More from the Author

• Article | Management Science | 2012

  Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks: Evidence from a Japanese Bank

  B. Staats and F. Gino

  Sustaining operational productivity in the completion of repetitive tasks is critical to many organizations' success. Yet research points to two different work-design-related strategies for accomplishing this goal: specialization to capture the benefits of repetition and variety (i.e., working on different tasks) to keep workers motivated and provide them opportunities to learn. In this paper, we investigate how these two strategies may bring different productivity benefits over time. For our empirical analyses, we use two-and-a-half years of transaction data from a Japanese bank's home loan application-processing line. We find that over the course of a single day, specialization, as compared to variety, is related to improved worker productivity. However, when we examine workers' experience across a number of days, we find that variety helps improve worker productivity. Additionally, we show that part of this benefit results from workers' cumulative experience with changeovers. Our results highlight the need for organizations to transform specialization and variety into mutually reinforcing strategies rather than treating them as mutually exclusive. Overall, our paper identifies new ways to improve operational performance through the effective allocation of work.

  Keywords: Boundaries; Performance Productivity; Organizations; Research; Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Opportunities; Market Transactions; Resource Allocation; Performance; Goals and Objectives; Learning;

  Citation:

  Staats, B., and F. Gino. "Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks: Evidence from a Japanese Bank." Management Science 58, no. 6 (2012): 1141–1159.

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• Article | Harvard Business Review | November 2012

  What Makes Analysts Say 'Buy'?

  Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy, Nitin Nohria and George Serafeim

  Citation:

  Groysberg, Boris, Paul M. Healy, Nitin Nohria, and George Serafeim. "What Makes Analysts Say 'Buy'?" Harvard Business Review 90, no. 11 (November 2012).

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | 2012

  Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit (TN)

  Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria and Deborah Bell

  Citation:

  Groysberg, Boris, Nitin Nohria, and Deborah Bell. "Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit (TN)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 413-028, July 2012.

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