Publications

2013
Chapter

Who Chooses Board Members?

By: Ali Akyol and Lauren Cohen

We exploit a recent regulation passed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to explore the nomination of board members to US publicly traded firms. In particular, we focus on firms’ use of executive search firms versus allowing internal members (often... View Details

Keywords: Boards; Boards Of Directors; Executive Search Firms; Governance; SEC Regulation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Succession; Executive Compensation

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2011
Book

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

The most effective managers have the ability to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine... View Details

15 Dec 2023
News

The Musts of 2023

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. At fall reunions, we set up shop on campus and asked alumni about what media moved them this year. What changed their minds or their hearts. And their answers ran... View Details

11 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Feeling Seen: What to Say When Your Employees Are Not OK

Behavior and Human Decision Processes. The benefits of talking it out Zlatev and colleagues conducted six studies involving a total of about 2,500 participants between 2018 and 2020. The results indicated... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

May 2019
Supplement

Kjell and Company: Motivating Salespeople with Incentive Compensation (D)

By: Doug J. Chung

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain. The company’s products consisted of home electronics and accessories. The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair “one-for-all” HR policy. Historically, the salespeople had been compensated... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Change Management; Behavior; Electronics Industry; Sweden

18 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers

that included retail, financial services, and health care. Tip-offs to toxicity The data reveal three traits that indicate which would-be hire needs a warning label. Human resources managers should be alert to signs an applicant is... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

18 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions

practices. Rachel Layne: People may assume that algorithms are unbiased, but that’s not always the case. Where does bias creep in? Ayelet Israeli: There are several sources of algorithmic bias. One is due to historical human bias. When... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

07 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Supervisor of Sandwiches? More Companies Inflate Titles to Avoid Extra Pay

the study estimates. Cohen’s study emerges as record inflation and chronic staffing shortages collide making compensation a top challenge in human resources. While the trend is most heavily concentrated in lower-paying sectors like... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

01 Sep 2021
Op-Ed

How Women Can Learn from Even Biased Feedback

personalities and attitudes. Contrarily, they focus more on the behaviors and accomplishments of men. To address gender bias in feedback processes, many organizations have been making changes to their internal systems such as eliminating... View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

04 Oct 2022
What Do You Think?

Have Managers Underestimated the Need for Face-to-Face Contact?

large crowds. Have the changes in the underlying behaviors affecting many industries become so ingrained in employees, consumers, and everyday life that they will not revert to what they were before? The evidence is mixed. One can argue... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March–April 2014
Article

Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans

By: Doug J. Chung, Thomas Steenburgh and K. Sudhir

We estimate a dynamic structural model of sales force response to a bonus based compensation plan. Substantively, the paper sheds insights on how different elements of the compensation plan enhance productivity. We find evidence that: (1) bonuses enhance productivity... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits

08 Dec 2006
Working Paper Summaries

When Learning and Performance are at Odds: Confronting the Tension

Keywords: by Sara J. Singer & Amy C. Edmondson

2021
Working Paper

False Signaling and Personal Moral Failings: Two Distinct Pathways to Hypocrisy with Unequal Moral Weight

By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers

Moral engagement is a key feature of human nature: we hold moral values, condemn those who violate those values, and attempt to adhere to them ourselves. Yet moral engagement can make us appear hypocritical if we fail to behave morally. When does moral engagement risk... View Details

Keywords: Moral Engagement; Hypocrite; Dishonesty; Moral Values; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Values and Beliefs

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17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

question-and-answer format that’s accessible for everyone from C-suite executives to business students. It covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of ethical behavior and legal liabilities to the cultivation of best practices and... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

17 Feb 2022
Book

When Employees Feel a Sense of Purpose, Companies Succeed

of subduing individuality and ensuring conformity. Culture offers an inexpensive and informal way of regulating behavior that is all the more effective because it occurs inside the minds of employees and relies on peer pressure as a... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

Research Summary

Leadership and Leadership Development: An Ontological Approach

This summarizes my research program over the last twelve years (with my co-investigators Werner Erhard, Steve Zaffron, and more recently Kari Granger) in which the objective has been to rigorously distinguish leader and leadership and to create a technology for... View Details

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

as a doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego, where she conducted a series of laboratory and field experiments with UCSD’s Uri Gneezy, a professor of economics and strategy, and Ayelet Gneezy, an associate professor of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2012
Chapter

The Confederacy of Heterogeneous Software Organizations and Heterogeneous Developers: Field Experimental Evidence on Sorting and Worker Effort

By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani

Software development occurs in a patchwork or "confederacy" of different types of institutions (universities, small start-ups, multinational enterprises, government agencies, etc.) utilizing varied work approaches. Here we speculate on one possible explanation for this... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Applications and Software; Product Development; Organizations; Employees; Behavior; Competition; Cooperation; Creativity; Information Technology Industry