Employee Motivation - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

shareholder value is created. Every company should start with a clear purpose and set of values that go beyond making money. It is the purpose and values that motivate and unify employees worldwide, not... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

02 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Spending on Happiness

happiness. We conducted a number of studies—from national surveys to a field study in which we examined how the manner in which employees at a Boston-based company spent a profit-sharing bonus impacted their long-term happiness—in which... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

03 Oct 2005
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of Globally Organized Labor?

and continues to be a lack of good leadership! . . . The politics of international labor interaction are extremely complex and will require tremendous leadership ability to negotiate win-win deals across countries so that employees of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

Command-and-control leaders are finding it difficult to motivate frontline employees and take advantage of their knowledge and wisdom. This is especially true in global organizations that require... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

27 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

Harvard Business School spends a significant amount of research funds each year on the health care industry, answering questions such as: How can the business of health care be made more efficient? What can a business do to motivate View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

22 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 22

Publications August 2013 PLoS ONE Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance By: Anik, Lalin, Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Michael I. Norton, and Jordi Quoidbach Abstract—In three field studies, we... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Jun 2010
HBS Case

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Health-care reform is more than a political football. For twenty years it's been a ground-level topic of increasing importance for the administrators, physicians, nurses, and frontline employees who interact with patients every day.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

26 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 26, 2019

gamification techniques to engage and motivate employees to learn. This study empirically examines the performance consequences of gamified training by conducting a field experiment in a professional... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

27 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2015

stay grounded executives must prepare themselves to confront enormous complexities and pressures. How to Demotivate Your Best Employees (11,975) Many companies hand out awards such as "employee of the month," but do they work to... View Details

28 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World

It's that paradox—that struggle can be both something to overcome on the way to success and something to embrace for the meaning it gives our lives—that motivated Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Badaracco to take a closer look at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

19 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

Do I Dare Say Something?

As every company knows, employees are its greatest resource. It's more than a shame, then, that many workers are either not encouraged or afraid to speak up and communicate ideas at work. Employers are losing valuable knowledge and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Balancing the Future Against Today’s Needs

engaged leader," he says, "out there with your people all time, spending time with both employees and customers." When Phanstiel took the reins of PacifiCare, he inherited a slow-growth company in a slow-growth industry.... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

03 Sep 2009
What Do You Think?

Are Retention Bonuses Worth the Investment?

if an employer provides some special training/skill to an employee that increases his market value substantially ." Naseem Khan suggested that " a retention bonus may be doled out in lieu of base pay increases." Steve... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

22 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

The COVID-19 Mutiny: When Teams Leave and Take Their Clients

When the COVID-19 virus spread worldwide and normal life ground to a halt last year, we thought voluntary employee turnover would drop as well. But the opposite happened in one area: Lift outs—a group of workers who defect... View Details

Keywords: by Robin Abrahams, Boris Groysberg, and Steven L. Manchel

10 May 2016
First Look

May 10, 2016

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51040 forthcoming American Journal of Health Promotion The Effect of Cost Sharing on an Employee Weight Loss Program: A Randomized Trial By: John, Leslie K., Andrea Troxel,... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

21 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 21

(relative to the hiring manager) influences other organizational members’ support (or lack thereof) for who is hired through perceptions of the hiring manager’s motives and morality. We apply principles derived from the literature on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Spirit at Work: The Search for Deeper Meaning in the Workplace

Beer, the School's Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration and an expert on organizational behavior. "Quite simply, without a sense of purpose, we become alienated from our work and find it harder to motivate... View Details

Keywords: by Marguerite Rigoglioso

23 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Break Your Addiction to Service Heroes

of Uncommon Service is that to achieve service excellence, you may need to make some tradeoffs. Is that a hard sell for some managers who are motivated to excel in all areas? A: Frei: Even superstar managers would probably admit to being... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Service

20 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2018

blues, and a job set up for failure. If the CEO’s High Salary Isn't Justified to Employees, Firm Performance May Suffer Researcher Ethan Rouen discovers that rank-and-file employees understand the boss deserves a big salary, but only when... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

and incentives—whether organizations promoted and rewarded employees based on performance and tried to keep the best performers from quitting. To collect the data, the researchers hired teams of MBA students who could interview managers... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

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