research suggests that many American workers could successfully perform their jobs from outside the office, companies have been slow to adopt remote work View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

19 Sep 2024
Research & Ideas

Global Talent, Local Obstacles: Why Time Zones Matter in Remote Work

Remote work is giving companies new opportunities to tap additional markets and talent pools. However, a global workforce also brings a challenge: As some employees are getting up in the morning, others are winding down their workday.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

October 2019
Teaching Note

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

A Teaching Note for the "Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?" case study (HBS#820-048). The case discusses recent controversies regarding how Google manages temporary help agency workers, workers supplied by vendors, and independent contractors ("TVCs"). Such TVCs reportedly... View Details

29 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Work 3.0: Redefining Jobs and Companies in the Uber Age

time crunched, the last thing we want to do is squander labor market opportunity and flexibility. Yet that’s what could happen if new companies are forced to build workforces based on dated assumptions about employees and independent contractors. We need a new, View Details

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Transportation; Web Services

Article

Geographic Mobility, Immobility, and Geographic Flexibility—A Review and Agenda for Research on the Changing Geography of Work

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury

I review and integrate a wide range of literature that has examined how geographic mobility of high-skilled workers creates value for organizations and individuals. Drawing on this interdisciplinary literature, I document that geographic mobility creates value by... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Mobility; Frictions; Work-from-anywhere; Employees; Geographic Location; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Find at Harvard

September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000-person global workforce, had raised concerns of... View Details

Educators

25 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Fostering Organizational Learning: The Impact of Work Design on Workarounds, Errors, and Speaking Up About Internal Supply Chain Problems

Keywords: by Anita L. Tucker

2024
Working Paper

Second- versus Third-party Audit Quality: Evidence from Global Supply Chain Monitoring

By: Maria R. Ibanez, Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Capitalizing on the superior credibility and flexibility and potential lower cost of external assessments, many global buyers are relying less on their own employee (“second-party”) auditors and more on third-party auditors to monitor and prevent environmental and... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Audit Quality; Working Conditions; Sustainability; Empirical Operations; Empirical Service Operations; Sustainability Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management

SSRN

November 2009
Case

VF Brands: Global Supply Chain Strategy

By: Gary P. Pisano and Pamela Adams

This case examines VF Brands global supply chain strategy. Historically, VF has used a combination of in-house manufacturing and traditional arms-length sourcing arrangements. At the time of the case, the company is considering a third approach to supplier relations... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Partners and Partnerships; Cooperation; Vertical Integration; Apparel and Accessories Industry

Educators

January 1991 (Revised November 1994)
Supplement

Black Caucus Groups at Xerox Corp. (B)

Describes the compromise worked out between Xerox and the black caucus groups. The implications of this arrangement for Xerox and black employees over the next 16 years is also described. View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Employee Relationship Management; Race Characteristics; Consumer Products Industry