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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,425)
- People (5)
- News (274)
- Research (1,931)
- Events (6)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (1,010)
- 09 Oct 2001
- Research & Ideas
Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations
like that was explicitly designed to engage the drives, the skills, the smarts, and the emotions of such people in a collaborative effort to design, produce, and sell products and services of value to the wider world? After we have... View Details
Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria
- 1990
- Article
Social Influences on Creativity: Evaluation, Coaction, and Surveillance
By: T. M. Amabile, P. Goldfarb and S. C. Brackfield
Two experiments examined the effects of evaluation expectation and the presence of others on creativity. In both experiments, some subjects expected that their work would be evaluated by experts, and others expected no evaluation. Evaluation expectation was crossed, in... View Details
Keywords: Creativity; Social Psychology; Situation or Environment; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation
Amabile, T. M., P. Goldfarb, and S. C. Brackfield. "Social Influences on Creativity: Evaluation, Coaction, and Surveillance." Creativity Research Journal 3 (1990): 6–21.
- 14 Apr 2009
- First Look
First Look: April 14, 2009
Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton Abstract While the concepts of lean production are frequently applied in service organizations, there is little work that rigorously has examined implementing lean View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- 16 Mar 2020
- Research & Ideas
How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business
experiences are enhanced for everyone involved. There are three barriers that can prevent us from productively engaging: 1) not being able to help, 2) not knowing how to help, and, 3) not believing our help is important. Organizations... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
- February 1999
- Case
Volant Skis
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden
Volant brought innovation to the ski equipment industry in 1989 by developing a stainless steel ski. He claimed the skis could turn more easily, could hold an edge in icy conditions, and were more stable than aluminum or fiberglass skis. The company's "soft-flex"... View Details
Keywords: Change Management; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Quality; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation
Wheelwright, Steven C., and Matt Verlinden. "Volant Skis." Harvard Business School Case 699-129, February 1999.
- 17 Jun 2011
- HBS Case
KFC’s Explosive Growth in China
restaurants in China differ markedly in many ways from their Western counterparts. And while Pizza Hut has done very well for itself with nearly 500 restaurants in 120 cities (as of December 2010), KFC's performance has been... View Details
- 31 Aug 2010
- First Look
First Look: August 31
evidence for beneficial effects of both task change and start-of-day restarts on worker productivity. Together, these results offer insight into the underlying structure of productivity and suggest new ways to improve View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 06 Oct 2020
- Sharpening Your Skills
18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters
should focus on providing real solutions to the crisis rather than hard-core selling, with the request that brands work to connect their products and services to the alleviation of crisis-related suffering and challenges. 54 percent of... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
- 2018
- Working Paper
How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections
By: Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel
Many production processes are subject to inspection to ensure they meet quality, safety, and environmental standards imposed by companies and regulators. Inspection accuracy is critical to inspections being a useful input to assessing risks, allocating quality... View Details
Keywords: Assessment; Bias; Inspection; Scheduling; Econometric Analysis; Empirical Research; Regulation; Health; Food; Safety; Quality; Performance Consistency; Performance Evaluation; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry
Ibanez, Maria, and Michael W. Toffel. "How Scheduling Can Bias Quality Assessment: Evidence from Food Safety Inspections." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-090, April 2017. (Revised October 2018. Formerly titled "Assessing the Quality of Quality Assessment: The Role of Scheduling". Featured in Forbes, Food Safety Magazine, and Food Safety News.)
- September–October 2013
- Article
The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring
By: Lamar Pierce and Michael W. Toffel
Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard, which can be particularly onerous when outsourcing the monitoring and... View Details
Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Accountability; Governance Compliance; Policy; Management Practices and Processes; Demand and Consumers; Market Design; Market Entry and Exit; Market Transactions; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Business Processes; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Expectations; Practice; Transportation; Transportation Industry; Service Industry; United States; New York (state, US)
Pierce, Lamar, and Michael W. Toffel. "The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring." Organization Science 24, no. 5 (September–October 2013): 1558–1584. (Winner of the NBS Research Impact on Practice Award from the Academy of Management (AOM) and Network for Business Sustainability (NBS))
- 15 Jan 2008
- First Look
First Look: January 15, 2008
product design, production, distribution, and system integration may be split up among hundreds or even thousands of firms. Different firms will design and produce the different components of a complex artifact (like the processor,... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- 02 Oct 2006
- Research & Ideas
Negotiating in Three Dimensions
directly on the nature of the barriers that you face. When you have a potential deal in mind, we have developed a set of tools to quickly perform what we call a "3-D barriers audit" to determine what barriers stand between you... View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- 2025
- Working Paper
Generative AI and the Nature of Work
By: Manuel Hoffmann, Sam Boysel, Frank Nagle, Sida Peng and Kevin Xu
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology demonstrate a considerable potential
to complement human capital intensive activities. While an emerging literature documents wide-ranging
productivity effects of AI, relatively little attention has been paid... View Details
Keywords: Generative Ai; Digital Work; Open Source Software; Knowledge Economy; AI and Machine Learning; Open Source Distribution; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Labor
Hoffmann, Manuel, Sam Boysel, Frank Nagle, Sida Peng, and Kevin Xu. "Generative AI and the Nature of Work." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-021, October 2024. (Revised April 2025.)
- 01 Apr 2013
- Research & Ideas
First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation
The first few minutes of new employee orientation, if done right, can lead to happier and more productive workers and, ultimately, increased customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, a lot of companies do it wrong. In many firms, employee... View Details
- 20 Apr 2010
- First Look
First Look: April 20
Working Papers Commodity Chains: What Can We Learn from a Business History of the Rubber Chain? (1870-1910) Author: Felipe Tâmega Fernandes Abstract The literature on the rubber boom applied a dependendist view of rubber production in the... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- Blog
Leading Successful Digital Transformation
transformation in large organizations for three main reasons: Focus on optimization and efficiency: Many companies use technology to cut costs, improve efficiency, or enhance the productivity of their current operations. Artificial... View Details
- 20 Apr 2021
- Book
A Simple Question That Can Guide Companies to Epic Success
they eschew efforts—even bold, cutting-edge proposals—that are unlikely to generate value for customers, employees, or suppliers. “Companies that raise customer willingness to pay in a distinctive manner attract the very customers that find the firm’s View Details
Keywords: by Danielle Kost
- 01 Sep 2006
- What Do You Think?
Are We Ready for Self-Management?
or internal to the organization. However, the path to greater latitude on the job is not short. It involves, as Pradipta Saha commented, "Selecting the right entry-level employee ." We have found, for example, that high View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
- 01 Feb 1999
- News
Too Much of a Good Thing?
- too much product (and too much production capability) chasing too few buyers - is hardly a new phenomenon. As a factor in market capitalism, overcapacity has been recognized and analyzed as a... View Details
Keywords: Garry Emmons
- 30 Nov 2007
- What Do You Think?
What Is Management’s Role in Innovation?
little to contribute to processes of creation and innovation. While asking "What isn't management's role in innovation?," Michelle Malay Carter states the case this way: "Nearly all current performance management models are... View Details
Keywords: by Jim Heskett