Publications

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

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Leading Change; Employee Relationship Management; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

22 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Pulling Campbell’s Out of the Soup

Douglas Conant is an introvert. But when he took over as president and CEO of struggling Campbell Soup Co., he realized he had to break out of his comfort zone, get in front of his staff, and make some bold declarations from the get-go. "As introverts, we assume... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

Web

Faculty - Race, Gender & Equity

Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where she teaches the Motivation and Incentives course to MBA students. Professor Whillans earned her PhD in Social Psychology from... Initiatives focus... View Details

28 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Can You Buy Creativity in the Gig Economy?

publishing platform, the site tended to promote those books more aggressively, and in turn, flat-fee books received more views. The message, Zhu says, is simple: “The contractual agreement changes the incentives for both the freelancers... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

March 2000 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Microsoft: Competing on Talent (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny

Describes the evolution of Microsoft's human-resource philosophies, policies, and practices and how they used as a core of the company's competitive advantage. In particular, the focus is on how Microsoft tried to retain its ability to recruit, develop, motivate, and... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Retention; Recruitment; Competitive Advantage; Motivation and Incentives; Business Startups; Talent and Talent Management

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Understaffed and Overworked: What Now?

Meet Cheryl Andrus: Manager. Survivor. A vice president responsible for corporate and product marketing at FranklinCovey in Salt Lake City, Andrus was asked in August 2002 to also take charge of one of the company's business lines. Along with these new responsibilities... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

02 Aug 2007
What Do You Think?

How Will Millennials Manage?

Summing Up Are we approaching a "millennial watershed" in management? The next generation of managers, comprising many "millennials," will be more adept at managing in a changing, global, and networked environment. They will do it with a greater... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

March 2024
Article

When Are Social Protests Effective?

By: Eric Shuman, Amit Goldenberg, Tamar Saguy, Eran Halperin and Martijn van Zomeren

Around the world, people engage in social protests aimed at addressing major societal problems. Certain protests have led to significant progress, yet other protests have resulted in little demonstrable change. We introduce a framework for evaluating the effectiveness... View Details

Keywords: Protests; Social Issues; Outcome or Result; Measurement and Metrics; Power and Influence; Motivation and Incentives

Find at Harvard

Read Now

April 1999 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Al Dunlap at Sunbeam

By: Brian J. Hall, Rakesh Khurana and Carleen Madigan

Al Dunlap was one of the best-known corporate turnaround artists of the 1990s. In 1996, he was hired at Sunbeam to effect a restructuring, but was fired almost two years later when the company's financial performance and stock price began to decline. Many of the... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Restructuring; Stock Shares; Performance Evaluation; Leadership Style; Resignation and Termination; Motivation and Incentives; Executive Compensation; Outcome or Result; Consumer Products Industry; United States

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

Incentive But the real advantage of open source, Lerner and Tirole discovered, is in the delayed or signaling incentives, where the visibility of the programmer's contribution counts most. Open source projects measure individual... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

09 Jun 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Monetizing IP: The Executive’s Challenge

incentives among pool members. This seems to have greatly facilitated the adoption of the MPEG-2 standard. A number of firms have taken the radical step of adopting a code release strategy, where companies release some existing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

04 Jun 2001
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of the Subscription Model?

value of their lifetime revenue streams, can provide a strong incentive for continued product and service excellence. At the same time that former manufacturing enterprises are adopting the subscription model, it appears that media and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

May 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Marshall & Gordon: Designing an Effective Compensation System (A)

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Kerry Herman

CEO Kelly Browne wrestles with the design of a new compensation system to promote the collaboration and cross-selling necessary for supporting her firm's new strategy. Marshall Gordon International, a global public relations (PR) firm, has recently expanded its service... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Customer Relationship Management; Compensation and Benefits; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Alignment; Public Relations Industry