Publications

SSRN

2020
Working Paper

Social Attachment to Place and Psychic Costs of Geographic Mobility: How Distance from Hometown and Vacation Flexibility Affect Job Performance

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Ohchan Kwon

Using a natural experiment and field interviews, this paper studies how social attachment to place imposes psychic costs on workers who experience geographic mobility. This is especially salient when workers are assigned to locations far from their hometown, which may... View Details

Keywords: Distance From Hometown; Social Attachment To Place; Psychic Costs; Worker Performance; Natural Experiment; Geographic Location; Familiarity; Employees; Performance; India

SSRN

12 Jul 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Long-Term Performance

Keywords: by Diwas S. KC, Bradley R. Staats, Maryam Kouchaki, and Francesca Gino; Health

March 2025
Case

Taylor Guitars: Making Employee Ownership Work the Taylor Way

By: Dennis Campbell, Petros Kusmu and Stacy Straaberg

In 2013, guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars’ co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug were considering several exit options including selling to a competitor or to a private equity firm. The co-founders decided, instead, to embark on a seven-year process to transfer 100%... View Details

Educators

2013
Article

Inflated Applicants: Attribution Errors in Performance Evaluation by Professionals

By: S. A. Swift, D. Moore, Z. Sharek and F. Gino

When explaining others' behaviors, achievements, and failures, it is common for people to attribute too much influence to disposition and too little influence to structural and situational factors. We examine whether this tendency leads even experienced professionals... View Details

Keywords: Evaluations; Correspondence Bias; Selection Decisions; Attribution; Prejudice and Bias; Selection and Staffing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Performance Evaluation; Cognition and Thinking

18 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Your Best Employees Are Burning Out: A Framework for Retaining Talent

performative actions.” Schultz isn’t the only business leader struggling with this challenge. Many employees do not desire to return to the office. So, what should business leaders do? First, as a leader, it... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and MaShon Wilson

28 Mar 2012
Working Paper Summaries

When Performance Trumps Gender Bias: Joint versus Separate Evaluation

Keywords: by Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen & Max H. Bazerman

28 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

How Workplace Wellness Programs Can Give Employees the Energy Boost They Need

strategy to improve performance and drive bottom-line results. You Might Also Like: Your Best Employees Are Burning Out: A Framework for Retaining Talent Are Your Employees... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson

January – February 2008
Article

Managing the Impact of Employee Turnover on Performance: The Role of Process Conformance

By: Zeynep Ton and Robert S. Huckman

We examine the impact of employee turnover on operating performance in settings that require high levels of knowledge exploitation. Using 48 months of turnover data from U.S. stores of a major retail chain, we find that, on average, employee turnover is associated with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Governance Compliance; Retention; Standards; Service Operations; Business Processes; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

08 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Employee Analytics: Productivity Dream or Micromanagement Nightmare?

organizations is also driving the trend, generating “digital trace data”—records of employee behavior captured on devices central to performing jobs everywhere, from the office to the factory floor to the... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

Find at Harvard

04 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence from the Field

Keywords: by Timothy Gubler, Ian Larkin & Lamar Pierce; Service

2021
Working Paper

Multi-location Workers in Multinational Firms? Tradeoffs in Contextual Specialization of Employees and Organizational Outcomes

By: Hise O. Gibson, Ryan W. Buell and Prithwiraj Choudhury

We study how “contextual specialization,” the act of focusing workers’ organizational tasks within a particular locational context, and “contextual non-specialization,” the practice of diversifying workers’ organizational tasks among multiple locational contexts,... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Performance; Experience and Expertise; Selection and Staffing; Strength and Weakness; Personal Development and Career

28 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

sincere handwritten note explaining why the employee deserved the bonus. “If you can find a way to imbue meaning beyond the zeros in the cash reward,” says Whillans, “that same reward will go further.” Reconsider View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

September 2024
Article

A Potential Pitfall of Passion: Passion Is Associated with Performance Overconfidence

By: Erica R. Bailey, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu, Adam D. Galinsky and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Having passion is almost universally lauded. People strive to follow their passion at work, and organizations increasingly seek out passionate employees. Supporting the benefits of passion, prior research finds a robust relationship between passion and higher levels of... View Details

Keywords: Interests; Personal Characteristics; Performance Evaluation

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

Find at Harvard

June 4, 2025
Editorial

Employee Stress Is a Business Risk—Not an HR Problem

By: Marion Chomse, Lydia Roos, Reeva Misra and Ashley Whillans

Workplace stress, on the rise for decades, has been treated by many organizations as a personal issue instead of a business-critical risk that merits executive oversight. This is likely due in part to the fact that companies have not effectively quantified and tracked... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Well-being; Risk Management; Competitive Advantage