Publications

Find at Harvard

November 11, 2022
Editorial

Finally Companies Have to Be Upfront about Job Pay Ranges

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The significance of pay transparency laws is their role in moving American workplaces away from bias and closer to equal opportunity. View Details

Keywords: Pay; Salary; Pay Gap; Transparency; Wages; Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Equality and Inequality

January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Roush Performance: How to Design a Sales Force Compensation Plan

By: Doug J. Chung

Roush Performance manufactured and marketed factory-modified performance vehicles and high-end aftermarket automotive performance parts. Since its inception, Roush Performance had focused on building its engineering technology competency and diversifying its product... View Details

Keywords: Sales Force Management; Motivation; Compensation; Salary; Commissions; Bonuses; Quotas; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives

March 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Module Note

Sales Force Compensation

By: Doug J. Chung

The author developed this note for scholars, educators, and practitioners that are interested in sales force compensation. It is based on the author’s investigations across a variety of organizations in multiple industries and provides a conceptual framework for the... View Details

Keywords: Sales Strategy; Sales Force Management; Sales Compensation; Salary; Commissions; Bonuses; Quota Setting/updating; Quota Frequency; Extrinsic Vs Intrinsic Motivation; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Strategy

05 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

workers lack a college degree. Combining that data from Lightcast, a labor market analytics company, with approximately 20 million self-reported salary records on Glassdoor, the authors tracked how workers in these roles fared over five... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

05 Feb 2018
What Do You Think?

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

experience, autonomy. These are naturally definers of where an individual should be placed within a salary range. Those differences should be easily explained and verifiable upon request." Dan S. pointed out that disclosing pay... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

31 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

It’s Not All About Pay: College Grads Want Jobs That ‘Change the World’

agencies, and compared prosocial and standard job postings with the same skill requirements—some 27,000 of them. To test the veracity of their work, the authors cross-referenced employee reviews from the website Glassdoor. They also examined the View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

February 2024
Case

Levels.fyi: How Negotiations Coaching and Pay Transparency Change Job Market Outcomes

By: Zoë B. Cullen

Salary information is everywhere. What impact does it have on compensation? How should employees and employers use salary information in negotiations? This case brings to light how pay information affects behavior and job market outcomes in surprising ways. View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Use and Leverage; Compensation and Benefits; Negotiation

10 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why a Federal Rule on CEO Pay Disclosure May Get You In Trouble With Customers

Here's a tip for companies looking to woo customers away from the competition: Besides advertising fair prices for your products, try advertising fair wages for your employees. Recent research from Harvard Business School indicates that shoppers prefer retailers that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

07 Jan 2015
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: What Are the Limits On Workplace Transparency?

a way to do it," with some cautions and advice about how to make such information available to all. For example, Praveen pointed out that, "It is essential to have a culture of mutual trust but we also need to have mutual respect. Transparency on View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

2017
Working Paper

Equality and Equity in Compensation

By: Jiayi Bao and Andy Wu

Equity compensation is widely used for incentivizing skilled employees, particularly in new technology businesses. Traditional theories explaining why firms offer equity suggest that workers with higher rank should receive compensation packages more heavily weighted in... View Details

Keywords: Inequality Aversion; Compensation; Stock Options; Scarcity; Experiment; Compensation and Benefits; Equity; Equality and Inequality; Perception

August 2022
Case

The Spreadsheet

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Alexander J. MacKay

Compensation is the largest expenditure of almost every venture. Getting compensation packages right affects talent acquisition, retention, and profitability. In this case, and accompanying negotiation exercise, students learn strategies and tactics for setting... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing

2007
Book

Negotiation Genius

By: Deepak Malhotra and M. H. Bazerman

Whether you've “seen it all” or are just starting out, Negotiation Genius will dramatically improve your negotiating skills and confidence. Drawing on decades of behavioral research plus the experience of thousands of business clients, the authors take the mystery out... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Negotiation Preparation; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Behavior

Find at Harvard

November 2013
Case

Larry Steffen: Valuing Stock Options in a Compensation Package

By: William E. Fruhan and Craig Stephenson

New MBA graduate Larry Steffen has accepted an attractive job offer from Athena Global Technology but must now choose one of two alternative compensation plans. The first compensation plan option includes a base salary plus a $25,000 cash bonus, and the second includes... View Details

February 2006 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Negotiating on Thin Ice: The 2004-2005 NHL Dispute (A)

By: Deepak Malhotra and Maly Hout

On September 15, 2004, the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) expired. Because the two sides had failed to negotiate a new CBA by that date, NHL... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Participants; Trust; Sports; Compensation and Benefits; Sports Industry; United States

August 2000
Case

Belmont Industries, Inc. (A)

By: Joseph L. Bower

A new general manager has to propose a salary structure for the top 20 managers. His task is complicated as he learns about past performance, ambitions, interpersonal relations, and market conditions. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Goals and Objectives; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits

June 2024
Background Note

Do Companies Overvalue External Talent?

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

When looking to fill a position above entry level, companies have two choices: transfer/promote an internal candidate, or hire from the outside. Anecdote and research alike show that external hires are usually offered a higher starting salary than internal candidates. View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Selection and Staffing; Job Offer

January 1996 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Scott Paper Company

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jeremy Cott

A professional turnaround manager attempts to implement a massive global downsizing program at the world's largest producer of consumer tissue products. The plan involves laying off almost one third of the company's 34,000 hourly and salaried employees and dramatically... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Global Strategy; Resignation and Termination; Goals and Objectives; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Sales; Value Creation; Pulp and Paper Industry

Article

Gender Disparities in Compensation of Practicing Cardiothoracic Surgeons: Analyzing the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Compensation Survey

By: Cherie P. Erkmen, Anastasiia K. Tompkins, Shanda Blackmon, Larry R. Kaiser, Susanna Gallani, Jennifer C. Romano, Thomas MacGillivray and Michael J. Mack

BACKGROUND: Gender-based pay disparity in compensation is widespread. In cardiothoracic surgery, women earn between 71-84% of men’s salaries at comparable ranks. Limited data exist on how factors like subspecialty, practice type, and work efforts contribute to these... View Details

Keywords: Gender; Compensation and Benefits; Equality and Inequality; Experience and Expertise; Health Industry