Publications

September 2001 (Revised October 2018)
Case

DIENA

By: Robert Simons and Indra Reinbergs

Requires students to draw a new organization structure diagram for a rapidly evolving business. A/S DIENA is a newspaper publisher founded during Latvia's 1990/91 struggle for independence from the USSR with a clear social mission to support democracy. With the help of... View Details

Keywords: Employee Ownership; Organizational Design; Marketing Strategy; Managerial Roles; Growth and Development; Economic Systems; Publishing Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Latvia

03 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, October 3, 2017

Feedback Shapes Social Networks By: Green, Paul, Jr., Francesca Gino, and Bradley Staats Abstract—Many organizations employ interpersonal feedback processes as a structured means of informing and motivating View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

07 Dec 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Does Time Pressure Help or Hinder Creativity at Work?

Keywords: Re: Teresa M. Amabile

October 1981
Background Note

Note on Rewards Systems

By: Michael Beer

Looks at rewards in general, and pay in particular, and studies the conditions that may enhance or detract from employee satisfaction and organizational effectiveness. View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Wages; Organizations; Performance Effectiveness; Motivation and Incentives; Satisfaction

Research Summary

Communication (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization

This is a descriptive study of the structure of communications in a modern organization. We analyze a dataset with millions of electronic mail messages, calendar meetings and teleconferences for many thousands of employees of a single, multidivisional firm during a... View Details

08 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Memory Lane and Morality: How Childhood Memories Promote Prosocial Behavior

Keywords: by Francesca Gino & Sreedhari D. Desai

February 2016
Article

Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate

By: Tsedal Neeley and Tracy Dumas

Theories of status rarely address unearned status gain—an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige, or worth, attained not through individual effort or achievement, but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Equality and Inequality; Spoken Communication; Organizations; Japan; United States

14 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Firm Competitiveness and Detection of Bribery

Keywords: by George Serafeim

Article

The Learning Effects of Monitoring

By: Dennis Campbell, Marc Epstein and F. Asis Martinez-Jerez

This paper investigates the relationship between monitoring, decision making, and learning among lower-level employees. We exploit a field-research setting in which business units vary in the "tightness" with which they monitor employee decisions. We find that tighter... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Business or Company Management; Decision Making; Employees; Research; Resignation and Termination; Rights; Business Units; Governance Controls; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

May 2012
Article

Incentive Schemes, Sorting and Behavioral Biases of Employees: Experimental Evidence

By: Ian Larkin and Stephen Leider

We investigate how the convexity of a firm's incentives interacts with worker overconfidence to affect sorting decisions and performance. We demonstrate experimentally that overconfident employees are more likely to sort into a non-linear incentive scheme over a linear... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance; Behavior; Prejudice and Bias; Decisions; Employees; Wages

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ashley V. Whillans

Engaged with field work in East Africa, South Asia, and in several large hybrid organizations in the United States, Professor Whillans places a focus on exploring questions with strong theoretical motivation in the social psychological literature and relevant... View Details

03 Jul 2018
What Do You Think?

Should CEO Satya Nadella Cancel Microsoft’s Contract with ICE?

Madrolly When Should a Board Encourage a Triple Bottom Line Philosophy? Respondents to this month’s column provided a resounding “no” to the question of whether CEO Satya Nadella should accede to the wishes of a vocal minority of View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer; Technology

16 May 2018
Research & Ideas

How Companies Managed Risk (and Even Benefitted) in World War Internment Camps

An internment camp for German citizens in England. Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo Global enterprises that do business in emerging economies face significant political risks—in extreme cases, imprisonment of their civilian employees during... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Manufacturing

12 Dec 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Can Sustainability Drive Innovation at Ferrari?

Keywords: Re: Raffaella Sadun; Auto

November 2011 (Revised June 2013)
Case

Natura Cosméticos, S.A.

Rodolfo Guttilla, Director of Corporate Affairs for Natura Cosméticos S.A. (Natura), prepared for a meeting with key stakeholders to discuss the future of integrated reporting at Natura. A cosmetics company with a strong brand, robust growth in international and... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Decision Making; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Brazil

September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Bank of America (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes how Bank of America is creating a system for product and service innovation in its retail banking business. Emphasis is placed on the role of experimentation in some two-dozen real-life "laboratories" that serve as fully operating banking branches and as... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Problems and Challenges; Innovation and Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Failure; Banks and Banking; Learning; Banking Industry

Frances Frei is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School. Her research investigates how leaders accelerate performance and design for excellence in leadership, strategy, and operations. She regularly advises senior executives... View Details

Keywords: airline; banking; fast food; financial services; health care; hotels ＆ motels; management consulting; media; nonprofit industry; professional services; retail financial services; service industry; sports; telecommunications; tourism; travel

2023
Chapter

Organizational Development

By: Min Basadur, Tim Basadur and Goran Calic

Our review of the field of Organizational Development (OD) reveals an extensive range of tools which attempt to help organizations improve performance. We believe that OD should be studied differently: As a continuous process of change-making or innovation. How this... View Details

Keywords: Change; Cognition and Thinking; Creativity; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation and Management

Register to Read

November 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Daily Table

By: José B. Alvarez, Zeynep Ton and Annelena Lobb

Daily Table is a case about a grocery chain with two outposts in Boston neighborhoods Dorchester and Roxbury. Its mission is to provide healthy food at lower prices to people in lower-income neighborhoods. The case explores Daily Table’s responsibility to its employees... View Details

Keywords: Grocery; COVID-19 Pandemic; Food; Nonprofit Organizations; Employees; Wages; Employee Relationship Management; Boston