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  • All HBS Web  (36)
    • News  (11)
    • Research  (19)
    • Multimedia  (1)
  • Faculty Publications  (3)

Show Results For

  • All HBS Web  (36)
    • News  (11)
    • Research  (19)
    • Multimedia  (1)
  • Faculty Publications  (3)
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  • 2015
  • Working Paper

Toxic Workers

By: Michael Housman and Dylan Minor
While there has been a strong focus in past research on discovering and developing top performers in the workplace, less attention has been paid to the question of how to manage those workers on the opposite side of the spectrum: those who are harmful to organizational... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Human Resource Management; Misconduct; Worker Productivity; Superstar; Ethics; Performance Productivity; Personal Characteristics; Employees
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Housman, Michael, and Dylan Minor. "Toxic Workers." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-057, October 2015. (Revised November 2015.)
  • 09 Nov 2015
  • Working Paper Summaries

Toxic Workers

Keywords: by Dylan Minor
  • 18 Jan 2016
  • Research & Ideas

Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers

Toxic workers aren’t just a pain in the rear; they’re also a pain in the bottom line, according to a new Harvard Business School working paper. Dylan Minor, visiting assistant professor of business... View Details
Keywords: by Roberta Holland
  • 2016
  • Working Paper

Workplace Design: The Good, the Bad, and the Productive

By: Michael Housman and Dylan Minor
We study the effects of performance spillover in the workplace-both positive and negative-on several dimensions, and find that it is pervasive and decreasing in the physical distance between workers. We also find that workers have different strengths, and that while... View Details
Keywords: Strategic Human Resource Management; Peer Effects; Productivity; Spillovers; Toxic Worker; Strategy; Working Conditions; Performance Productivity; Human Resources
Citation
SSRN
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Housman, Michael, and Dylan Minor. "Workplace Design: The Good, the Bad, and the Productive." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-147, June 2016.
  • 03 Nov 2015
  • First Look

November 3, 2015

"toxic" behavior. We also find that avoiding a toxic worker (or converting him to an average worker) enhances performance to a much greater extent than replacing an average View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 22 Jan 2018
  • Sharpening Your Skills

Why You Are Unhappy at Work

importance of being supportive. Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers A productive workplace can be easily disrupted by one unruly employee. Here's what companies can do to detox the... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
  • 22 Aug 2017
  • First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 23

average of $1,459 per salesperson—almost 20% more than they spend on workers in all other functions. Yet, when it comes to equipping sales teams with relevant knowledge and skills, the ROI of sales training is disappointing. Studies... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 13 Jul 2022
  • Book

Reimagining the Economy: What Would It Take to Put People First?

toxic many of the cleaning products she was using were to her health and to the environment. So, when she heard about Vida Verde, a worker cooperative organized by Brazilian women immigrants, which sells... View Details
Keywords: by Avery Forman
  • 20 Dec 2022
  • Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

isolating at home, the remaining workers asked for KN95 masks, better testing protocols, and the right to turn away illegally unmasked customers. These requests were flatly refused—a surprising response from a company whose founder,... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Beer
  • 08 Sep 2022
  • Book

Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

push-the-limit culture, which some employees viewed as toxic and sexist. And WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann, whose self-aggrandizing behavior belied the company’s major troubles, proved to be an immature executive, he says. “Authenticity... View Details
Keywords: by Lane Lambert
  • 05 Dec 2018
  • Research & Ideas

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

person. As prior research has shown, this type of envy can be toxic in the workplace, stifling worker productivity, leading employees to behave less cooperatively, interfering with group cohesion, and making... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
  • 25 Nov 2019
  • Research & Ideas

When Your Passion Works Against You

the right context, this intense positive energy can act like a gravitational pull that sucks in other workers to invest their time and support, ultimately contributing toward the success of the idea. “Passion, like a smile, is... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman
  • 03 Jan 2023
  • What Do You Think?

How Would the Leadership Style of Girl Scouts' Frances Hesselbein Fare Today?

the economic and political forces of his time. Certainly, it is time for something better.” David William Baum added, “Jack would be too toxic in today’s ‘soft’ culture. He would last about 15 minutes and then he would be canceled.”... View Details
Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett
  • 01 May 2020
  • What Do You Think?

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

of remote work. On the other hand, remote work can provide an alternative to a toxic office culture resulting from management neglect. Armando Del Bosque commented, “Organizational culture helps us find what we love, love what we do and... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
  • 01 Dec 2015
  • First Look

December 1, 2015

emissions in many settings in which it would otherwise fail to do so. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42912 Toxic Workers By: Housman, Michael, and Dylan Minor... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 20 Dec 2018
  • Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2018

wrestle with questions of identity and rebuilding relationships. Teresa Amabile presents preliminary findings on the journey to after-work life. Why You Are Unhappy at Work Sometimes the deck is stacked against you at work. Learn more about how you can fight back... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
  • 12 Sep 2007
  • Op-Ed

Building Sandcastles: The Subprime Adventure

exacerbated the crisis, by making it hard for the homeowner with a toxic subprime mortgage to refinance to a fixed-rate product or to sell his home. As for bailing out the hedge funds, whose executives earned million-dollar bonuses in the... View Details
Keywords: by Nicolas P. Retsinas; Banking; Construction; Real Estate
  • 21 May 2020
  • Research & Ideas

Fighting the COVID Blues: Advice from Business Research

and financial distress—a mentally toxic combination for many. In fact, almost half of adults in the United States, 45 percent, say that worry and stress related to the coronavirus and the resulting economic downturn are hurting their... View Details
Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman and Danielle Kost
  • 31 Jan 2017
  • Research & Ideas

Why These Business School Professors Oppose Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

considerations clearly meet ethical ones. The executive order is not only unrelated to reality, but it also presents us with a toxic society project, one that opposes communities to each other instead of bringing them closer. From a... View Details
Keywords: by Staff
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