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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,571)
- News (232)
- Research (1,168)
- Events (2)
- Multimedia (6)
- Faculty Publications (445)
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- 2013
- Working Paper
The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence from the Field
By: Timothy Gubler, Ian I. Larkin and Lamar Pierce
Many scholars and practitioners have recently argued that corporate awards are a "free" way to motivate employees. We use field data from an attendance award program implemented at one of five industrial laundry plants to show that awards can carry significant... View Details
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Service Delivery; Performance Productivity; Failure; Service Industry
Gubler, Timothy, Ian I. Larkin, and Lamar Pierce. "The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence from the Field." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-069, February 2013.
- 17 Jan 2019
- Research & Ideas
Why Business Should Support Employees Who Are Caregivers
Companies face a growing yet largely undetected threat to their worker productivity, employee retention and, ultimately, competitive advantage: the needs of employees who are caregivers. The aging... View Details
- 08 Aug 2023
- Research & Ideas
Black Employees Not Only Earn Less, But Deal with Bad Bosses and Poor Conditions
hiring,” he says. A first step toward improving workplaces Zhang warns of several caveats to the data, most importantly that the reviews on Indeed are self-selecting, so don’t necessarily represent a comprehensive assessment of all View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- 30 Apr 2024
- Book
When Managers Set Unrealistic Expectations, Employees Cut Ethical Corners
failed to meet the quotas could be transferred or have their work hours reduced. The unsurprising result is that when employees found themselves unable to meet the quotas, a significant number of them resorted to exaggeration and... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
- 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
Chomse, Marion, Lydia Roos, Reeva Misra, and Ashley Whillans. "Employee Stress Is a Business Risk—Not an HR Problem." Harvard Business Review (website) (June 4, 2025).
- 28 Aug 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
Homesick or Home Run? Distance from Hometown and Employee Performance: A Natural Experiment from India
Keywords: by Prithwiraj Choudhury and Ohchan Kwon
- 29 Nov 2021
- Research & Ideas
How Bonuses Get Employees to Choose Work Over Family
choose to spend time with—work colleagues or family—based on how their pay is structured, in particular whether they get bonuses for a job well done or earn fixed salaries regardless of performance. In fact, employees who received View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Kim Raczka
- 01 Feb 2000
- Research & Ideas
Keeping Track: Performance Measurement, Control & Strategy
professor Robert Simons has been adding to that body of knowledge and practice through an extensive research agenda that has resulted in numerous books, articles, and case studies. Working Knowledge editor Jim Aisner sat down recently with Professor Simons to talk... View Details
Keywords: Re: Robert Simons
- January 2020
- Article
Rethinking Measurement of Pay Disparity and Its Relation to Firm Performance
By: Ethan Rouen
I develop measures of firm-level pay disparity and examine their relation to firm performance. Using comprehensive compensation data for a large sample of firms, I find no statistically significant relation between the ratio of CEO-to-mean employee compensation and... View Details
Keywords: Pay Disparity; Pay Ratio; CEO Pay Ratio; Income Inequality; Executive Compensation; Employees; Wages; Equality and Inequality; Business Ventures; Performance
Rouen, Ethan. "Rethinking Measurement of Pay Disparity and Its Relation to Firm Performance." Accounting Review 95, no. 1 (January 2020): 343–378.
- 21 Nov 2023
- Research & Ideas
Employee Negativity Is Like Wildfire. Manage It Before It Spreads.
explores how emotions intensify within groups and uncovers ways that leaders can reorient the negative feelings of employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders to help them work toward a positive purpose. For example, if employees are... View Details
Keywords: by Kristen Senz
- 15 Sep 2014
- Research & Ideas
Are the Most Talented Employees the Highest Paid? Yes—If They’re Bankers
Job seekers who want to be paid commensurate with their talent level might want to pursue a career in high finance. Recent research finds that the finance industry compensates employees largely according to how talented they are. Other... View Details
- 30 Mar 2003
- Research & Ideas
How Your Employees and Customers Drive a New Value Profit Chain
It may be time to think about who really creates value in your organization, starting with customers and employees. Harvard Business School professors W. Earl Sasser and James L. Heskett discuss their book, The Value Profit Chain. Mahoney: The premise that happy View Details
Keywords: by Manda Mahoney
- July 2022
- Article
The Passionate Pygmalion Effect: Passionate Employees Attain Better Outcomes in Part Because of More Preferential Treatment by Others
By: Ke Wang, Erica R. Bailey and Jon M. Jachimowicz
Employees are increasingly exhorted to “pursue their passion” at work. Inherent in this call is the belief that passion will produce higher performance because it promotes intrapersonal processes that propel employees forward. Here, we suggest that the pervasiveness of... View Details
Keywords: Passion; Self-fufilling Prophecy; Lay Beliefs; Interpersonal Processes; Employees; Performance; Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Social Psychology
Wang, Ke, Erica R. Bailey, and Jon M. Jachimowicz. "The Passionate Pygmalion Effect: Passionate Employees Attain Better Outcomes in Part Because of More Preferential Treatment by Others." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 101 (July 2022).
- 03 May 2022
- Research & Ideas
Desperate for Talent? Consider Advancing Your Own Employees First
Job openings in the United States continue to hover at record high levels, exacerbated by the Great Resignation and a sputtering emergence from the pandemic. Competition remains fierce among companies struggling to find qualified workers. Yet many employers,... View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Layne
- 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
Buell, Ryan W. "Operational Transparency: Make Your Processes Visible to Customers and Your Customers Visible to Employees." R1902H. Harvard Business Review 97, no. 4 (March–April 2019): 102–113.
- 27 Jun 2016
- Research & Ideas
These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance
captivated Harvard Business School’s Raffaella Sadun for more than a decade. “The question is, Are there certain practices that are beneficial to firm performance regardless of the industry or the country in which you use them?” says... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- March 2004 (Revised July 2005)
- Case
ACCION International: Maintaining High Performance Through Time
By: Michael Chu
ACCION International has been a major innovator in microfinance for 30 years. Reviews organizational context under which key industry-shaping concepts were developed (from peer group lending, guarantee funds, equity investment funds, and regulated commercial banking... View Details
Keywords: Joint Ventures; Equity; Microfinance; Employee Relationship Management; Non-Governmental Organizations
Chu, Michael. "ACCION International: Maintaining High Performance Through Time." Harvard Business School Case 304-095, March 2004. (Revised July 2005.)
- 02 Apr 2024
- Research & Ideas
Employees Out Sick? Inside One Company's Creative Approach to Staying Productive
can’t control absenteeism, and you don’t know when you will receive an order for a very important buyer,” he says. “So how do you execute your strategy?” While studying a factory in India, Tamayo found one efficient way businesses can remain productive even when View Details
- December 2022
- Article
Divergence Between Employer and Employee Understandings of Passion: Theory and Implications for Future Research
By: Jon M. Jachimowicz and Hannah Weisman
There is an increasingly prevalent expectation in contemporary society that employees be passionate for their work. Here, we suggest that employers and employees can have different understandings of passion that potentially conflict. More specifically, we argue that... View Details
Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Human Capital; Performance Effectiveness; Management Style
Jachimowicz, Jon M., and Hannah Weisman. "Divergence Between Employer and Employee Understandings of Passion: Theory and Implications for Future Research." Research in Organizational Behavior 42 (December 2022).
- 18 Jun 2024
- Research & Ideas
What Your Non-Binary Employees Need to Do Their Best Work
researchers asked survey respondents a wide range of questions related to their beliefs and preferences. They found that overall, non-binary individuals: Underestimated their own performance more than women, who also underestimate their... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding