Publications

2011
Book

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

The most effective managers have the ability to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine... View Details

May 2011
Article

The Power of Small Wins

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers' diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and... View Details

January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Corporate Strategy

2008
Book

Ownership Quotient: Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage

By: James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Joe Wheeler

Hundreds of large organizations worldwide have used the groundbreaking Service Profit Chain to improve business performance. Now The Ownership Quotient reveals the next generation of the chain: customer and employee "owners" of your business. Employee-owners exhibit... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Ownership; Employee Ownership; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation

January 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Comcast New England: A Journey of Organizational Transformation

By: Michael Beer and Anita Arun

This case describes how Kevin Casey, Comcast's New England Region general manager, transformed a low commitment and performance organization. When he took charge of this Comcast region he inherited an organization that was bureaucratic, had low customer satisfaction,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Relationship Management; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; New England

2005
Working Paper

Silent Saboteurs: How Implicit Theories of Voice Inhibit the Upward Flow of Knowledge in Organizations

By: James R. Detert and Amy C. Edmondson

This article examines, in a series of three studies, how people working in organizational hierarchies wrestle with the challenge of upward voice. We first undertook in-depth exploratory research in a knowledge-intensive multinational corporation in which employee input... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Working Conditions; Knowledge Management; Attitudes; Organizational Culture

Read Now

September 2005
Article

Affect and Creativity at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile, Sigal G. Barsade, Jennifer S. Mueller and Barry M. Staw

This study explored how affect relates to creativity at work. Using both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data from the daily diaries of 222 employees in seven companies, we examined the nature, form, and temporal dynamics of the affect-creativity... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Attitudes; Employees; Theory

Read Now

March 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Akamai's Underwater Options (A)

By: Brian J. Hall, Houston Lane and Jonathan Lim

Akamai's stock price declines dramatically with the NASDAQ in 2000, causing virtually all employee options to go underwater. Ownership and retention incentives are largely destroyed, and employee morale falls sharply. Management weighs the pros and cons of various... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Stock Options; Attitudes; Compensation and Benefits

September 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America: The Quest for a Model Workplace

By: Lynn S. Paine and Dale Coxe

This case details the sexual harassment case brought against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America by nearly 300 female employees in April 1996. The recommendations developed for the company by former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Marten are presented. In response to... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Behavior; Attitudes; Problems and Challenges; Working Conditions; Crime and Corruption; Auto Industry; United States

August 1997 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Harassment at Work?

By: Lynn S. Paine and Dale Coxe

Presents three scenarios involving behavior that could arguably be called sexual harassment. The first scenario is set in a medical supply company in an unnamed emerging market region. The second is set in a New York-based securities firm. The third is set in a U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Groups and Teams; Crime and Corruption; Attitudes; Behavior; Labor and Management Relations; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Financial Services Industry; New York (city, NY); United States

spring 1991
Article

Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Heskett

Most managers recognize that good service is a direct result of having effective, productive people in customer contact positions. However, most service companies perpetuate a cycle of failure by tolerating high turnover and expecting employee dissatisfaction. This... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Service Delivery; Success; Failure; Management Skills; Service Industry

Forthcoming
Article

Differentiating on Diversity: How Disclosing Workforce Diversity Influences Consumer Choice

By: Maya Balakrishnan, Jimin Nam and Ryan W. Buell

Companies are facing increased pressure to “walk the talk” on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their operations. One specific call-to-action from stakeholders is the public disclosure of EEO-1s. Companies with 100+ employees are federally mandated to annually... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Corporate Disclosure; Diversity; Employees; Perception

Read Now

Forthcoming
Article

Is Hybrid Work the Best of Both Worlds? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Christos A. Makridis and Kyle Schirmann

This paper reports causal evidence on how the extent of hybrid work—the number of days worked from home relative to days worked from office—affects employee attitudes and performance. Workers who spent around two days in the office each week on average self-reported... View Details

Keywords: Attitudes; Performance Consistency; Employees; Work-Life Balance