Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(894)
- Faculty Publications (158)
- 2010
- Chapter
The Impact of Employer Matching on Savings Plan Participation under Automatic Enrollment
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Existing research has documented the large impact that automatic enrollment has on savings plan participation. All the companies examined in these studies, however, have combined automatic enrollment with an employer match. This raises a question about how effective... View Details
- May 2009
- Article
Authority versus Persuasion
This paper studies a manager's trade-off between using persuasion and using interpersonal authority to get an employee to 'do the right thing' from the manager's perspective (when the manager and employee disagree on the right course of action). It... View Details
- March 2009
- Case
Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit
By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria and Deborah Bell
Barbara Norris struggles to address the many problems facing her as a recently promoted nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She has inherited a unit with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and highest... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised July 2012)
- Case
Jieliang Phone Home! (A)
By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria
At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised August 2021)
- Supplement
Jieliang Phone Home! (B)
By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria
At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details
- February 2009 (Revised July 2012)
- Supplement
Jieliang Phone Home! (C)
By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria
At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators - bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and... View Details
Keywords: Globalization; Compensation and Benefits; Surveys; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Labor and Management Relations; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Manufacturing Industry; Telecommunications Industry; China
- 2009
- Working Paper
Authority versus Persuasion
This paper studies a principal's trade-off between using persuasion versus using interpersonal authority to get the agent to "do the right thing"; from the principal's perspective (when the principal and agent openly disagree on the right course of action). It shows... View Details
- 2009
- Article
Silenced by Fear: The Nature, Sources, and Consequences of Fear at Work
By: Jennifer Kish Gephart, James R. Detert, Linda K. Trevino and Amy C. Edmondson
In every organization, individual members have the potential to speak up about important issues, but a growing body of research suggests that they often remain silent instead, out of fear of negative personal and professional consequences. In this chapter, we draw on... View Details
Keywords: Organizations; Working Conditions; Research; Emotions; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Theory; Behavior
- November 2008 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Elizabeth Collins
CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc., which comprises an older division that fabricates products like piping and tanks for water and wastewater processing plants, and a much newer division that develops biochemical... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Motivation; Business Growth; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Innovation Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Retention; Operations; Recruitment; Integration; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry
- July – August 2008
- Article
Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model
By: Nitin Nohria, Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee
- June 2008 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
Name Your Price: Compensation Negotiation at Whole Health Management (A)
By: Brian J. Hall, Deepak Malhotra and Nicole Bennett
MBA student Monroe Davies is asked by a potential employer to determine his own compensation package. This case follows Jim Hummer, President and CEO of Whole Health Management and Davies through a unique recruitment process that raises questions of compensation and... View Details
- April 2008
- Case
Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad
By: Michael Beer and Elizabeth Collins
In May 2007, the Engstrom Auto Mirrors plant, a relatively small supplier based in Indiana, faces a crisis. The business was in the second year of a downturn. Sales had started to decline in 2005; a year later, plant manager Ron Bent had been forced to lay off more... View Details
- April 2008
- Case
Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (A)
By: Paul W. Marshall, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong
In late November 2000, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, who headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman... View Details
- November 2007
- Article
Innovation and Incentives: Evidence from Corporate R&D
By: Josh Lerner and Julie Wulf
Beginning in the late 1980s, American corporations began increasingly linking the compensation of central research personnel to the economic objectives of the corporation. This paper examines the impact of the shifting compensation of the heads of corporate research... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm
This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give a manager 'interpersonal authority' over employees (in a world with differing priors). The paper derives such interpersonal authority as... View Details
- May 2007
- Article
Inner Work Life: Understanding the Subtext of Business Performance
By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer
Anyone in management knows that employees have their good days and their bad days and that, for the most part, the reasons for their ups and downs are unknown. Most managers simply shrug their shoulders at this fact of work life. But does it matter, in terms of... View Details
- 2006
- Working Paper
Too Motivated?
I show that an agent's motivation to do well (objectively) may be unambiguously bad in a world with differing priors, i.e., when people openly disagree on the optimal course of action. The reason is that an agent who is strongly motivated is more likely to follow... View Details
- March 2006
- Background Note
Influencing Customer Behavior in Service Operations
By: Frances X. Frei and Amy C. Edmondson
Explores ways in which service firms can influence the behavior of their customers. Drawing from research on employee motivation and applying it to customer motivation, the note describes two levels of managerial control: instrumental control, which shapes behavior... View Details
- Article
Policy Implications of Weak Patent Rights
By: James J. Anton, Hillary Greene and Dennis Yao
Patents vary substantially in the degree of protection provided against unauthorized imitation. In this chapter we explore a range of work addressing the economic and policy implications of "weak" patents—patents that have a significant probability of being overturned... View Details
- November 2005 (Revised May 2007)
- Case
Leading Change at Simmons (A)
By: Tiziana E. Casciaro, Amy C. Edmondson, Stacy McManus and Kate Roloff
Explores the challenge of managing large-scale organizational change at Simmons, an old and established company that manufactures and distributes mattresses. The new CEO, Charlie Eitel, hired to turn the organization's performance around, considers whether to implement... View Details