Publications

2021
Working Paper

Equity Concerns Are Narrowly Framed

By: Christine L Exley and Judd B. Kessler

Distributional decisions regularly involve multiple payoff components. In a series of experiments, we show that subjects frequently exhibit narrow equity concerns: individuals apply their fairness preferences narrowly, on a specific component of payoffs, rather... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Perception; Outcome or Result; Resource Allocation; Behavior

SSRN

October 1996 (Revised December 1996)
Case

United Electric Controls

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jody H. Gittell and Sylvie Ryckebusch

United Electric Controls (UE) was a small, traditional family-owned manufacturing company when Dave Reis, the youngest member of the Reis family, took over the business. This case describes Reis's efforts to change UE's traditional work practices in order to make the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Family Business; Production; Business Strategy; Human Resources; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Information Technology; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

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30 Nov 2018
News

The Challenges GM Is Facing, and the Reasoning Behind Its Plant Closures

15 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Competition and Social Identity in the Workplace: Evidence from a Chinese Textile Firm

Keywords: by Takao Kato & Pian Shu

26 May 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Unraveling Results from Comparable Demand and Supply: An Experimental Investigation

Keywords: by Muriel Niederle, Alvin E. Roth & M. Utku Unver

Web

Browse All Articles, Research, & Case Studies - HBS Working Knowledge

illustrate Vietnam's strategic importance and why American policymakers should take note. 24 Oct 2024 Research & Ideas With Millions of Workers Juggling Caregiving, Employers Need to Rethink Support by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette... View Details

February 2024
Technical Note

A Manager's Introduction to Passion for Work

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz

Today, both organizations and employees are increasingly focused on passion. An analysis of 200 million U.S. job postings found that the use of the word “passion” increased nearly tenfold from 2007 to 2019, while a recent survey of thousands of college-educated workers... View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Job Search; Goals and Objectives; Interests; Personal Development and Career

2016
Working Paper

Global Talent Flows

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr, Çağlar Özden and Christopher Parsons

The global distribution of talent is highly skewed and the resources available to countries to develop and utilize their best and brightest vary substantially. The migration of skilled workers across countries tilts the deck even further. Using newly available data, we... View Details

Keywords: Migration; Talent; Diaspora; Diasporas; Talent and Talent Management; Immigration

Web

The “Hawthorne Effect” – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

Paul Lawrence, and others. “Instead of treating the workers as an appendage to ‘the machine’,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld notes in his detailed analysis of the studies, the Hawthorne experiments brought to light ideas concerning motivational... View Details

August 2022
Case

Southwick Social Ventures

By: Henry McGee, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team had found a promising potential investment in Southwick Social Ventures (SSV), a worker and management-owned trouser manufacturer. With a 100% immigrant workforce, the co-operative was focused on reviving... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Massachusetts

September 1989 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Caterpillar, Inc.: George Schaefer Takes Charge

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

For over half a century, Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) had been a world leader in the manufacture of earthmoving and construction machinery. In 1982, just months after it recorded the highest sales and profits in its history, CAT experienced its greatest crisis. Demand fell... View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Crisis Management; Labor Unions; Demand and Consumers; Management Teams; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Manufacturing Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Industrial Products Industry

30 Apr 2020
News

Leading Your Team Past the Peak of a Crisis

2024
Working Paper

People, Practices, and Productivity: A Review of New Advances in Personnel Economics

By: Mitchell Hoffman and Christopher T. Stanton

This chapter surveys recent advances in personnel economics. We begin by presenting evidence showing substantial and persistent productivity variation among workers in the same roles. We discuss new research on incentives and compensation; hiring practices; the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Labor

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September 2024
Exercise

Finding Your 'Jagged Frontier': A Generative AI Exercise

By: Mitchell Weiss

In 2023 a set of scholars set out to study the effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on the quality and productivity of knowledge workers—in this specific instance, management consultants. They wanted to know across a range of tasks in a workflow, which, if any, would... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Performance Productivity; Performance Evaluation; Consulting Industry

Article

A Multicountry Perspective on Gender Differences in Time Use During COVID-19

By: Laura M. Giurge, Ashley V. Whillans and Ayse Yemiscigil (shared authorship)

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered how people spend time, with possible consequences for subjective well-being. Using diverse samples of remote workers from the United States, Canada, Denmark, Brazil, and Spain (n = 31,141), following a preregistered... View Details

Keywords: Time; Subjective Well-being; COVID-19; Health Pandemics; Gender; Time Management; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Global Range

Fall 2016
Article

Global Talent Flows

By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr, Çağlar Özden and Christopher Parsons

The global distribution of talent is highly skewed and the resources available to countries to develop and utilize their best and brightest vary substantially. The migration of skilled workers across countries tilts the deck even further. Using newly available data, we... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Human Capital; Entrepreneurship; Global Range; Competency and Skills; Immigration