Publications

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

inherently wrong with pay for performance, only in the way that specific plans have been designed and implemented." Mathews Daniel Kapito helped frame the challenge. As he put it, "People are different pay linked to performance... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

September 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Supplement

Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B)

By: William W. George

Martha Goldberg Aronson of Medtronic is trying to decide whether to accept the offer from Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins to become senior vice president and chief talent officer. Aronson returned from an executive role in Europe just 18 months before as vice president,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Job Design and Levels; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Work-Life Balance

August 2023
Technical Note

Two Ways of Pursuing a Calling

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Work can be a means to a financial end, a stepping stone to higher-level jobs, or a meaningful end in itself: a calling. The technical note provides an overview of two different ways people can pursue a calling: with an internal focus or external focus. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Happiness; Identity; Well-being; Motivation and Incentives; Human Needs; Satisfaction; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry; Music Industry; Education Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

March 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Can Papaya Global Keep Scaling Fast?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Companies that employ people all around the world also need to pay those people. That can be an exceedingly complex task, though - defining terms of employment, complying with global regulations, and working with huge quantities of data, among other obstacles,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Scaling And Growth; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Global Range

26 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way to Go to Market

repository of lost opportunities" that serve neither end users nor channel partners very well. Why is this? A: That is because most channels are constructed from the supplier out, rather than from the customer in. In other words, the product or service is View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

21 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Making Credibility Your Strongest Asset

fierce business competition, your bargaining endowment can spell the difference between closing the deal and being shut out. A healthy bargaining endowment explains how Darren Rovell won a job on national television while other journalism... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler

December 2022
Article

Collaborative Rooming: An Innovative Pilot Project to Overcome Primary Care Challenges

By: Gagandeep Singh, Jill G. Lenhart, Richard A. Helmers, Michele Renee Eberlee, Heather Costley, Joel B. Roberts and Robert S. Kaplan

Primary care physicians are overburdened with growing complexities and increasing expectations for primary care visits. To meet expectations, primary care physicians must multitask during visits and spend extra hours in the office for charting, billing, and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Groups and Teams; Job Design and Levels; Health Industry

Read Now

08 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 8

the labor market but do not result in weaker political preferences for redistribution. August 2013 Harvard Business Review 15 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer By: Malhotra, Deepak Abstract—The author, a professor of negotiation at... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

Thomas and John J. Gabarro. The Action Plan was originally designed as part of a facilitated session but can also be used in conjunction with the book. The Action Plan guides individuals through an examination of the critical areas of... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’

(GFS), designed for Google web searches. One team, called Big Table, argued for adding systems on top of GFS; the other team, called Build from Scratch, wanted to replace GFS entirely. Coughran decided to give the two teams space to... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

11 Jun 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching the Next Generation of Energy Executives

You may think that being an energy executive—especially a manager in a leading oil company—might be the easiest job around. Just flip the production switch, and watch gas prices head toward $4 a gallon. But students enrolled in Harvard Business School professor Forest... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Waking Up a Sleeping Company

of expansion of the business; their jobs expanded, but their work habits remained the same. These characteristics, residing deep in the culture, affected customer responsiveness, fiscal discipline, quality of managers, and interpersonal... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

When ChatGPT and other large language models began entering the mainstream two years ago, it quickly became apparent the technology could excel at certain business functions, yet it was less clear how well artificial intelligence could handle more creative tasks. Sure,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

23 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Businesses Need a 'Catalyst' to Make CSR Practices Stick

says. The catalyst approach Some companies are now exploring a different approach to CSR, partnering with local communities on businesses that can help them earn a profit and empower locals, while also becoming self-sustaining. Kaplan explores the idea in a recent... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

How an Order Views Your Company

impact stayed. Kash, John, and I worked very hard to capture our findings in a single document. Alan Weber, at the time the Editor of the Harvard Business Review, did a magnificent job of taking our manuscript and making it accessible to... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston

24 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Do We Tax?

fixing this gap. For 40 years, economists have drawn from the well of Utilitarian theory—which has the goal of maximizing overall well-being in society—to help design tax systems in the United States and around the world. Although the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Legal Services

November 1992
Case

Process Control at Polaroid (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright

The plant manager of a film production operation wants to create and implement a new approach to quality within the next 12 months. Issues of personnel (and their roles), production processes (and their control), and quality standards must be addressed. View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Job Design and Levels; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Quality; Mathematical Methods