Human Resources - Publications - Faculty & Research

05 Nov 2014
What Do You Think?

Are We Entering an Era of Neuromanagement?

don't know enough about the human brain to make hiring judgments based on monitoring activity within certain parts of the brain, or about the people who plan to use neuromanagement or about their motives I caution you to be careful what... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Profile

Aaron Mitchell

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? Having a background in Human Resources, I thought it was absolutely necessary to have a broad understanding of business. Earning an MBA at HBS has provided me with not only a deep... View Details

Keywords: Investment Management / Hedge Fund; Services

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

questions: "What resources do I control to accomplish my tasks?" "What measures will be used to evaluate my performance?" "Who do I need to interact with and influence to achieve my goals?" "How much... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

07 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

The Quest for Better Layoffs

could have on families who didn't have a lot of resources at their disposal," says Elana Silver, now a talent development consultant at State Street, a Boston-based financial services company. "For most of my classmates, and for... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

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 investment context and is applicable to a range of other View Details

Keywords: Re: John Beshears; Financial Services

05 Nov 2024
News

Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times

24 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

With Millions of Workers Juggling Caregiving, Employers Need to Rethink Support

made different decisions and it all ends up in court, the company loses. And companies, especially human resources functions, hate administering exceptions. Walmart employs a million people. If all of a... View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

06 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Conducting Layoffs: ’Necessary Evils’ at Work

crucial to the subsequent response of those on the receiving end. "We define a necessary evil as a work-related task that requires a person to cause physical, emotional, or material harm to another human being in order to advance a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Feb 2022
What Do You Think?

Is Concierge Management an Answer to the “Big Quit”?

(iStockphoto/Mladen Zivkovic) Several years ago, my spouse and I turned to concierge medicine. We no longer wanted to deal with a US health care system that often provides basically anonymous, production line diagnosis and treatment during hurried, 15-minute... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 2004
Case

Sales Force Training at Arrow Electronics (A)

By: Jason R. Barro, Brian J. Hall and Aaron Zimmerman

In the mid-1980s, Arrow, the world's largest electronics distributor, implemented a college recruiting program to hire salespeople. The program was part of an effort to increase the professionalism and skill set of the sales force in an industry where few salespeople... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Salesforce Management; Competition

Citation

Educators

Purchase

12 Jan 2009
Research & Ideas

The Value of a ‘Portable’ Career

determined by what industry you are in, or what particular company you work for, but it's also a result of how collaborative your job is. This suggests that workers who have already developed extensive firm-specific human capital (in the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Sports

June 2000
Case

Egon Zehnder International: Managing Professionals in an Executive Search Firm

Compares the management of professionals at Egon Zehnder International, a leading executive search firm, and its competitors. Highlights recruitment, rewards, and retention as key dimensions of strategy in professional service firms. View Details

Keywords: Management; Retention; Recruitment; Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

03 Oct 2018
What Do You Think?

How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace?

other organizations as you use this to turn your human resource to human capital.” Several respondents nevertheless expressed caution in just how to manage inclusion,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

08 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

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

hiring and productivity, says Jeffrey T. Polzer, the UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource Management at Harvard Business School. His recent paper probes how organizational researchers should study... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

Profile

Rocio Parra

departments and P&Ls, human capital management and higher level strategic decision-making. What did you learn during the job search process? Through the job search process, I learned about the power of networking and the benefits of... View Details

Keywords: Retail

12 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Can Our Parenting Struggles Make Us Better Leaders?

control. Permissive parents allow for too much autonomy on the part of children. Negligent parents don’t allow for either control or autonomy—they’re simply absent or uninvolved. A fourth option is better suited for human growth than... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati; Air Transportation

11 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Non-competes Push Talent Away

Several years ago, on his first day of work at a Boston-based speech-recognition software company, Matt Marx's new employer surprised him with a non-compete agreement. The terms stated that if Marx left the company, he couldn't work anywhere else in the industry for... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Technology

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

What It Takes: Minorities in the Executive Suite

We are on the cusp of a new millennium; yet the face of corporate power in the United States remains overwhelmingly white. People of color hold less than 1 percent of all senior executive posts. But what about leaders such as Kenneth Chenault, president and chief... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross