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  • January 2004 (Revised July 2006)
  • Background Note
  • HBS Case Collection

Incentives within Organizations

By: Brian J. Hall
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:12
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Abstract

Serves as a brief introduction to incentive design and implementation. The analysis first locates incentive strategy within the larger structure of organizations and markets and then helps to define the central components and difficulties of incentive design. Focuses on the principal difficulties in implementing incentive systems, including the tradeoff between objective and subjective performance metrics, how to design incentive systems in team environments, and the inherent problems with designing incentive systems in environments where workers are involved in multiple activities. A rewritten version of an earlier note.

Keywords

Organizations; Motivation and Incentives

Citation

Hall, Brian J. "Incentives within Organizations." Harvard Business School Background Note 904-043, January 2004. (Revised July 2006.)
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About The Author

Brian J. Hall

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Author
  • Innovation at Moog Inc. By: Brian J. Hall, Ashley V. Whillans, Davis Heniford, Dominika Randle and Caroline Witten
  • Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes? By: Benjamin Enke, Uri Gneezy, Brian Hall, David Martin, Vadim Nelidov, Theo Offerman and Jeroen van de Ven
  • Maritz Automotive By: Brian Hall, Lamar Pierce and Ashley V. Whillans
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