Publications

2012
Dictionary Entry

Learning from Failure

By: Mark D. Cannon and Amy C. Edmondson

Failure is defined as an outcome that deviates from expected and desired results. Learning from failure describes processes and behaviors through which individuals, groups and organizations gain accurate and useful insights from failures and modify future behaviors,... View Details

Keywords: Learning From Failure; Failure; Learning; Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation

02 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

The Rich Get Richer: Enabling Conditions for Knowledge Use in Organizational Work Teams

Keywords: by Melissa A. Valentine, Bradley R. Staats & Amy C. Edmondson

Program

Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management

nonprofit management course is presented jointly with the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative. Key Benefits This program delivers the strategic perspectives, practical frameworks, and leadership skills you need to drive high performance... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

It Takes Two to Untangle: Illuminating How and Why Some Workplace Relationships Adapt While Others Deteriorate After a Workplace Microaggression

By: Summer R. Jackson and Basima A. Tewfik

Although scholars largely assume that workplace microaggressions negatively impact the work relationship between the target and the perpetrator, relational deterioration is not the only observable relational outcome. Indeed, there are instances of relational... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Interpersonal Communication; Motivation and Incentives; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution

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November 2001 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Incentive Pay for Portfolio Managers at Harvard Management Company

By: Brian J. Hall and Jonathan Lim

This case describes the compensation system for portfolio managers at Harvard's portfolio management company, including its formulaic and bonus bank features. Harvard Management Co. President Jack Meyer explains the philosophy behind the incentive pay at his company. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Investment Portfolio; Compensation and Benefits; Financial Services Industry

02 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

The Curse of Double-Digit Growth

advisor to Liberian president and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a 1971 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, wrote the policy memorandum at the request of the Liberian government, which seeks fast growth of its own. To cement political and View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

June 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Compensation and Performance Evaluation at Arrow Electronics

By: Brian J. Hall and Carleen Madigan

Describes a company's struggles in implementing a subjective performance rating system for its employees. In particular, it describes the difficulties faced by the CEO in getting managers to combat "ratings inflation"--that is, to produce numerical ratings that are... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Electronics Industry

November 2012
Article

Empirical Observations on Longer-term Use of Incentives for Weight Loss

By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Kevin Volpp

Behavioral economic-based interventions are emerging as powerful tools to help individuals accomplish their own goals, including weight loss. Deposit contract incentive systems give participants the opportunity to put their money down toward losing weight, which they... View Details

Keywords: Weight Loss; Obesity; Behavioral Economics; Intervention; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives

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October 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Hospital 57357: Aligning Performance Towards a Vision of a Cancer-Free Childhood

By: Susanna Gallani and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows the Children Cancer Hospital in Egypt, also known as Hospital 57357, as it goes through the roll-out of a new performance management system, which Dr. Sherif Abouel Naga, founder and CEO of the hospital, had championed. This was a critical juncture as... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Performance Management; Performance Incentives; Strategic Alignment; Health Care and Treatment; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategy; Alignment; Performance Evaluation; Mission and Purpose; Change Management; Health Industry; Egypt; Middle East

January 2024
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting—and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Consulting Industry

March 16, 2021
Article

From Driverless Dilemmas to More Practical Commonsense Tests for Automated Vehicles

By: Julian De Freitas, Andrea Censi, Bryant Walker Smith, Luigi Di Lillo, Sam E. Anthony and Emilio Frazzoli

For the first time in history, automated vehicles (AVs) are being deployed in populated environments. This unprecedented transformation of our everyday lives demands a significant undertaking: endowing complex autonomous systems with ethically acceptable behavior. We... View Details

Keywords: Automated Driving; Public Health; Artificial Intelligence; Transportation; Health; Ethics; Policy; AI and Machine Learning

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30 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Only Capitalists Can Save Capitalism

that can turn these problems into opportunities. The book provides examples of business efforts that promote social good without sacrificing profit: a mobile communications rollout in rural China that "extended the benefits of... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

March 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details

01 Nov 2019
Video

Devi Shetty

Devi Shetty, who founded Narayana hospitals in India, shares one of the most difficult challenges of working as a surgeon in a developing country such as India --having to “put a pricetag on human life” He... View Details

fall 2008
Article

Toward a Theory of Behavioral Operations

By: Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano

Human beings are critical to the functioning of the vast majority of operating systems, influencing both the way these systems work and how they perform. Yet most formal analytical models of operations assume that the people who participate in operating systems are... View Details

Keywords: Management Systems; Operations; Mathematical Methods; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Perspective; Theory

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November 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

A Politician in a Leather Suit and the Paradox of Japanese Capitalism

By: Karthik Ramanna and Matthew Shaffer

Two lost decades later, capitalism in Japan embodies peculiar contradictions—preserving wealth and social stability in the face of declining economic power. Scant transparency in Japanese corporate practices plays an important role in this phenomenon. Sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Economic Systems; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Civil Society or Community; Japan; Tokyo