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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

  People Analytics at McKinsey

  Jeffrey T. Polzer and Olivia Hull

  Teaching note to accompany People Analytics at McKinsey, HBS No. 418-023.

  Keywords: people analytics; analytics; human resource management; business analytics;

  Citation:

  Polzer, Jeffrey T., and Olivia Hull. "People Analytics at McKinsey." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 421-022, August 2020.  View Details

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• Article | Quarterly Journal of Economics | August 2020

  Workplace Knowledge Flows

  Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

  We conducted a field experiment in a sales firm to test whether improving knowledge flows between coworkers affects productivity. Our design allows us to compare different management practices and to isolate whether frictions to knowledge transmission primarily reside with knowledge seekers, knowledge providers, or both. We find large productivity gains from treatments that reduced frictions for knowledge seekers. Workers who were encouraged to seek advice from a randomly chosen partner during structured meetings had average sales gains exceeding 15%. These effects lasted at least 20 weeks after the experiment ended. Treatments intended to change knowledge providers’ willingness to share information, in the form of incentives tied to partners’ joint output, led to positive—but transitory—sales gains. Directing coworkers to share knowledge raised average productivity and reduced output dispersion between workers, highlighting the role that management practices play in generating spillovers inside the firm.

  Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Interpersonal Communication; Employees; Performance Productivity; Sales; Motivation and Incentives;

  Citation:

  Sandvik, Jason, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert, and Christopher Stanton. "Workplace Knowledge Flows." Quarterly Journal of Economics 135, no. 3 (August 2020): 1635–1680.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020

  Rosalind Fox at John Deere

  Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

  Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and enthusiasm about their work— have remained lackluster. As the first Black female factory manager to lead the plant, Fox considers how to build stronger bonds with her staff, who are mostly white men. The case describes how Fox took charge and established her credibility while building and nurturing a diverse leadership team. In addition to discussing Fox’s current role, this leadership case chronicles Fox’s career trajectory from her college years in Missouri through her time at Ford Motor Company and later, rising up the ranks at Deere & Company. The case discusses the pressure Fox has felt to assimilate into the dominant white male cultures and figure out how much of her authentic self to bring to work.

  Keywords: Agribusiness; Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Gender; Race; Engineering; Geographic Location; Globalized Markets and Industries; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management Style; Management Teams; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Prejudice and Bias; Power and Influence; Status and Position; Trust; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Mayo, Anthony, and Olivia Hull. "Rosalind Fox at John Deere." Harvard Business School Case 421-011, July 2020.  View Details

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