employee motivation - Publications - Faculty & Research

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

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

July 1993 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Sears Auto Centers (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Michael Santoro

The CEO of Sears must decide how to respond to allegations that the company's auto repair division has been misleading consumers and charging them for unnecessary repairs. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Compensation and Benefits; Management Teams; Employees; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Improvement; Auto Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

16 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 16

Furthermore, the manager will rely more on persuasion when employee motivation is more important for the execution of the project, when the employee has strong intrinsic or... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Managing Alignment as a Process

of organizational alignment—the primary focus of this book—the enterprise must also align its employees and management processes with the strategy. Having aligned and integrated strategies at all organizational units yields little if... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Retail

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

09 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Come Fly with Me: A History of Airline Leadership

productive workers during Kelleher's tenure were motivated by a vibrant working atmosphere, good wages, profit sharing, and the knowledge that no employees had ever been laid off at the company. This feeling... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Air Transportation

23 Aug 2016
First Look

August 23, 2016

to and even surpass its established success. In parallel, Ilkbahar also needed to make sure that employee motivation at HBC’s original Fethiye location did not drop and the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

The Open Office Revolution Has Gone Too Far

(like employee satisfaction). Those are fine for understanding individual perceptions, but aren’t so good at quantifying real behavioral responses and organizational performance outcomes from open offices. The gap between perceptions and... View Details

Keywords: Re: Ethan S. Bernstein

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

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

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

24 Sep 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Small Businesses Deserve More Credit

could lead to substantial growth.” But new research suggests that small businesses are far more fiscally conservative than banks realize. In fact, firms with up to 10 employees hold back spending on their revolving credit lines to create... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

Transparency: Its official motive of transparency allows citizens more control of information that affects them. Giving "power to the people" puts a new set of eyes and ears on government and holds officials more accountable.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

16 Dec 2013
HBS Case

D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable

load. And as a result you carry a very high cost." Michelin-one-star-rated restaurants in Europe have an average of 36 employees on the payroll, according to the case. D'O keeps a lean crew of 14 by multitasking. Oldani does not... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Joanie Tobin; Food & Beverage

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

15 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

We Have Better Ways to Break Habits Than Willpower. Why Don't We Use Them?

it even takes more effort to sign up for the program,” says Zlatev. In fact, in a follow-up study, not yet published, he and Kristal found evidence that the person who chose to use the commitment strategy was more intrinsically motivated... View Details