Publications

01 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation

that provides telephone and chat support for its global customers. Traditionally, Wipro's orientation for call center employees consisted of an informational session about the company, followed by several weeks of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Web Services; Service; Telecommunications

27 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding

Furthermore, hiring managers should provide virtual sessions to replace orientations or mandatory training sessions that the employee cannot attend in person in the early days of their employment. Build... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg

17 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

If the CEO’s High Salary Isn't Justified to Employees, Firm Performance May Suffer

turnover, and that is incredibly costly because you have to search for new people and train them, plus you have a short-term decline in productivity,” Rouen says. “And then you have the people who stay but are dissatisfied and won’t work... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

25 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Fostering Organizational Learning: The Impact of Work Design on Workarounds, Errors, and Speaking Up About Internal Supply Chain Problems

Keywords: by Anita L. Tucker

26 Mar 2024
Cold Call Podcast

How Do Great Leaders Overcome Adversity?

Keywords: Re: Anthony Mayo

02 Aug 2017
What Do You Think?

Summing Up: Why Can’t Organizations Engage Their Employees?

anything less than excellence; treat everyone with respect; provide training and role models; and reinforce the right behaviors and hold people accountable for the wrong behaviors. David Wittenberg offered advice on measurement: “It’s... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga

On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Prejudice and Bias; Crisis Management; Employees; Training

10 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

Truth Be Told: Unpacking the Risks of Whistleblowing

report possible fraud? What kinds of internal control levers, employee training programs, or perhaps even internal (nonfinancial) rewards and recognitions lead to a greater number of internal whistleblower... View Details

Keywords: by April White

01 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Dying to Lead: How Reaching the Top Can Kill You Sooner

during the course of their careers, from the value of their homes to the promotions they received. Nicholas also verified whether workers attended prestigious GE training retreats. "Higher-ranked employees... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

Article

Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust

By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino

One of the toughest challenges leaders face is managing diverse perspectives—and given heightened tensions over politics and movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, that’s more difficult today than ever before. At the same time, productive disagreement and... View Details

Keywords: Polarization; Employees; Perspective; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

May 2021
Teaching Note

From Globalization to Dual Digital Transformation: CEO Thierry Breton Leading Atos Into 'Digital Shockwaves'

By: Tsedal Neeley

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 419-027 and 419-046. Thierry Breton, chairman and CEO of IT company Atos, faces a pivotal juncture. After spending eight intense years scaling the company globally to over 100,000 employees in 70 countries, he sees digital shockwaves... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Transformation; Strategy; Disruption; Employees; Competency and Skills; Training; Organizational Culture; Digital Transformation; Information Technology Industry

13 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Managers, Here’s How to Bond with New Hires Remotely

remote—compared with 5 percent before the pandemic—many companies are already setting up frequent informal chats online to keep the communication lines with remote employees open. “I’ve already had conversations with several companies... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

21 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Sure Thing to Increase Productivity

Evidence on Complementarities Between Human Capital and Machine Learning. The paper, written with Evan Starr and Rajshree Agarwal of the University of Maryland, suggests that firms must think carefully about the skills they’ll need to hire for or View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Information

06 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Motivate Your High Performers to Share Their Knowledge

salesperson handles those issues slightly differently. It’s hard to train for that because everyone has a different style and way of talking to customers.” Tackling reticence and resistance at a call center For the study, Stanton and his... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

December 2013
Article

How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management

By: David A. Garvin

High-performing knowledge workers often question whether managers actually contribute much, especially in a technical environment. Until recently, that was the case at Google, a company filled with self-starters who viewed management as more destructive than beneficial... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Managing Change; Organizational Change; Analytics; Management; Leadership; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management

Find at Harvard

2024
Working Paper

The Wade Test: Generative AI and CEO Communication

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Bart S. Vanneste and Amirhossein Zohrehvand

Can generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) transform the role of the CEO? This study investigates whether Gen-AI can mimic a human CEO and whether employees display aversion to Gen-AI communication. We present a framework of Gen-AI aversion that distinguishes... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; AI and Machine Learning; Perception; Communication

SSRN

Read Now

December 2023
Case

Davivienda Bank's Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo, Raffaella Sadun and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

Set in 2022, this case describes the digital transformation strategy of Davivienda— a leading player in Colombia’s commercial banking and one of the companies belonging to Grupo Bolívar, a major Colombian financial conglomerate—and the bank’s upskilling and reskilling... View Details

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

School Professor Julie Battilana. The crux of the problem is that CEOs and other leaders often get such a power trip that they lack empathy and humility, which inhibits their ability to understand and respect what their employees value.... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

June 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Suzhou Good-Ark Electronics: Creating and Implementing a Sage Culture

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Nien-he Hsieh, Susan J. Winterberg, Nancy Hua Dai and Shalene Gupta

Suzhou Good-Ark, a Chinese semiconductor implemented "Sage Culture" management based on traditional Chinese philosophy. Productivity doubled, turnover decreased, and employee satisfaction shot up. By 2015, more than 2,000 companies had toured Wu’s factories, and Wu had... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Philosophy; Leadership; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Performance; Semiconductor Industry; China; Singapore