Meaningful Work - Publications - Faculty & Research

September 2023
Case

Derek Aguirre

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Derek Aguirre is the executive director of a nonprofit organization in Detroit, Michigan that uses the sport of squash as a vehicle to support young people in low-income urban areas. The case discusses his path to pursue meaningful work and his reflections on the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Happiness; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise; Business Startups; Sports; Education; Mission and Purpose; Education Industry; Sports Industry; Service Industry; United States; Boston; Detroit

Citation

Educators

08 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

How to Hire a Millennial

General Electric isn’t moving to Boston’s waterfront for the views, however breathtaking they may be. In the increasingly fierce battle for millennial talent, GE’s decision to uproot its long-time headquarters from suburban Connecticut is nothing less than a... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

insulted and angry. But Twitter hasn’t backed down from the idea and has even promoted Davis. Employee dissatisfaction, the company said, is sometimes the cost of shaking things up. "Culture gets changed by doing real work in line with... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

27 Dec 2011
News

Start the New Year with Progress

01 Sep 2021
Op-Ed

How Women Can Learn from Even Biased Feedback

When receiving their performance reviews, most people find such feedback conversations to be difficult, no matter how skilled the feedback-givers are. In a recent survey I conducted of 360 working adults, 89 percent said they were not... View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

14 Jun 2021
Op-Ed

When Your Nerves Get the Best of You, Change the Narrative

narrative and turn stressful moments into meaningful ones. Expect to do well How we think about an outcome influences our actual results. This insight has been demonstrated for years through the use of medical placebos. In one study,... View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

06 Dec 2011
News

How to Save an Unproductive Day in 25 Minutes

13 Jul 2016
Blog Post

How To Hire A Millennial

work arrangements, meaningful mentorship programs, and sense of mission. General Electric isn’t moving to Boston’s waterfront for the views, however breathtaking they may be. In the increasingly fierce... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

15 Sep 2011
News

Three Ways to Turn Setbacks into Progress

13 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Exploring Racial Justice with the Scaling Minority Businesses Course

Nimisha Ganesh is a Class of 2021 MBA graduate from Harvard Business School and the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of GenUnity, a civic leadership startup. Prior to HBS, she worked at Goldman Sachs and Kitamba, a U.S.-based... View Details

16 Apr 2015
News

Improving employee productivity: On your toes

August 2023
Technical Note

Two Ways of Pursuing a Calling

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Work can be a means to a financial end, a stepping stone to higher-level jobs, or a meaningful end in itself: a calling. The technical note provides an overview of two different ways people can pursue a calling: with an internal focus or external focus. View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Happiness; Identity; Well-being; Motivation and Incentives; Human Needs; Satisfaction; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry; Music Industry; Education Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

07 Mar 2013
HBS Seminar

Mike Toffel, Harvard Business School

10 May 2013
News

Women and Work: A Harvard Prof’s Take

20 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Scaling Climate Tech Innovation with Lee Scott (MBA 2023)

What were you doing prior to HBS? What made you decide to go to HBS? Before HBS, I worked on TPG’s impact assessment team, Y Analytics, focused on energy, agriculture, food, and industrial deals. I learned to think deeply about measuring... View Details

05 Nov 2020
Blog Post

12 Weeks of VC Summer: Remote Edition

would I be able to pick up the necessary skills to succeed in a new role and build meaningful relationships with the team and the entrepreneurs? Would I enjoy this experience? I had some previous experience View Details

Justine Murray

Justine is a doctoral student in the Micro Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School. Her research interests include callings, meaningful work, time, money and happiness and how individuals account for each of these factors when making decisions about... View Details

11 Oct 2021
News

Tapping into Our Inner Captain in Times of Crisis

Blog

What Black Executives Really Want

challenges, but also their ideas, asking "What do you wish your organization or your boss would do differently?" I cherry-picked my sample, choosing people who went to top colleges and were working in blue chip companies. You would expect... View Details

28 Mar 2013
News

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