Publications

August 2019
Case

Simón Cohen at Henco: Sustaining 'High Performance, Happy People'

By: Francesca Gino, Jeff Steiner, Arianna Camacho and Paul Green

Simón Cohen—Founder of Henco Logistics—transformed a small Mexican logistics company into a major player within the industry. Cohen credits the firm’s focus on employee happiness as the key ingredient to its success, an approach he developed following a personal... View Details

Keywords: Work/life Balance; Growth Strategy; Corporate Culture; Motivation; Values; Authentic Leadership Development; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Values and Beliefs; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry

December 4, 2023
Article

Stop Assuming Introverts Aren't Passionate About Work

By: Kai Krautter, Anabel Büchner and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Society often assumes that the only way to be passionate is to act extroverted, but that is simply not true. In their new research, the authors found that regardless of their actual level of passion, extroverted employees are perceived as more passionate than... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Personality; Extraversion; Scale Development; Personal Characteristics; Perception; Employees; Prejudice and Bias

05 Jul 2012
What Do You Think?

Why Is Trust So Hard to Achieve in Management?

Summing Up Do Managers Take Trust for Granted? Trust is a big issue these days judging from the volume of responses to this month's column. Its importance in management is agreed on. There is a long list of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

11 Feb 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting

Keywords: by Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky & Max H. Bazerman

06 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Motivate Your High Performers to Share Their Knowledge

co-workers can help those employees improve. “When you are exposed to different ideas or a different way of working, it can change your own behavior,” says Christopher Stanton, the Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

April 2012 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Dovernet

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates the implications of using stringent performance measurement systems to create performance pressure, motivate employee achievement, and sharpen a firm's competitiveness. It opens by describing the downsides of the ruthlessly competitive culture at... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; Vancouver

22 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

10 Reasons to Design a Better Corporate Culture

the answer lies in recognizing that strong, adaptive cultures can foster innovation, productivity, and a sense of ownership among employees and customers. They also outlast any individual charismatic leader. But how can you as a View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Joe Wheeler

December 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Akooda: Charging Toward Operational Intelligence

By: Christopher Stanton and Mel Martin

The Akooda case describes the challenges confronting founder and CEO Yuval Gonczarowski (MBA ‘17) in 2022 as he attempts to boost sales. Launched in November 2020, Akooda was an AI company that mined 20 different sources of digital data, from tools like Slack, Google... View Details

Keywords: Data Mining; Productivity; Monitoring; Data Analysis; AI and Machine Learning; Knowledge Management; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Employee Relationship Management; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Information Industry; Boston; Israel

December 1997 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)

By: John J. Gabarro

Wolfgang Keller, manager of the Ukrainian subsidiary of a German beer company, faces a managerial dilemma. His subordinate, Dmitri Brodsky, is a talented and experienced commercial director who is not meeting his goals expediently and often requires considerable... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Performance Evaluation; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Behavior; Conflict Management; Situation or Environment; Failure; Employee Relationship Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Ukraine; Germany

January 1991 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Prepare/21 at Beth Israel Hospital (A)

In response to escalating cost pressures throughout the hospital industry, the management of Beth Israel Hospital (BI) decided to implement a productivity plan to cut their operating costs. They chose the Scanlon Plan, an employee participation and incentive program... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Cost Management; Employees; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

22 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make

on high-quality care. "When people don't recognize near-misses as this goldmine, then they're not going to take advantage of them." In other settings, it may be up to managers to communicate a clear and compelling purpose, and to make... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Health

07 Dec 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Does Time Pressure Help or Hinder Creativity at Work?

Keywords: Re: Teresa M. Amabile

March 29, 2021
Editorial

Research: A Little Recognition Can Provide a Big Morale Boost

By: Shibeal O'Flaherty, Michael Sanders and A.V. Whillans

As organizations large and small face the twin challenges of increasingly strained budgets and burned out workforces, what can managers do to keep employees engaged—without breaking the bank? In this piece, the authors share new research on the power of symbolic awards... View Details

Keywords: Motivation; Psychology; Work; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Social Psychology

January–February 2014
Article

Can a Strong Culture Be Too Strong?

By: David A. Garvin

The article presents a case study of a business enterprise with high employee turnover that is considering adopting a personnel management innovation, referred to as People Support, involving a group of managers whose role is to listen to and help resolve employees'... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Organizational Culture

Article

Four Things No One Will Tell You About ESG Data

By: Sakis Kotsantonis and George Serafeim

As the ESG finance field and the use of ESG data in investment decision-making continue to grow, the authors seek to shed light on several important aspects of ESG measurement and data. This article is intended to provide a useful guide for the rapidly rising number of... View Details

October 2023
Supplement

Making Progress at Progress Software (B)

By: Katherine Coffman, Hannah Riley Bowles and Alexis Lefort

In this case, the Human Capital team at Progress Software has identified that some employees have a hard time understanding how to advance within Progress. This realization leads the team to develop several major people-process innovations: the introduction of... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Negotiation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Prejudice and Bias; Talent and Talent Management; Employees; Technology Industry; United States; Bulgaria

17 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

What’s Good about Quiet Rule-Breaking

them, first, requires in-depth knowledge of a given work setting. Quantifying them, next, requires multiple managers and employees answering questions that could get them fired if the company decided to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2022
Working Paper

Human-Computer Interactions in Demand Forecasting and Labor Scheduling Decisions

By: Caleb Kwon, Ananth Raman and Jorge Tamayo

We empirically analyze how managerial overrides to a commercial algorithm that forecasts demand and schedules labor affect store performance. We analyze administrative data from a large grocery retailer that utilizes a commercial algorithm to forecast demand and... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Human Capital; Performance; Applications and Software; Management Skills; Management Practices and Processes; Retail Industry

SSRN

2001
Case

Crown Point Cabinetry

By: Vijay Govindarajan, David VanderSchee and Julie Lang

In 1993, Brian Stowell, CEO of a family-owned cabinet manufacturing business, created a vision for his 85 employees that focused on high quality products with less rework and wasted material. Eliminating production line managers and adopting a team-based management... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Production; Groups and Teams; Business Strategy; Construction Industry; Consumer Products Industry