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  • 2023
  • Working Paper

Should Human Capital Development Programs Be Voluntary or Mandatory? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton
In a field experiment, we find large differences in productivity treatment effects between voluntary and mandatory workplace mentorship programs. A significant portion of this difference is due to the best employees opting into the program when it is voluntary and... View Details
Keywords: Mentoring; Mentorship Programs; Randomized Controlled Trial; Employees; Relationships; Programs; Performance
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  • Forthcoming
  • Article

Should Human Capital Development Programs Be Voluntary or Mandatory? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton
In a field experiment, we find large differences in productivity treatment effects between voluntary and mandatory workplace mentorship programs. A significant portion of this difference is due to the best employees opting into the program when it is voluntary and... View Details
Keywords: Mentoring; Mentorship Programs; Randomized Controlled Trial; Performance Productivity; Employees; Talent and Talent Management; Programs
Related
  • 09 Nov 2021
  • Research & Ideas

The Simple Secret of Effective Mentoring Programs

Old-fashioned mentoring may be one of the most effective ways to improve job performance, but many mentorship programs don’t reach new hires who need guidance most, new research suggests. Newly hired employees at a United States call... View Details
Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald
  • 08 Apr 2016
  • Research & Ideas

How to Hire a Millennial

General Electric isn’t moving to Boston’s waterfront for the views, however breathtaking they may be. In the increasingly fierce battle for millennial talent, GE’s decision to uproot its long-time headquarters from suburban Connecticut is nothing less than a... View Details
Keywords: by Joseph Fuller
  • April 2003 (Revised April 2006)
  • Case

Developing Professionals-The BCG Way (A)

By: Ashish Nanda
This case provides a brief history of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the firm's approach to development and mentorship of its consultants. It also discusses the challenges facing three consultants who are nearing the two-year mark of working at BCG. View Details
Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Consulting Industry
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  • April 2023
  • Article

Learning Down to Train Up: Mentors Are More Effective When They Value Insights from Below

By: Ting Zhang, Dan Wang and Adam D. Galinsky
Although mentorship is vital for individual success, potential mentors often view it as a costly burden. To understand what motivates mentors to overcome this barrier and more fully engage with their mentees, we introduce a new construct, learning direction, which... View Details
Keywords: Mentoring; Learning Direction; Interpersonal Communication; Learning; Leadership Development
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  • October 2016 (Revised October 2017)
  • Case

Going Rogue: Choson Exchange in North Korea

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Dawn H. Lau and Amy MacBeath
In mid-2015, the Singapore-based CEO of Choson Exchange Geoffrey See pondered his next move. He had founded Choson Exchange as a non-profit in 2009 to further female entrepreneurship in North Korea by providing business and legal training in the isolated country. Now,... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; For-Profit Firms; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; North Korea
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  • 2019
  • Working Paper

The Impact of Professionals' Contributions to Online Knowledge Communities on Their Workplace Knowledge Work

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf and Frank Nagle
Knowledge work is becoming increasingly challenging as pace of change in the knowledge frontier is increasing. Organizations have created multiple mechanisms to minimize knowledge gaps and increase learning such internal training, mentorship programs as well as... View Details
Keywords: Open Source; Future Of Work; Software Development; Knowledge Work; Online Community; Learning; Knowledge Sharing; Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Performance Productivity
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  • May 2025
  • Case

IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan

By: Boris Groysberg and Maxim Pike Harrell
In June 2025, IQanat CEO Aliya Salikova considered scaling opportunities for the foundation, which provided educational opportunities for children from rural regions of Kazakhstan. Established by Kazakhstani businessman and philanthropist Aidyn Rakhimbayev, IQanat... View Details
Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Education Industry; Central Asia
Related
  • 26 Sep 2023
  • Research & Ideas

Unpacking That Icky Feeling of 'Shopping' for Diverse Job Candidates

platforms that used a more developmental approach, which, in addition to recruitment, provided candidates with training, networking, and mentorship opportunities. “Your timeline for promotion and development may not align with the... View Details
Keywords: by Kristen Senz
  • 06 Jun 2016
  • Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

behaviors, and how different types of entrepreneurs are similar and different,” Applegate says. “These insights will enable us to do a better job of educating entrepreneurs, designing apprenticeships and providing the mentorship needed.”... View Details
Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge
  • 08 Oct 2020
  • Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

rotations, or peer mentorship opportunities. The fact that sales was on the third floor and R&D on the second isn’t quite as relevant as it once was. Comprehend/Challenge On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied... View Details
Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams
  • 29 Mar 2022
  • Book

5 Qualities That Help Companies Thrive for Decades—Even Centuries

successful women. Zia Mody, a founding and senior partner of law firm AZB & Partners, suggests it’s not enough to just bring women into the organization; mentors must actively guide their growth. For example, her firm has a structured program in place to provide... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
  • 23 Apr 2018
  • Research & Ideas

Sponsorship Programs Could Actually Widen the Gender Gap

Sponsorship on the Competitive Preferences of Men and Women, published in the journal Management Science. The study was co-authored by Coffman and Nancy R. Baldiga, an economics and accounting professor at the College of the Holy Cross, who is Coffman’s mother.... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
  • 13 Jul 2020
  • Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

lawyer, wrote the Brown vs Board brief in 1954. He took an interest in me for reasons that I don't quite understand and I could emulate him. And so I think it's important. Mentorship is really important. There are two kinds of mentors, I... View Details
Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical
  • 21 Oct 2015
  • Research & Ideas

How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good

difficult to study. When VC companies invest in an idea that later becomes successful, it’s hard to know whether that is because the idea was inherently a good one, or because the investment and mentorship made it good, a self-fulfilling... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Accommodations; Financial Services
  • 31 Aug 2020
  • What Do You Think?

Why Don’t More Organizations Understand the Power of Diversity and Inclusion?

to understand personal challenges and provide mentorship for all of their direct reports, listening to them, and being willing to accept new ideas from them. They must recognize those with diverse backgrounds as resources rather than... View Details
Keywords: by James Heskett
  • 23 Feb 2015
  • Research & Ideas

How to Break the Expert’s Curse

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw famously wrote, "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." But it's often more accurate to say, "He who can do can't teach." It's natural for novices to seek out experts for guidance. That's why many organizations adopt formal... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education
  • 28 Apr 2011
  • Op-Ed

While Waiting for Japan’s Recovery, Let’s Enhance Supplier Competitiveness at Home

pledge to take one additional step beyond their current activities to strengthen the capabilities and business prospects of domestic enterprises. For example, they could promise to: Add a mentorship program in which executives advise... View Details
Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  • 10 Apr 2019
  • HBS Case

How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold

leverage non-market, non-pecuniary resources,” Wu says. For example, a startup can benefit more from advice and mentorship from a successful person in their industry, or in-kind donations of legal or financial services, than they can from... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

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