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• Editorial | Harvard Business Review (website) | November 15, 2019

  Getting Your Team to Do More Than Meet Deadlines

  Charlotte Blank, Laura M. Giurge, Laurel Newman and A.V. Whillans

  When it comes to our to-do lists, many of us prioritize checking off tasks that are easiest to complete or are due first, regardless of importance – a phenomenon that scholars describe as the “mere urgency” effect. This tendency becomes stronger the busier we are. But constantly prioritizing urgent tasks means that important tasks that have no urgent deadline (such as updating your resume or doing creative work) get pushed aside for later and later. Some just never get done. When we fail to do what’s important, often what matters most to us, we feel stressed, overwhelmed, and unmotivated— and firms are less productive. Research suggests managers can help employees combat the tendency to put off for tomorrow what isn’t due today: have employees set aside proactive time for work that is important but not urgent.

  Keywords: Employees; Time Management; Performance Improvement;

  Citation:

  Blank, Charlotte, Laura M. Giurge, Laurel Newman, and A.V. Whillans. "Getting Your Team to Do More Than Meet Deadlines." Harvard Business Review (website) (November 15, 2019).  View Details

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

  Income Inequality Affects Donations Only for High-Income People Who Feel Financially Insecure and Distrust Others

  Lucia Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans

  There is a growing debate about whether high-income individuals are more or less generous when income inequality is high. We advance this ongoing conversation by analysing a large and comprehensive data set with approximately one million respondents from 140 countries. In this data set, higher-income individuals who live in countries with greater income inequality are less likely to donate money to charity and are more likely to volunteer than their lower-income counterparts. Higher-income individuals who feel financially insecure or show distrust of others are especially unlikely to donate money to charity under high income inequality. These moderators do not influence rates of volunteering. Together, these results advance the debate regarding whether and when inequality shapes prosocial behaviour.

  Keywords: income inequality; prosocial behavior; financial insecurity; Income; Equality and Inequality; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Behavior; Trust;

  Citation:

  Macchia, Lucia, and Ashley V. Whillans. "Income Inequality Affects Donations Only for High-Income People Who Feel Financially Insecure and Distrust Others." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-052, October 2019.  View Details

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

  Beyond Material Poverty: Why Time Poverty Matters for Individuals, Organisations, and Nations

  Laura M. Giurge, Colin West and Ashley V. Whillans

  Over the last two decades, global wealth has risen. Yet, material affluence has not translated into time affluence. Instead, most people today report feeling persistently “time poor”—like they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them. This is critical because time poverty is linked to lower well-being, physical health, and productivity. For example, in our analysis of 2.5 million Americans, subjective feelings of time poverty had a stronger negative effect on well-being than being unemployed. However, individuals, organisations, and policymakers often overlook the pernicious effects of time poverty. Billions of dollars are spent each year to alleviate material poverty, while time poverty is often ignored or exacerbated. In this Perspective, we discuss the organisational, institutional, and psychological factors that explain why time poverty is often under appreciated. We argue that scientists, policymakers, and organisational leaders need to devote more attention and resources toward understanding and reducing time poverty to promote psychological and economic well-being.

  Keywords: time poverty;

  Citation:

  Giurge, Laura M., Colin West, and Ashley V. Whillans. "Beyond Material Poverty: Why Time Poverty Matters for Individuals, Organisations, and Nations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-051, October 2019.  View Details

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