Publications

November 2007
Supplement

Differences at Work: Emily (B)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

In Differences at Work: Emily (B) HBS Case No. 9-408-046 Emily considers whether to file a formal complaint with her Human Resources department about the emails but ultimately decides to confront the culprits herself, beginning by sending an email to one of her... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Interpersonal Communication; Employees; Conflict and Resolution; Communication

Purchase

November 2001 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Lonestar

By: Michael A. Wheeler and Georgia Levenson

Explores the legal and ethical responsibilities of a manager who believes that he has heard of a serious instance of sexual harassment, but who has been implored by the victim not to report it. Discussion can focus on the immediate problem or be expanded to a broader... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Crisis Management; Legal Liability

Educators

Purchase

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

to 67.5% of standard. Customers who observed employees engaged in labor perceived greater effort, appreciated that effort, and valued the service more. Employees who observed customers felt more appreciated and, in turn, were more... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Negotiate “Yes” Across Cultural Boundaries

proposal and negotiating strategy seemed to signal a possibly corrupt deal among elites. This inadvertently triggered the involvement of the Honduran Congress, labor unions, political parties, potential business competitors, indigenous... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius

2016
Working Paper

The Microstructure of Work: How Unexpected Breaks Let You Rest, but Not Lose Focus

By: Pradeep Pendem, Paul Green, Bradley R. Staats and Francesca Gino

How best to structure the work day is an important operational question for organizations. A key structural consideration is the effective use of breaks from work. Breaks serve the critical purpose of allowing employees to recharge, but in the short term, translate to... View Details

Keywords: Breaks; Productivity; Attention; Workload; Harvesting; Working Conditions; Behavior; Performance Productivity; Organizations

SSRN

2014
Working Paper

The Contract Year Phenomenon in the Corner Office: An Analysis of Firm Behavior During CEO Contract Renewals

By: Ping Liu and Yuhai Xuan

This paper investigates how executive employment contracts influence corporate financial policies during the final year of the contract term, using a new, hand-collected data set of CEO employment agreements. On the one hand, the impending expiration of fixed-term... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Contracts; Behavior; Employment

May 2013
Article

From Russia with Love: The Impact of Relocated Firms on Incumbent Survival

By: Oliver Falck, Christina Guenther, Stephan Heblich and William R. Kerr

We identify the impact of local firm concentration on incumbent performance with a quasi-natural experiment. When Germany was divided after World War II, many firms in the machine tool industry fled the Soviet occupied zone to prevent expropriation. We show that the... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Competition; Supply and Industry; Labor; West Germany; Soviet Union

February 2010
Article

The Optimal Taxation of Height: A Case Study of Utilitarian Income Redistribution

By: N. Gregory Mankiw and Matthew C. Weinzierl

Should the income tax include a credit for short taxpayers and a surcharge for tall ones? The standard Utilitarian framework for tax analysis answers this question in the affirmative. Moreover, a plausible parameterization using data on height and wages implies a... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Wages; Personal Characteristics

2002
Chapter

Factories in the Countryside: The Industrial Workforce and Social Division in Nantong County, 1895-1937

By: Elisabeth Koll

Keywords: History; Human Capital; Rural Scope; Society; China

05 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 5

PublicationsThe Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value Authors:Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton Publication:Management Science (forthcoming) Abstract A ubiquitous feature of even the fastest... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Paid for Success: Options for Compensating CEOs

When large public companies perform poorly, do the CEOs running them share the financial pain? That question, according to HBS associate professor Brian Hall, is not answered by looking at their salary and bonus but rather by a careful examination of their stock and... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

14 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing

If there is one job that many software analysts and programmers cannot stand, it is testing software on the path to launch. The grinding concentration and repetitive nature of the tasks serve to drive many techies around the bend. Testing—due in no small part to the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services; Computer

13 Sep 2006
Op-Ed

Rising CEO Pay: What Directors Should Do

Ask any thoughtful corporate board member what they are most concerned about these days, and it is not Sarbanes-Oxley. It is CEO pay. Directors worry because shareholders continue to express outrage, and the media attention to the issue will not go away. Directors are... View Details

Keywords: by Jay W. Lorsch

June 1988
Supplement

Bethoney Manufacturing: Interview with Plant Manager and Union President, Video

By: Michael Beer

Keywords: Labor and Management Relations

2002
Chapter

Helping Managers Assess the Value of Human Capital

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Keywords: Human Capital; Valuation

July 1991 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Work: Craft and Factory in Nineteenth-Century America

Illustrates conditions of work for two types of 19th-century workers: an itinerant craftsman and New England textile factory "operatives," most of whom were women. The contrast is between freedom and geographical and occupational mobility for the craftsman, versus... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Gender; New England

December 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Yellow Corporation: On the Verge of Bankruptcy

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Yellow Corporation, one of the country’s oldest and largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, was nearing its 100th anniversary in 2024. Whether it would reach that milestone, however, was uncertain as the company was attempting to restructure its operations to... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Capital Structure; Restructuring; Financial Management; Ethics; Borrowing and Debt; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Strategy; Truck Transportation; Change Management; Transportation Industry; Shipping Industry; United States

Educators

Purchase

12 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

One Report: Better Strategy through Integrated Reporting

emissions can have a positive return on investment but hurt earnings and cash flow in the short term. Some commitments may actually result in a wealth transfer from shareholders to another stakeholder group, such as paying a "living wage" that is above market View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2017
Working Paper

Rethinking Measurement of Pay Disparity and its Relation to Firm Performance

By: Ethan Rouen

I develop measures of firm-level pay disparity and examine their relation to firm accounting performance. Using comprehensive compensation data for a large sample of firms, I find no statistically significant relation between the ratio of CEO-to-mean employee... View Details

Keywords: Pay Disparity; Pay Ratio; CEO Pay Ratio; Income Inequality; Executive Compensation; Wages; Equality and Inequality; Business Ventures; Performance

SSRN