Publications

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2023
Working Paper

Fintech to the (Worker) Rescue: Access to Earned Wages, Financial Health and Employee Turnover

By: Jose Murillo, Boris Vallée and Dolly Yu

Using novel data from a Mexican FinTech firm, we study the usage by workers of earned wages access, an innovative financial service offered by firms to their employees as a benefit. We find usage to be significant and concentrated towards the end of the pay cycle. We... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Present Bias; Earned Wage Access; Wages; Employees; Retention; Well-being; Mexico

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April 1, 2020
Article

Coronavirus Is Putting Corporate Social Responsibility to the Test

By: Mark R. Kramer

A great many large companies talk about their values, or about how much they care for their employees and other stakeholders. The coronavirus crisis is the time for them to make good on that commitment. The author offers some things that corporations can do to help... View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

September 2024
Case

Leadership for Stretch Goals: Inspiring Employees to Achieve the Impossible at Charter Next Generation

By: Ethan Rouen and Elisabeth Powell

In 2023, Kathy Bolhous, CEO of Charter Next Generation (CNG), set out to achieve an ambitious "Moonshot"—increasing profits by $100 million within three years, purely through internal innovations and efficiency gains, without layoffs or new revenue streams. After years... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Employee Ownership; Motivation and Incentives

Educators

March 2018
Article

Enacting Knowledge Strategy Through Social Media: Passable Trust and the Paradox of Non-work Interactions

By: Tsedal Neeley and Paul Leonardi

Despite the recognition that knowledge sharing among employees is necessary to enact knowledge strategy, little is known about how to enable such sharing. Recent research suggests that social media may promote knowledge sharing because they allow social lubrication and... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Employees; Interactive Communication; Trust

12 Apr 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Productivity Suffers When Employees Are Allowed to Schedule Their Own Tasks

managers to make decisions about pricing, product displays, or brand-related social media content. On one hand, that makes good sense because they are more informed about local conditions and customers than anyone at headquarters. On the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

March–April 2019
Article

Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees

By: Ryan W. Buell

Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the... View Details

Keywords: Operational Transparency; Customers; Services; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Customer Satisfaction; Behavior; Service Industry

April 14, 2017
Article

Companies Like United Need to Cultivate Good Judgment, and Free Their Employees to Use It

By: John A. Deighton

United Airlines has pledged to improve its training programs and empower its employees to put customers first in the wake of a video showing a passenger being dragged from a plane. Of all the U.S. air carriers, United should have known the power of social media and... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Training; Air Transportation Industry

May 2018
Article

Effects of an Information Sharing System on Employee Creativity, Engagement, and Performance

By: Shelley Xin Li and Tatiana Sandino

Many service organizations rely on information sharing systems to boost employee creativity to meet customer needs. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain, based on a registered report accepted by Journal of Accounting Research, to test whether an... View Details

Keywords: Information; Knowledge Sharing; Employees; Creativity; Performance

28 May 2012
Research & Ideas

A Pragmatic Alternative for Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

Associates. A social responsibility strategy should fulfill two goals: create a positive social impact, and enhance the company's brand, reputation, employee morale, and/or its... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

17 Feb 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Breaking Them In or Revealing Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomer Self-Expression

Keywords: by Dan Cable, Francesca Gino & Brad Staats

September–October 2024
Article

Working Around the Clock: Temporal Distance, Intrafirm Communication, and Time Shifting of the Employee Workday

By: Jasmina Chauvin, Prithwiraj Choudhury and Tommy Pan Fang

This paper examines the effects of temporal distance generated by time zone separation on communication in geographically distributed organizations. We build on prior research, which highlights time zone separation as a significant challenge, but argue that employees... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Employees; Behavior; Equality and Inequality

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January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being (A) and (B)

By: Ashley V. Whillans

This case describes the experiences of Michael Sanders—the Chief Executive of the What Works Center for Children’s Social Care—as he led the design and implementation of a program of research aimed at improving the social care system in the United Kingdom (UK) at the... View Details

Keywords: Non-cash Compensation; Behavioral Science; Employees; Well-being; Compensation and Benefits; United Kingdom

02 Apr 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs?

focus on employees and more on business and profitability." Phil Clark posited that knowledge work that deals with intangible results and hard-to-pinpoint accomplishments "just isn't as satisfying" as work used to be. John... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

January–February 2023
Article

Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility

By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson

A lot of leaders believe that the formula for attracting and keeping talent is simple: Just ask people what they want and give it to them. The problem is, that approach tends to address only the material aspects of jobs that are top of employees’ minds at the moment,... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Recruitment; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Satisfaction

2021
Case

Starbucks: Opposing a Local Tax to Address Homelessness while Promoting Social Justice

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

In 2018, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted 9-0 for a tax that would require companies whose annual revenue surpassed $20 million to pay the city $275 per employee per year. The tax money would then be used to combat homelessness in Seattle. In response,... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; City; Welfare; Wealth and Poverty; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Seattle

June 2018
Supplement

Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (B)

By: Tatiana Sandino and Olivia Hull

Supplement to HBS No. 118-007, "Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (A)." Chief Human Resources Officer Tore Høylie was proud of REMA 1000 (REMA)’s strong employee engagement with Workplace, Facebook’s corporate social media platform; however, some users complained that the... View Details

Keywords: Social Network; Enterprise Social Media; Facebook; Workplace; Social and Collaborative Networks; Communication Technology; Problems and Challenges; Social Media; Retail Industry; Norway

15 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

Want Your Employees to Plan Better for Retirement? Don't Do This

builds employee loyalty and bolsters company reputation, but requires effective tools to carry out. Beshears’s research sheds important light on the presumed efficacy of social norms marketing in the... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Beshears; Financial Services

7 Nov 2010
Conference Presentation

Speaking Up Constructively: Managerial Practices That Elicit Solutions from Front-line Employees

By: Michael W. Toffel

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Employees; Conflict and Resolution