Publications

23 May 2016
Research & Ideas

A Little Understanding Motivates Copyright Abusers to Pay Up

if the ultimate enforcement mechanism seems so far-fetched? “By understanding why people make mistakes, it may help you creatively design an approach to resolve these disputes” Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Hong Luo looks at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Media & Broadcasting; Publishing

May 1996
Background Note

The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value

Educators

22 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Use Artificial Intelligence to Set Sales Targets That Motivate

lies in finding the sweet spot between these two undesirable outcomes, and determining how compensation can motivate salespeople best. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Chung and several executives from the consulting firm... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

December 24, 2019
Article

Why It's So Hard to Change People's Commuting Behavior

By: Ariella S. Kristal and A. V. Whillans

Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Motivating People; Time And Wellbeing; Time Stress; Commuting; Behavior; Change; Motivation and Incentives

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02 May 2016
News

Motivating Middle-Schoolers to Get up to Speed with Math

Cares, and Big Picture Learning, Math Hoops is a fast-paced board game that challenges student teams to solve math problem on a 24-second clock. Now in use in schools across the country and tied to Common Core state standards, the game is supported by NBA and WNBA... View Details

February 2009 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Jieliang Phone Home! (B)

By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria

At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details

Keywords: Managing People; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Production; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Management Practices and Processes; Compensation and Benefits; Labor; Surveys; Decisions; Manufacturing Industry; China

March 23, 2017
Article

Incentives Don't Help People Change, but Peer Pressure Does

By: Susanna Gallani

This article summarizes the findings of a research study that examined the effectiveness of monetary and non-monetary incentives in establishing persistent organizational behavior modifications. The results of the study highlight the interplay between monetary and... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Change Management

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March 2014
Article

Cheating More for Less: Upward Social Comparisons Motivate the Poorly Compensated to Cheat

By: Leslie K. John, George Loewenstein and Scott Rick

Intuitively, people should cheat more when cheating is more lucrative, but we find that the effect of performance-based pay rates on dishonesty depends on how readily people can compare their pay rate to that of others. In Experiment 1, participants were paid 5 cents... View Details

Keywords: Dishonesty; Social Comparison; Pay Secrecy; Motivation and Incentives; Fairness; Decision Making; Compensation and Benefits

Read Now

03 Jun 2019
News

How to summon motivation when you feel like you don’t have any

24 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Want People to Save More? Send a Text

Dina Pomeranz's interest in helping people build a savings cushion for difficult economic times emerged during a summer internship in Cameroon, where a woman she lived with shared how worried and anxious she was about her financial... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

2004
Chapter

Why People Will Work for You

By: Timothy Butler

Keywords: Employees; Attitudes; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership

April 2011
Article

Ethical Breakdowns: Good People often Let Bad Things Happen. Why?

By: Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel

Companies are spending a great deal of time and money to install codes of ethics, ethics training, compliance programs, and in-house watchdogs. If these efforts worked, the money would be well spent. But unethical behavior appears to be on the rise. The authors observe... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Leadership; Behavior; Conflict of Interests

15 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Don't Bring Me Down: Probing Why People Tune Out Bad News

versions, Exley and Judd Kessler, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, took a new approach to exploring reasons people avoid information. Separating excuses from other motives... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

27 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Ordinary People Get Creative?

over the next decade or so, where more and more things that are considered creative breakthroughs will be made by people whose names are never going to be known as famous individuals,” says Amabile, a Baker Foundation Professor and the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

March 2000 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Microsoft's Vega Project: Developing People and Products

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny

With a focus on Matt MacLellan and his careful development as a project manager under his boss and mentor, Jim Kaplan, the case describes the evolution of Microsoft's human-resource philosophies and policies and illustrates how they work in practice to provide the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Competitive Advantage; Retention; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Design; Information Technology; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership Development

Educators