Workers - Publications - Faculty & Research

21 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

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

iStock Thinking about the fast-approaching era of artificial intelligence, employers rejoice in the increases to productivity such tools could bring, while workers are more likely to calculate the time left before R2-D2 takes over their... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Information

24 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 24

Publication:Organization Science (forthcoming) Abstract How workers experience and express status loss in organizations has received little scholarly attention. I conducted a qualitative study of a French high-tech company that had... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2023
News

Thinking Ahead

As we wind down 2023, there’s talk everywhere of generative AI and how it will fundamentally alter the world as we know it; but how does that translate for your corner of the business world? Is TikTok something you need to take seriously? (Is it time to dance?) We... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Illustrations by Chris Gash; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

30 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Temptation at Work

Keywords: by Alessandro Bucciol, Daniel Houser & Marco Piovesan

Research Summary

Research Overview

Jillian has an interest in understanding the effect of high worker autonomy and uncertainty on operational metrics. Her research attempts to empirically explore the relationship between efficiency, resource utilization, and quality in hospital settings.... View Details

2021
Book

Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Why does the gender gap persist and how can we close it? For years women have made up the majority of college-educated workers in the United States. In 2019, the gap between the percentage of women and the percentage of men in the workforce was the smallest on record.... View Details

Keywords: Women; Career; Gender Gap; Glass Ceiling; Gender; Employment; Personal Development and Career; Equality and Inequality; Organizational Culture; Diversity; Management; Strategy

Citation

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Organizational psychologists have long held that monitoring workers saps them of their autonomy and thereby reduces their effectiveness. Yet technology has intensified such surveillance in recent years: Managers now track everything from clinicians’ handwashing to... View Details

28 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels

matter. Preliminary results from a series of studies of hotel concierge interactions show that front-line service workers often treat customers inequitably, providing better assistance to white customers than Black and Asian customers.... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Time Pressure and Creativity: Why Time is Not on Your Side

empirical research on time pressure and creativity in organizations, and the results were somewhat contradictory. Over the past few years, there's been more and more talk about time pressure in organizations, and what a prominent feature of the work environment it's... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Fine Arts

Web

Building From the Bottom Up - Managing the Future of Work

Research Research Building From the Bottom Up (pdf) Building From the Bottom Up (pdf) What business can do to strengthen the bottom line by investing in front-line workers By: Joseph B. Fuller & Manjari Raman America’s lowest earners are... View Details

12 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 12, 2019

forthcoming World Happiness Report Happiness and Prosocial Behavior: An Evaluation of the Evidence By: Aknin, Lara B., A.V. Whillans, Michael I. Norton, and Elizabeth W. Dunn Abstract— Humans are an extremely prosocial species. Compared to most primates, humans provide... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

January 2025
Teaching Plan

Knowledge Transfer: Toyota, NUMMI, and GM

By: Willy Shih

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 625-003. New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors. It was an opportunity for GM to learn about the Toyota Production System, which was quite different from the mass production... View Details

Keywords: Culture Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Joint Ventures; Transformation; Selection and Staffing; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Sharing; Labor Unions; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Production; Labor and Management Relations; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

Citation

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01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

may be delayed, or not happen, to the detriment of all parties. Inter-claimholder conflicts played a large role in Navistar International's restructuring. The company had amassed a $2.6 billion liability for the medical expenses of retired Navistar View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

14 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

You're Right! You Are Working Longer and Attending More Meetings

minutes—during the pandemic’s early weeks. Employees also participated in more meetings, though for less time than they did before COVID-19 sent many workers home. “There is a general sense that we never stop being in front of Zoom or... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

20 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Language Wars Divide Global Companies

Rod, this prior work is advanced to examine how language differences in subgroups can create an "us versus them" dynamic among workers, and how those schisms are linked to who holds power in firms. The study follows 96 workers... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

10 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

Truth Be Told: Unpacking the Risks of Whistleblowing

enough to encourage an employee to report it. At the same time, we know that thousands of workers still die or get injured due to workplace safety violations. But in securities fraud or tax fraud, where the penalties can be in the... View Details

Keywords: by April White

31 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

How Ben Franklin’s ‘Way to Wealth’ Introduced American Capitalism to the World

Many readers picked up on this and used the text for their own purposes. While we know from individual workers’ autobiographies that Franklin inspired many to lead more economic lives, statesmen could embrace the text because more industrious View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

27 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Hard Work Isn't Enough: How to Find Your Edge

they could decide whether to continue working or take personal time during a two-month severance period. While most workers took the two months off to find a new job or take a break, the woman kept showing up to the office, and when new... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

20 Aug 2020
Book

From the Plow to the Pill: How Technology Shapes Our Lives

For centuries, the creation of innovative technology—from steam engines and automobiles to computers and smartphones—has dramatically changed the nature of our work. Less deeply understood has been the impact of technology on the inner currents of our personal lives,... View Details