Publications

November 2001 (Revised April 2003)
Case

Camp Dresser & McKee: Getting Incentives Right

By: Ashish Nanda

"If you try to use money to motivate behavior, you are in a powerful and dangerous place, especially with engineers and scientists," remarked Tom Furman, CEO of Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc. (CDM), a consulting environmental engineering firm. Historically, CDM had... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry

08 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

How to Demotivate Your Best Employees

along with professor Lamar Pierce and doctoral student Timothy Gubler from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. The researchers studied an attendance award program initiated by... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Service

27 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: September 27

development is fragmented and lacks a coherent and integrated theory and method for developing an effective organization. A 20-year action research program led to the development and evaluation of the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Lifelong Learning - Alumni

Program Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl (Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean, Chair, MBA Program) 458 01 Mar 2024 HBS Alumni... View Details

06 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

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

School. Emails reveal the quality of work Choudhury and his colleagues conducted a field experiment involving 130 human resource administrators... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

June 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Christoper Chang and Scott Schweitzer

Roy Williams, head coach of the Kansas University Men's Basketball Team, was facing a major decision. The recent resignation of the coach at the University of North Carolina (UNC) had lead to speculation that Williams, a UNC alumnus, would be named as its new coach.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Job Offer; Leading Change; Management Succession; Performance Improvement; Personal Development and Career; Sports; Kansas; North Carolina

Find at Harvard

January 1991 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Black Caucus Groups at Xerox Corp. (A)

In 1970 Xerox had a very progressive affirmative action program yet, once hired, black employees faced serious problems, due both to overt discrimination and to their exclusion from the informal networks of support, information and mentoring that the other salespeople... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Alliances; Race Characteristics; Employees; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry; United States

28 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

receiving the reward to reinforce good behavior—because you’re hoping the worker will repeat that behavior.” Consider thoughtful gifts instead of cash Sometimes cash isn’t king. A 2017 study of 600... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

May 2007 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Bankinter: Deploying the Mortgage Simulator to the Branches

Describes how Bankinter, a mid-sized Spanish bank, altered the information set available to its customer-facing employees. In the spring of 2003, Bankinter introduced an Excel-based program called the Mortgage Simulator that helped branch managers calculate the price... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banks and Banking; Mortgages; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Spain

31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

employees of a health benefits administrator that held a free workplace influenza vaccination clinic. Results: A 2 SD increase in functional proximity is associated with a 6.4 percentage point increase in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Feb 2024
HBS Case

Beyond Goals: David Beckham's Playbook for Mobilizing Star Talent

ends? Anita Elberse, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, got a behind-the-scenes look from Beckham’s team at how the organization considered an offer from... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

unbearable feeling of worthlessness. I am good at nothing, a parasite.” Union surveys found that two-thirds of respondents were stressed and half wanted to quit. Local physicians told the firm’s head View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

14 Oct 2021
In Practice

Reunited and It Feels (Not) So Good: Tips for Managing a Rocky Return

employees, while maintaining the safety and flexibility to weather an uncertain path ahead. Jeffrey Polzer (@jeffpolzer) is the UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Career Coach

Lauren Murphy

individual leaders as well as senior management teams to improve team alignment with organizational goals. Lauren brings decades of management experience to her coaching work. For 14 years, she was the Director, Career Education &... View Details

Program

Driving Corporate Performance

competitive, high-performing organization Leverage human resource capabilities as an essential component of strong performance Measure accountability and improve organizational... View Details

31 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 31, 2018

(A) A year after Norwegian grocery chain REMA 1000 adopted Workplace, Facebook’s enterprise social network, Chief Human Resource Officer Tore Høylie is asked to evaluate its impact on company culture and... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Web

Organizational Behavior Faculty - Faculty & Research

Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership Jeffrey T. Polzer UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource Management Ryan L. Raffaelli Marvin... View Details

November 2017
Teaching Note

Amazon.com, 2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Teaching Note for HBS No. 716-402. On January 28, 2016, Amazon announced record 2015 operating profits of $2.2 billion on $107 billion of sales, and the markets responded with cautious optimism. For years, founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos had prioritized growth and... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Market Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Competition; Internet; Corporate Strategy; Online Advertising; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Hardware; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Technology Networks; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Price; Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

January 2011 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Development and Promotion at North Atlantic Hospital

By: Boris Groysberg, Lisa Leffert, Kerry Herman and Libby Williams

Dr. Elizabeth Harris, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology (DA) at North Atlantic Hospital (NAH), faces several significant challenges. Staff satisfaction surveys confirmed her assessment that department faculty morale was low, the tenure and promotion system was... View Details

Keywords: Training; Employees; Retention; Performance Evaluation; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Health Industry