Publications

January 2002
Background Note

A Note on Incentives in the NFL

By: Brian J. Hall and Jonathan Lim

This case describes compensation and incentive issues in one of the major U.S. professional sports leagues, the National Football League (NFL). It first provides some background information on the labor market for players and the salary cap and then describes incentive... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Labor and Management Relations; Conflict and Resolution; Motivation and Incentives; Sports; Sports Industry; United States

09 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 9, 2019

Abstract—Understanding why employees go the extra mile at work is a key problem for many organizations. We conduct a field experiment at a medical organization to study motivations for employees to submit project proposals for... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

December 2018 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Fishbowl: Scaling Up

By: Leslie K. John

Fishbowl is a social media app that allows professionals to connect with other relevant professionals both within their company and across industry. Unlike many other social media apps, on which users typically present idealized portraits of themselves, on Fishbowl,... View Details

02 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

The lightning-fast ascent of generative AI isn’t the only sea change on the horizon for businesses in the new year. The global economy is in flux as war, climate change, trade issues, and infrastructure problems demand attention. Many companies continue to struggle to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

April 2015
Article

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

By: Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper

This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk assessment and lending decisions. We first show that while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Management Processes; Credit Products; Experimental Economics; Risk Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry

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August 2021
Case

Livongo: Scaling a Purpose-Driven Organization in Healthcare

By: Ranjay Gulati, Aseem Shukla and Reva Nohria

When seasoned entrepreneur Glen Tullman founded the chronic health care startup Livongo in 2014, it was personal. His son lived with diabetes, and Tullman knew firsthand how taxing it could be to manage such an unrelenting disease. Livongo set out to empower people... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Industry; Scaling; Telehealth; Health Care and Treatment; Small Business; Internet and the Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Opportunities; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Industry

September 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Fishbowl: Scaling Up

By: Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

Teaching Note for HBS No. 919-013. Fishbowl is a social media app that allows professionals to connect with other relevant professionals both within their company and... View Details

12 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 12, 2006

differences in motives and activities of not-for-profit organizations, and the need to develop additional theories to address those differences in explaining interorganizational arrangements between them. The Structural Determinants of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Six Steps for Reinvigorating America

Motivates values-based capitalism and drives companies to contribute to solving social and environmental problems while also providing employees stimulating and satisfying work. Restores trust by committing to government as an instrument... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

26 Apr 2024
HBS Case

Deion Sanders' Prime Lessons for Leading a Team to Victory

write a case study about how Sanders, known as “Coach Prime,” applies a military commander’s approach to motivating his team. “Deion reminds me of military officers I’ve served under because of the clear way he communicates and the... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

07 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 7, 2006

theory on this important workplace behavior. Findings also suggest a profoundly asymmetrical relation between the intrapersonal motivations for and against speaking up, leading to a novel theoretical explanation for the prevalence of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

What’s Good about Quiet Rule-Breaking

Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant (Princeton University Press), looks at how craftsmen establish and fulfill professional identity while simultaneously skirting rules against the creation of personal artifacts... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Time Pressure and Creativity: Why Time is Not on Your Side

an organizational setting, have you talked to or researched creative folks in the arts or other endeavors? A: Several years ago, while a professor of psychology at Brandeis University, I studied professional artists who occasionally did... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Fine Arts

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

naturally that way; I knew too much about the politics of Asia when I got shot down. I think there was a lot of damage done by optimists; other writers from other wars share that opinion. The problem is, some people believe what View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

05 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

strategies for tamping it down. In one online study, participants were asked to read a biography by a fictitious peer who had achieved professional success, for example by landing a prestigious, lucrative job. People who read only about... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

26 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 26

agents, for whom the relative value of the reward is higher. Second, contrary to existing laboratory evidence, financial incentives do not appear to crowd out intrinsic motivation in this setting. Third, non-financial rewards elicit... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

single year. This paper first documents that moves between paid work and self-employment are common and consistent with experimentation to learn about entrepreneurial earnings. This pattern motivates estimating the expected returns to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2012
Article

How Leaders Kill Meaning at Work

By: Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

Senior executives routinely undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees in four avoidable ways. This article is based on analysis of hundreds of work diaries from professionals describing everyday events that... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Creativity; Performance Productivity; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation Strategy; Performance; Strategic Planning; Leading Change; Balanced Scorecard; Mission and Purpose