Workers - Publications - Faculty & Research

2021
Working Paper

Being the Boss: Gig Workers' Value of Flexible Work

By: Laura Katsnelson and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

Workers who join the gig economy face a challenging trade-off. Gig work provides worktime flexibility and a sense of being one’s own boss, but gig workers forgo certain protections that employees enjoy. In this paper, we study the work patterns of a large sample of... View Details

Keywords: Gig Workers; Flexible Work Arrangements; Worker Welfare; Labor; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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05 Jan 2021
Cold Call Podcast

Using Behavioral Science to Improve Well-Being for Social Workers

Keywords: Re: Ashley V. Whillans

31 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

American Idle: Workers Spend Too Much Time Waiting for Something to Do

Paul Bradbury American workers are usually a pretty busy bunch, yet their time spent idle costs employers an estimated $100 billion per year, according to a new study from Harvard Business School. “We suspected idle time might be more... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 1977 (Revised July 1986)
Supplement

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (B)

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19 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Fed Up Workers and Supply Woes: What's Next for Dollar Stores?

South China to Los Angeles and Long Beach has gone from $2,500 to $20,000 in the last 18 months. That’s a huge jump. Vietnam right now has a terrible COVID outbreak. They’re locking down places, and that means shutting down factories unless the View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Retail

18 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers

Toxic workers aren’t just a pain in the rear; they’re also a pain in the bottom line, according to a new Harvard Business School working paper. Dylan Minor, visiting assistant professor of business administration in the HBS Strategy unit,... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

December 13, 2022
Article

6 Ways Companies Fail to Help Workers Grow

By: Joseph Fuller, Matthew Sigelman and Nik Dawson

The authors recently studied Fortune 250 companies and ranked them based on the lived experience of three million of their U.S. workers. One of their key findings was that even top-ranked firms fail to deliver consistently on worker advancement. To understand why this... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Training; Business Model; Outcome or Result; Performance Evaluation; Opportunities

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26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers

When HBS professor Steven Spear recently released an abstract on problem solving at Toyota, HBS Working Knowledge staffer Sarah Jane Johnston e-mailed off some questions. Spear not only answered the questions, but also asked some of his own—and answered those as... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

22 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

High-Tech Immigrant Workers Don’t Cost US Jobs

Many high-tech companies in the United States look overseas to fill talent gaps in their employment ranks by hiring skilled immigrants, often sponsoring the visas these workers need to live in this country. Critics say this can create an... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Computer; Financial Services

12 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Pay Workers More So They Steal Less

Bigger paychecks for retail employees could generate significant payoffs for employers by reducing worker theft and raising the level of moral behavior in the workforce, a new study shows. Tatiana Sandino, an associate professor in... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

24 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Cutting Jobless Aid Isn't the Answer to Worker Shortages

About half of US states—mostly run by Republican governors—cut off extended unemployment benefits months before the federal government was planning to end them on Labor Day last year, convinced workers would flood back to employers who... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

September 1977 (Revised March 1987)
Case

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (A)

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January 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

ZBJ: Building a Global Outsourcing Platform for Knowledge Workers (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen and Shirley Sun

ZBJ.com (ZBJ), an online platform that connects knowledge workers to small- and medium-sized enterprises, is China’s largest outsourcing platform. Founded by Mingyue Zhu in 2006, ZBJ had grown into a unicorn with 4,000 employees and a daily transaction volume of RMB15... View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Disintermediation; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Global Strategy; Information Technology Industry; China

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Summer 2019
Article

The Plight of the Graying Tech Worker

By: William R. Kerr

If you’re in tech and over 40, your experience is probably underappreciated. A global talent pool complicates matters. View Details

Keywords: Employees; Age; Personal Development and Career; Immigration; Policy; Technology Industry; Computer Industry

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03 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go?

digital nomad visas to attract a global workforce. Digital nomad visas allow tourists to legally work in a foreign country, creating a boon for areas trying to attract remote workers and for companies looking to entice talent,... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

07 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Immigrant Workers Cluster in Particular Industries

questions on the business problems that affect entrepreneurs. “They can share insights about customer trends and help find workers to hire,” says Kerr. “They can say, ‘My convenience store is over here, and your convenience store is over... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Transportation; Beauty & Cosmetics; Retail

2019
Other Unpublished Work

Optimistic Workers Can Guide Companies into the Future

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, Judith K. Wallenstein and Alice de Chalendar

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Article

Amazon's $15 Minimum Wage Might Cost Some Workers

By: Scott Duke Kominers

Keywords: Economics; Retail Industry; United States

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2023
Article

Conduit Incentives: Eliciting Cooperation from Workers Outside of Managers' Control

By: Susanna Gallani

Can managers use monetary incentives to elicit cooperation from workers they cannot reward for their efforts? I study “conduit incentives,” an innovative incentive design, whereby managers influence bonus-ineligible workers’ effort by offering bonus-eligible employees... View Details