employee performance - Publications - Faculty & Research

11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

high-speed technological advances their employees master, and that so much of the work is difficult to observe. “IT has become a 'participative sport' for the senior management team, rather than a 'spectator sport.'” Chapter 15 of the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

05 Sep 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Making the Right Technical Hire

than someone who can code a fresh UI. If performance issues are causing churn, then hire a performance engineer, someone who knows how to diagnose and fix performance issues.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin; Technology

27 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Can Being the ‘Token’ Give Women and Minorities a Competitive Edge?

steps toward addressing institutional racism Companies have long used competition to motivate employees to think creatively and push themselves. Law firms, consultancies, and other adherents to the “up or out” philosophy aim to promote... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

20 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

How Partisan Politics Play Out in American Boardrooms

American corporations have never been more partisan—starting at the top with executives who often bring on like-minded managers belonging to the same political party. Now, new research shows that when boardrooms are dominated by one party, the companies’ financial... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

07 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis

quickly to produce and air new advertising creative that tapped into the rapidly changing zeitgeist. The result, the Retail Heroes campaign, featured CEO McMillon Zooming in remotely from home to thank the one million Walmart front line View Details

Keywords: by Jill Avery and Richard Edelman

06 Jun 2008
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?

of employee time" for it. Edward Hare proposes that organizations might "understand who their deep thinkers are and then make absolutely certain that they're in a position to take advantage of their rather unique... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

26 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

What’s the Value of a Win in College Athletics?

and payday is courtesy of Assistant Professor Doug J. Chung, who reviewed 117 schools with Division I football and basketball teams, matching athletic performance with revenue flow covering an 11-year period. The findings were... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Sports; Education

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

critical dimensions to organizations that want to work toward parity, not for cosmetic reasons, but to improve performance and value: Attraction and recruitment. Actively seek candidates outside managers’ networks, and assess the language... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

01 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Bad At Your Job? Maybe It's the Job’s Fault

jobs is not expanding,” says Simons. “People feel more pressure to own their roles and they’re stressed because they’re being pulled in a lot of different directions, but they’re not getting the help they need.” The idea that an employee’s poor View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

13 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding

the organization’s core activities, sharpen the performance of its leadership team, and rebalance where necessary. This finding came to light when we studied Big C and Small C change in professional sports—specifically, how coaches who... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, and Sebastian Flegr; Sports

12 Mar 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Firing the CEO

the CEO, with manageable consequences that are generally positive. Factor 1: Fit High performing companies require CEOs with the right skill set, decision style, and values. They have strong credibility with key stakeholders. They build... View Details

27 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dynamics of Standing Still: Firestone Tire & Rubber and the Radial Revolution

independent. "Firestone's historical excellence and disastrous response to global competition and technological innovation," writes Sull, "posed a paradox for industry observers: Why had the industry's best managed company turned in the worst View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation

18 Dec 2019
Book

6 Skills That Wise Companies Harness for World-Changing Innovation

As a boy, Soichiro Honda, the eventual founder of Honda Motor Co., was infatuated with airplanes. At age 10 he biked 20 kilometers to see American pilots performing aerobatics near his home in Japan, climbing a tree to watch the show. It... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

July 2005 (Revised September 2016)
Case

24 Hour Fitness (A): The Rise, 1983–2004

By: John R. Wells, Elizabeth A. Raabe and Gabriel Ellsworth

In October 2004, Mark S. Mastrov, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, reflected on how far his company had come in just over 20 years. From humble beginnings in 1983 in San Leandro, California, 24 Hour Fitness had grown to become the largest privately-owned health-club chain in... View Details

Keywords: 24 Hour Fitness; Mark Mastrov; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Weight Loss; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Sales Force Compensation; Incentive Systems; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Private Equity; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Nutrition; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Operations; Service Operations; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Capital Structure; Performance; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

Citation

Educators

Purchase

10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

keep the team progressing toward their goal, but to properly address all concerns raised along the way. Use the “clean sheet of paper” exercise to think creatively about company processes Another best practice is to perform the clean... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

sciences and materials sciences provide sufficient growth opportunities to sustain consistent and superior performance? Would DSM’s 21,000 employees worldwide embrace the DSM Strategy 2018: “Driving profitable growth through science-based... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity

Companies all over the world have striven for transparency in the workplace, literally tearing down walls in an effort to let managers and employees observe each other. Take, for example, one of the 14 key principles of The Toyota Way,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

industry to measure to what extent waiting-time performance impacts different firms' market shares and price decisions. We report on a large-scale empirical industrial organization study in which the demand equations for fast-food... View Details