Publications

November 2007 (Revised July 2009)
Supplement

Differences at Work: Martin (B)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

In Differences at Work: Martin (B) HBS Case No. 408052 Martin leaves the firm partially because of the incident but he does not tell his firm the reason for his departure. View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Attitudes; Motivation and Incentives; Resignation and Termination

15 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem

believes merchants who consider adopting Apple Pay will naturally wonder: What do we get out of this? And they will specifically want to know if they will be asked to pay higher fees than credit card companies are charging? "Consumers might be View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Technology; Retail

May 2007
Article

Inner Work Life: Understanding the Subtext of Business Performance

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

Anyone in management knows that employees have their good days and their bad days and that, for the most part, the reasons for their ups and downs are unknown. Most managers simply shrug their shoulders at this fact of work life. But does it matter, in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Performance; Motivation and Incentives; Perception; Practice

05 Aug 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Authority versus Persuasion

Keywords: by Eric J. Van den Steen

May 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens

By: Willy Shih

This case describes the motivation for and the development of Siemens' digital manufacturing enterprise vision, which became the foundation for its implementation of Industrie 4.0. While the effort started with a purely defensive move by Anton Huber, head of the... View Details

24 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Stop Thinking of Climate Change as a Religious or Political Issue

You sometimes hear people say things like, "I believe in global warming" or "I don't believe in climate change." It seems odd to approach climate change in this way, as though it were a question of belief, like religion. Most of the time when we confront uncertainty in... View Details

Keywords: by Forest Reinhardt; Energy; Utilities

16 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?

States has often turned to cutting-edge technology solutions to solve strategic and operational challenges. “Costs tend to rise in all organizations unless managers and their staffs are skilled in industrial management and strongly View Details

Keywords: by J. Ronald Fox; Service

2015
Article

Approach, Ability, Aftermath: A Psychological Framework of Unethical Behavior at Work

By: C. Moore and F. Gino

Many of the scandalous organizational practices that have come to light in the last decade—rigging LIBOR, misselling payment protection insurance, rampant Wall Street insider trading, large-scale bribery of foreign officials, and the packaging and sale of toxic... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Ethics; Decision Making

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20 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think

without anyone realizing that they are doing anything wrong. Q: What is motivational blindness? A: Motivational blindness is the tendency to not notice the unethical actions of others when it is against our... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

30 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 30, 2019

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56032 in press Cognition I Know Why You Voted for Trump: (Over)inferring Motives Based on Choice By: Barasz, Kate, Tami Kim, and Ioannis Evangelidis Abstract—People often speculate about why... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

June 2009
Case

Plaza, the Logistics Park of Zaragoza

In the year 2000, the Government of the Autonomous Community of Aragón, Spain, made public a project for the development of a large-scale logistics park in the outskirts of the city of Zaragoza. With an area of nearly 13 square kilometers, PLAZA (an acronym for... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Geographic Location; Growth and Development Strategy; Infrastructure; Logistics; Supply Chain; Transportation; Distribution Industry; Zaragoza

26 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 26

substantially for nonmaterial reasons that affect both institutions and agents' interests. Purchase the book: http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=5625 Re-Constructing IPE: Some Conclusions Drawn from a Crisis... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July 2021
Article

Making Medications Stick: Improving Medication Adherence by Highlighting the Personal Health Costs of Non-compliance

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Joe J. Gladstone, Dan Berry, Charlotte L. Kirkdale, Tracey Thornley and Adam D. Galinsky

Poor compliance of prescription medication is an ongoing public health crisis. Nearly half of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, harming their own health while also increasing public health care costs. Despite these detrimental consequences, prior... View Details

Keywords: Prescription Drugs; Medication Adherence; Personal Health Costs; Health; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Communication Strategy

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Article

Effects of Description of Options on Parental Perinatal Decision-Making

By: Marlyse F. Haward, Leslie K. John, John M. Lorenz and Baruch Fischhoff

Objective: To examine whether parents' delivery room management decisions for extremely preterm infants are influenced by (a) the degree of detail with which options-comfort care (CC) or intensive care (IC)-are presented or (b) their order of presentation. Methods: 309... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Values and Beliefs; Personal Characteristics; Attitudes; Motivation and Incentives; Family and Family Relationships; Health Care and Treatment

04 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

Best of HBS Working Knowledge 2009

answered include: How do I get past a feeling of being stuck in life or work? Can I resist the temptations of success? Am I working too hard? Is there room for spirituality at the office? 10 Reasons to Design a Better Corporate Culture... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

2004
Book

Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America

By: Walter A. Friedman

This book chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Employees; Transformation; United States

February 2008 (Revised May 2011)
Case

The Travails of Rubber: Goodyear or Badyear?

By: Tom Nicholas and Andrew Ferguson

Explores the reason why Charles Goodyear, inventor of rubber vulcanization, was unable to profit from his discovery despite securing international property rights over his invention through a patent in 1844. Considers the utility of patents as an incentive for... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Innovation and Invention; Patents; Motivation and Incentives; Commercialization

07 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 7

crises and of the response of western and central Europe to their gas dependence-I find that firms are driving these political outcomes; those firms are motivated by profits but employ sociological conventions along their ways; and firms... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Cathy Benko: WINning at Deloitte (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and Touche's consulting practice, asks senior partner Cathy Benko to lead Deloitte & Touche's much publicized Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women (WIN). Benko, already the Lead Client Service Partner on one of Deloitte's... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Leadership Development; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Consulting Industry; United States