Publications

January–February 2015
Article

The Art of Giving and Receiving Advice

By: David A. Garvin and Joshua D. Margolis

The article looks at giving and receiving advice as an element of organizational leadership and managerial ability. It suggests that the skills related to these actions, such as self-awareness and diplomacy, are not innate talents but can be learned. It lists problems... View Details

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December 2022
Article

'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback

By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Jennifer E. Abel, Juliana Schroeder and Francesca Gino

People often avoid giving feedback to others even when it would help fix a problem immediately. Indeed, in a pilot field study (N=155), only 2.6% of individuals provided feedback to survey administrators that the administrators had food or marker on their faces.... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Helping; Prosocial Behavior; Misprediction; Relationships; Interpersonal Communication; Perspective

2021
Working Paper

'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback

By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Jennifer Abel, Juliana Schroeder and Francesca Gino

People often avoid giving feedback to others even when it would help fix a problem immediately. Indeed, in a pilot field study (N=155), only 2.6% of individuals provided feedback to survey administrators that the administrators had food or marker on their faces.... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Helping; Prosocial Behavior; Relationships; Social Psychology; Theory; Perception

2021
Working Paper

Soliciting Advice Rather Than Feedback Yields More Developmental, Critical, and Actionable Input

By: Hayley Blunden, Jaewon Yoon, Ariella S. Kristal and Ashley V. Whillans

Asking for feedback is a popular way to solicit third-party input at work. However, feedback seeking is only weakly related to performance, and employees often report that the feedback that they receive is unhelpful. Addressing this discrepancy, across six studies... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Advice; Personal Development; Future Focus; Evaluative Mindset; Performance; Personal Development and Career

September 20, 2019
Editorial

Why Asking for Advice Is More Effective Than Asking for Feedback

By: Jaewon Yoon, Hayley Blunden, Ariella S. Kristal and A.V. Whillans

Conventional wisdom says you should ask your colleagues for feedback. However, research suggests that feedback often has no (or even a negative) impact on our performance. This is because the feedback we receive is often too vague—it fails to highlight what we can... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Advice; Advice Seeking; Feedback Culture; Advice Taking; Interpersonal Communication

November 2012 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Doing Deals and Leading Teams at XAF Partners

By: Boris Groysberg and Kerry Herman

Private equity firm XAF Partners, created out of the 2003 merger of Shanghai-based Xuan Partners and AF Group, a spin out of the Shanghai-based, emerging market-focused private equity arm of a large European bank, had grown steadily over the last decade, establishing... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Leading Teams; Producing Managers; Delegation; Giving And Receiving Feedback; Managing Performance; Leadership; Work-Life Balance; Managerial Roles; Talent and Talent Management; Service Operations; Time Management; Performance; Financial Services Industry; Asia

Educators

30 May 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Non-Standard Matches and Charitable Giving

Keywords: by Michael Sanders, Sarah Smith & Michael I. Norton

August 2011
Case

Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto: A Case Vignette on Feedback - Denise Frazer's Perspective

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anthony J. Mayo

Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto, two HBS students, have decided to give each other feedback on their class participation. While Denise believes that she has provided concrete, actionable feedback to Paolo, she does not feel that Paolo is reciprocating. His feedback is... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Perspective; Outcome or Result; Performance Evaluation

Educators

Research Summary

I give therefore I have: Philanthropy and Prosperity

We suggest and document a surprising means by which people can feel wealthier: giving their money away. We suggest that just as acts of conspicuous generosity signal wealth and power to others, they trigger feelings of subjective wealth and power in the giver--despite... View Details

August 2011
Case

Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto: A Case Vignette on Feedback - Paolo Canto's Perspective

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anthony J. Mayo

Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto, two HBS students, have decided to give each other feedback on their class participation. While Paolo believes that he has been sensitive to Denise in providing feedback, he does not feel that Denise is reciprocating. Her feedback seems to... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Perspective; Outcome or Result; Performance Evaluation

Educators

15 Aug 2023
Research & Ideas

Why Giving to Others Makes Us Happy

feel good for the actor.” Their review, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, examines 15 published, pre-registered experiments on prosocial spending and reveals insights about when View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

July 2024
Article

A (Dynamic) Investigation of Stereotypes, Belief-Updating, and Behavior

By: Katherine B. Coffman, Paola Ugalde Araya and Basit Zafar

Many decisions—such as what educational or career path to pursue—are dynamic in nature, with individuals receiving feedback at one point in time and making decisions later. Using a controlled experiment, with two sessions one week apart, we analyze the dynamic effects... View Details

Keywords: Feedback; Beliefs; Stereotypes; Self-assessment; Gender Gap; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Perception; Decision Choices and Conditions

01 Sep 2021
Op-Ed

How Women Can Learn from Even Biased Feedback

why, 74 percent said they found such conversations to be either uncomfortable or unhelpful. Men and women alike in the sample reported feeling not very optimistic that the feedback they’d View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

Article

Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion: Evidence for a Positive Feedback Loop between Prosocial Spending and Happiness

By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton

We examine whether a positive feedback loop exists between spending money on others (i.e. prosocial spending) and happiness. Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Spending; Happiness; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

16 Mar 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Driven by Social Comparisons: How Feedback about Coworkers’ Effort Influences Individual Productivity

Keywords: by Francesca Gino & Bradley R. Staats; Banking

17 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men

severity of their misconduct, giving their bosses a reason for treating them differently. When they dug deeper, however, they found the exact opposite. Men are more likely to be repeat offenders, and when... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

27 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Can Being the ‘Token’ Give Women and Minorities a Competitive Edge?

Women and Black professionals are more willing to join a team that’s predominantly male or white if it helps them stand out in hyper-competitive situations, despite the potential psychological toll of being a “token,” new research says.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

October 2020
Article

Overcoming Resource Scarcity: Consumers' Response to Gifts Intending to Save Time and Money

By: Alice Lee-Yoon, Grant Donnelly and A.V. Whillans

Consumers feel increasingly pressed for time and money. Gifts have the potential to reduce scarcity in recipients’ lives, yet little is known about how recipients perceive gifts given with the intention of saving them time or money. Across five studies (N =... View Details

Keywords: Scarcity; Status; Time; Gift Giving; Status and Position; Money; Attitudes; Emotions