Human Behavior - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Sep 2007
News

Faculty Research Online

HBS Working Knowledge is an online forum for innovation in business practice, offering a first look at new thinking from HBS faculty. Read the complete articles summarized below by visiting their Web links. Behavioral Finance — Benefiting... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Feb 1998
News

Stephen Covey's Successful Habits

have to compete at a global level and maintain a world-class standard of quality. What's the biggest shortcoming of American business? Its low-trust culture, characterized by defensive and protective communication, hidden agendas, internal politics, and underutilized... View Details

22 Oct 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Motivate Me, Please

everything. To Motivate Employees, Give an Unexpected Bonus (or Penalty) Employees can be more motivated by the anticipation of a reward or punishment than the actual payoff. Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior Research... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January–February 2015
Article

Social Comparisons and Deception Across Workplace Hierarchies: Field and Experimental Evidence

By: Benjamin Edelman and Ian Larkin

We examine how unfavorable social comparisons differentially spur employees of varying hierarchical levels to engage in deception. Drawing on literatures in social psychology and workplace self-esteem, we theorize that negative comparisons with peers could cause either... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Rank and Position; Employees

Citation

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06 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Conducting Layoffs: ’Necessary Evils’ at Work

crucial to the subsequent response of those on the receiving end. "We define a necessary evil as a work-related task that requires a person to cause physical, emotional, or material harm to another human being in order to advance a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 Oct 2018
News

“A Shout Through Time”

proud and... happiness. This was really confirmed by how the family Perzyk collaborated to all this event. Perzyk: It taught me that people are fundamentally kind, and that's something that bears repetition. Not just for this moment in time but, just because it speaks... View Details

01 Dec 2011
News

At Your Service

behavior is discretionary. You have the moving parts of human beings delivering services interacting with human beings as customers. Culture is the guiding force; it’s the... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; customer service; Hospitals; Health, Social Assistance; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services; Air Transportation; Transportation

01 Dec 2010
News

Eight Join HBS Faculty

capital markets and firms’ social, environmental, and governance performance. Lakshmi Ramarajan, an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit, also had ties to HBS before joining the faculty. After earning her doctorate in... View Details

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

fallacy of the assumptions on which it is based: a world of rational humans who are unemotional, well-informed, and take the long-term view in economic decisions. In contrast, behavioral economics emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Oct 2016
News

“You Could Be Dead Any Second”

to exchange the Westerners for prisoners, Quin and the others were used as a human wall while their captors exchanged fire with the Yemeni army. “It seemed impossible that we could survive,” Quin told the Bulletin in 2002. But the moment... View Details

23 Jul 2020
News

How to Create a Workplace that Actually Inspires Passion

01 Oct 1999
News

Eight Among Many: Antoinette J. ("Toni") Rapone

Behavioral ecologist Toni Rapone knows that natural selection is the law of the planet. But for the vibrant and down-to-earth MBA-cum-scientist, that knowledge comes from more than textbooks. Rapone, whose given name, Antoinette, honors... View Details

Keywords: Marguerite Rigoglioso

01 Feb 1999
News

Short Takes

development. Tacit dimensions of human behavior can also point to new directions in product creation, say Leonard and Sensiper. In designing an automobile navigation system, for example, researchers at the... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

14 Dec 2021
News

Gaslighting at Work—and What to Do About It

November 2007
Case

Differences at Work: Jenny (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

Differences at Work: Jenny (A) HBS Case No. 9-408-017 is set in Amsterdam. Accompanied by her boss, Jenny is pitching a marketing engagement, but the prospective client keeps making comments about how attractive he finds her. View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Personal Characteristics; Employees; Diversity; Netherlands

Citation

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01 Jun 2024
News

Action Plan: Role-Play

When you encounter the phrase private investigator, chances are good the character you conjure up in your mind doesn’t resemble Sarah Carson (MBA 1971). So much the better for Carson, whose work has often required convincing people she was a small-business employee... View Details

Keywords: Christine Speer Lejeune; photo by Christina Gandolfo; detective; private investigator; undercover; acting

13 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Ignore This Advice at Your Own Peril

School researchers: Disregarding advice from colleagues could invite harsh backlash that just might damage valued workplace relationships, according to the recent paper Seeker Beware: The Interpersonal Costs of Ignoring Advice, published in Organizational View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Portrait Project

Polina Yampolska

Ten years ago, sitting in a cramped, unheated kitchen in my family's apartment on the outskirts of Kiev, I wrote the closing paragraph of my college application essay: "I like to be a small part in a huge machine that is called human... View Details

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

The Mind of the Market: Extending the Frontiers of Marketing Thought

And, it might seem appropriate to ask, how do such philosophical questions relate to marketing? Zaltman's eponymous research tool, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, called ZMET for short, was designed to illuminate exactly these kinds of View Details