Publications

Article

Business Investment in Education in Emerging Markets Since the 1960s

By: Valeria Giacomin, Geoffrey Jones and Erica Salvaj

This article examines non-profit investments by business in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from an oral history database, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such... View Details

Keywords: Economic History; Oral History; Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business History; Emerging Markets; Reputation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Education Industry; Africa; Asia; Latin America; Middle East; India; Chile; Colombia; Sri Lanka; Kenya

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29 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 29

August 14, 2017 Harvard Business Review Study: More Frequent Sales Quotas Help Volume but Hurt Profits By: Chung, Doug J., and Das Narayandas Abstract—No abstract available. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53137 July 2017 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Knowing What Your Boss Earns Can Make You Work Harder

clocked 0.15 percent more hours. But the employees’ extra effort diminished as the difference in rank between employee and manager widened. In some cases, “We were looking at how employees responded to managers who were five promotions away and who they explicitly... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

17 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

What's Behind the Unexpected Trump Support from Women

now what? The most troubling consequences of this election are not for those women in leadership positions who are pushing forward to break new ground, although it is clearly a disappointment for those of us who hope to see more women in... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Morgan Roberts and Robin Ely

March 2020
Article

Is This My Group or Not? The Role of Ensemble Coding of Emotional Expressions in Group Categorization

By: Amit Goldenberg, Timothy D. Sweeny, Emmanuel Shpigel and James J. Gross

When exposed to others’ emotional responses, people often make rapid decisions as to whether these others are members of their group or not. These group categorization decisions have been shown to be extremely important to understanding group behavior. Yet, despite... View Details

Keywords: Categorization; Ensemble Coding; Summary Statistical Perception; Social Cognition; Emotions; Perception; Groups and Teams

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23 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Overcoming Nervous Nelly

seemed to do better when they arrived excited to perform. “Rituals, though they may seem irrational, actually reduce anxiety and have a real impact on performance” That made sense to Brooks. In psychological terms, anxiety is an emotion... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

It's Not Easy Being Green: The Role of Self-Evaluations in Explaining Support of Environmental Issues

By: Scott Sonenshein, K. A. DeCelles and Jane E. Dutton

Using a mixed methods design, we examine the role of self-evaluations in influencing support for environmental issues. In Study 1—an inductive, qualitative study—we develop theory about how environmental issue supporters evaluate themselves in a mixed fashion,... View Details

Keywords: Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Performance Evaluation; Cognition and Thinking

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April 2018
Case

Happy UAE

By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Brian J. Hall, Tiffany Y. Chang, Karim Sameh and Alpana Thapar

This case centers on the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) national goal of raising the happiness of its residents and visitors through ambitious government initiatives. They combined this bold national goal with an accountability structure (incentive plan) built on Key... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Welfare; Governance; Motivation and Incentives; United Arab Emirates

25 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Why Unqualified Candidates Get Hired Anyway

People make snap judgments all the time. That woman in the sharp business suit must be intelligent and successful; the driver who just cut me off is a rude jerk. These instant assessments, when we attribute a person's behavior to innate characteristics rather than... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Secino; Education; Employment

16 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

The Most Successful Startups Have Hands-On Founders

efficient.” "No one wants to work for a boss who’s doing everything or giving (workers) only the bad parts of the task" Founders who adopted a more intensive management style saw positive results: These companies retained a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Succeed With Your New Boss

series of conversations These conversations begin before you accept the new position and continue through the time before entry and on into your transition. It is critically important that you cover certain fundamental subjects in these... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Rosalind Fox at John Deere

By: Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and... View Details

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire?

skills he has and, without any intention of gaining an advantage, help others put them to use. The Likability Bias: Pros And Cons Some people are liked pretty much universally. In other cases, likability is relative: One person's friend may be another one's jerk. This... View Details

Keywords: by Tiziana Casciaro & Miguel Sousa Lobo

June 2008
Case

Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Plant

By: C. Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham

Treadway Tire's plant in Lima, Ohio must confront strong job dissatisfaction and high turnover among its line foremen. The foremen are caught in the middle of an adversarial relationship between the union and management, and they must cope with the needs and interests... View Details

Keywords: Superior ＆ Subordinate; Labor Relations; Work Force Management; Human Resource Management; Hiring; Job Satisfaction; Management; Leadership; Retention; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Selection and Staffing; Satisfaction; Personal Development and Career; Labor and Management Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Ohio

2008
Working Paper

Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Prior work in organizational learning has failed to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. While some studies find a positive relationship between these two variables, others find no effect or even a negative relationship. In this paper, we... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Familiarity; India

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May 2013
Case

Wendy Peterson

By: Linda A. Hill and Alisa Zalosh

Wendy Peterson was recently promoted to Vice President of Sales at the Plano, Texas, office of AccountBack, an accounting software and services company. To penetrate a perceived market niche, Peterson hires Fred (Xing) Wu, whose familiarity with and access to Chinese... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Conflict Management; Salesforce Management; Rank and Position; Performance Evaluation; Management Teams; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Accounting Industry; Texas

06 Jun 2008
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?

recollection of Tony Athos, wrote that "Time-for-thinking is a special moment which can be resource consuming and an unsafe activity " (Fortunately, Athos held a tenured position in an academic organization.) A number of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

October 2003
Case

Henry Tam and the MGI Team

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Ingrid Vargas and Hillary Anger Elfenbein

Within a short time frame, seven diverse team members assemble to write a business plan for a new company and struggle to define their roles, make decisions together, and resolve conflict. Henry Tam, a second-year Harvard MBA student, who joins an aspiring start-up... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Business Plan; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Jobs and Positions; Leadership Style; Human Resources; Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Diversity

March 1998
Teaching Note

Personality Types: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (TN)

By: David A. Thomas and Emily Heaphy

Describes a class design for teaching students about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The Ideal Organization exercise is the centerpiece of the class. It demonstrates that people with different cognitive types have distinct preferences for the type of... View Details

Keywords: Job Search; Working Conditions; Personal Development and Career; Situation or Environment; Perception; Integration