Randomized Controlled Experiments - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

What went wrong on Mount Everest on May 10, 1996? That day, twenty-three climbers reached the summit. Five climbers, however, did not survive the descent. Two of these, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, were extremely skilled team leaders with much View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

10 Jan 2018
Blog Post

8 Tips to Help You Prepare for the Case Method

can explain. You can fill in the blanks with your discussion group and then the actual class. The classroom experience gets better over time as you develop a genuine camaraderie with your section. People are far more relaxed and... View Details

2022
Article

Becoming a Learning Organization While Enhancing Performance: The Case of LEGO

By: Thomas Borup Kristensen, Henrik Saabye and Amy Edmondson

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically test how problem-solving lean practices, along with leaders as learning facilitators in an action learning approach, can be transferred from a production context to a knowledge work context for the purpose... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Citation

Read Now

01 Dec 2023
News

Wide Horizon

antibiotic treatment—with one clinical trial from 1999 documenting such effects. Somebody’s got to do something about this, he thought. But he wasn’t positive it should be him. The incident came at an in ection point for Rodakis. His son’s diagnosis had left him at a... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Photos by Sarah Wilson

24 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 24, 2009

not only experience project-level success with the implementation of new work practices, but also organizational-level success as indicated by overall measures of performance. We tested our hypothesis in a longitudinal study of 23... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Current Research

Information Dissemination in Capital Markets

Seeking to bridge economic theory and the role of individuals, Professor Brochet researches the transmission of information in capital markets. He has investigated the effects of information... View Details

25 Jul 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: July 25, 2017

experience physical improvements? In this paper, we introduce a computer vision method to measure changes in the physical appearances of neighborhoods from time-series street-level imagery. We connect changes in the physical appearance of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

20 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Power Posing: Fake It Until You Make It

We can't be the alpha dog all of the time. Whatever our personality, most of us experience varying degrees of feeling in charge. Some situations take us down a notch while others build us up. New research shows that it's possible to View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

04 Jan 2017
What Do You Think?

How Much Bureaucracy is a Good Thing in Government and Business?

results .” Kamal Gupta, citing his experience with corporate bureaucrats, said, “We have a word for it; we call these people ‘zombie managers.’ They keep on pushing papers round and round, and then the actual decision goes to a guy who... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

18 Mar 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: LEGO

Although it isn't part of the admissions criteria, experience playing with LEGOs can come in handy at Harvard Business School. When Stefan H. Thomke teaches his new case about the iconic toy company, he gives students eight-studded LEGO... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Entertainment & Recreation

27 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

practices that had been recognized by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., they began surveying large and random samples of companies to understand how well best practices were being used. In the first 10 years the project encompassed some... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Web

Mid-US - Global

transportation, sparking his passion for improving these systems with the belief that "bridging communities through effective transit solutions is not only a means to physical mobility, but class mobility as well." Drawing from his varied View Details

01 Jun 2024
News

Quantum Leap

also causes delays, or latency, which further degrades performance. Error correction, which involves catching and fixing the random mistakes that inevitably crop up in any computer, is also a challenge, as quantum error correction... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Chris Sorensen; quantum computing; innovation; leadership; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

September 2019
Teaching Note

Gun Safety in America: Three Leaders Propose Innovative Solutions

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joseph Paul

This is a teaching note to the original case: Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used... View Details

Citation

Purchase

27 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?

Political connections and family control are more common in Asian businesses than in the United States. In addition, says HBS professor D. Quinn Mills, American CEOs tend to use one of five leadership styles: directive, participative,... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

24 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 24

cross-national data for 32 countries, and controlling for per capita GDP, income inequality, and other factors. Countries that had higher rates of tipping behavior tended to have higher rates of corruption. We suggest that this surprising... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Cry in Front of Your Boss

Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. Reframing to signal competence For the study, the researchers set up five experiments to tease out how reframing emotion as passion affected both perceptions of competence and... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

14 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Feeling Stressed? Try Sniffing Your Romantic Partner's Shirt

five hours of removal. The t-shirts were frozen to preserve the scent and thawed two hours before the stress test experiment began. (Pro tip: Freezing an item of clothing will preserve the wearer’s scent for up to two years, according to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 Feb 2011
First Look

First Look: Feb. 15

control condition, and this effect was mediated by self-reported feelings of moral purity. In Experiment 2, the same manipulation increased the amount of money participants donated to a good cause, and... View Details