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- March–April 2022
- Article
Uncovering the Mitigating Psychological Response to Monitoring Technologies: Police Body Cameras Not Only Constrain but Also Depolarize
By: Shefali V. Patil and Ethan Bernstein
Despite organizational psychologists’ long-standing caution against monitoring (citing its reduction in employee autonomy and thus effectiveness), many organizations continue to use it, often with no detriment to performance and with strong support, not protest, from...
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- 2022
- Book
Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies
By: Ranjay Gulati
This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent...
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- December 2020
- Article
Can't Buy Me Love (or Friendship): Social Consequences of Financially Contingent Self-Worth
By: D. Ward, L.E. Park, K. Naragon-Gainey, H. Jung and A.V. Whillans
Although people may think that money improves one’s relationships, research suggests otherwise. Focusing on money is associated with spending less time maintaining relationships (Whillans & Dunn, 2018) and less desire to rely on others for help (Vohs, Mead, & Goode,...
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- October 7, 2020
- Editorial
Time Confetti and the Broken Promise of Leisure
By: Ashley Whillans
It’s true: we have more time for leisure than we did fifty years ago. But leisure has never been less relaxing, mostly because of the disintermediating effects of our screens. Technology saves us time, but it also takes it away. This is known as the autonomy paradox....
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- October 2020
- Teaching Note
Testing Autonomy in Pittsburgh
By: Mitchell Weiss and Mariana Oseguera Rodriguez
- Article
Determining Our Destiny: Do Restrictions to Collective Autonomy Fuel Collective Action?
By: Frank J. Kachanoff, Nour Kteily, Thomas H. Khullar, Hyun Joon Park and Donald M. Taylor
- June 2020 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Social Salary Setting at Spiber
By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears
Can a “set your own salary” system boost employee happiness and motivation? Spiber made synthetic silk built from proteins mimicking the proteins found in spider silk, the world’s toughest known material by weight. Kazuhide Sekiyama and Junichi Sugahara established...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Cutting the Gordian Knot of Employee Health Care Benefits and Costs: A Corporate Model Built on Employee Choice
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman
The U.S. employer-based health insurance tax exclusion created a system of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) with limited insurance choices and transparency that may lock employed households into health plans that are costlier or different from those they prefer to...
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- July–August 2019
- Article
The Soul of a Startup
By: Ranjay Gulati
There’s an essential, intangible something in start-ups—an energy, a soul. It inspires enthusiasm and fosters a sense of deep connection and mutual purpose. While this spirit persists, engagement is high and businesses keep their edge.
But all too often,... View Details
But all too often,... View Details
- October 2018 (Revised September 2020)
- Case
Testing Autonomy in Pittsburgh
By: Mitchell Weiss and Brittany Urick
Pittsburgh’s mayor had been among the first to welcome self-driving vehicles but was now one of many needing to react after a pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous Uber in Arizona. He had originally preferred to roll out “the red carpet” instead of the “red...
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Keywords:
Public Entrepreneurship;
Government Innovation;
Government Experimentation;
Autonomous Vehicles;
Mayor;
Mayor Peduto;
Cities;
Mobility;
Automation;
Uber;
Argo Ai;
Aurora Innovation;
Aptiv;
Entrepreneurship;
Public Sector;
Innovation and Invention;
Transportation;
City;
Safety;
Business and Government Relations;
Transportation Industry;
Auto Industry;
United States;
Pennsylvania;
Pittsburgh
- 2020
- Working Paper
The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS
By: Katharina Janke, Carol Propper and Raffaella Sadun
Abstract
Governments worldwide have sought to reform the delivery of public services by mimicking private sector governance models that grant CEOs greater autonomy and give them responsibility for meeting key government targets. We examine the effectiveness of this...
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- March 2018 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Alaska Airlines: Empowering Frontline Workers to Make It Right
By: Ranjay Gulati, Andrew O'Connell and Caroline de Lacvivier
This case documents the ongoing efforts by Alaska Airlines to enhance its efforts to become more customer centric by empowering its employees using a service framework. It explores how the airline starts with a completely hands-off approach to empowerment in which...
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- 2017
- Case
Uncommon Schools (A): A Network of Networks
By: John J-H Kim and Sarah McAra
In 2013, Brett Peiser, CEO of the charter school management organization (CMO) Uncommon Schools, is reassessing the nonprofit’s strategy. For nearly 10 years, Uncommon had fulfilled its mission to bring high-quality education to students in low-income, urban areas...
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- Article
Beyond Good Intentions: Prompting People to Make Plans Improves Follow-through on Important Tasks
By: Todd Rogers, Katherine L Milkman, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton
Many intend to stay fit but fail to exercise or eat healthfully; students intend to earn good grades but study too little; citizens intend to vote but fail to turnout. How can policymakers help people follow through on intentions like these? Plan-making, a tool that...
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- Article
Do Private Equity Firms Have Better Management Practices?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
Using an innovative survey measure of management practices on over 15,000 firms, we find private equity firms are better managed than government, family, and privately owned firms, and have similar management to publicly listed firms. This is true both in developed and...
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- December 2014
- Article
The Distinct Effects of Information Technology and Communication Technology on Firm Organization
By: Nicholas Bloom, Luis Garicano, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
Empirical studies on information communication technologies (ICT) typically aggregate the "information" and "communication" components together. We show theoretically and empirically that this is problematic. Information and communication technologies have very...
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- September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling
By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall
With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,...
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Keywords:
Retail;
Scheduling;
Local Autonomy;
Automation;
Metrics;
Organizational Change;
Human Resource Management;
Process Improvement;
Performance Measurement;
Transparency;
Southern United States;
Retailing;
Department Stores;
System Outsourced Services;
Employee Relationship Management;
Selection and Staffing;
Change Management;
Governance Controls;
Resource Allocation;
Service Operations;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Improvement;
Applications and Software;
Family Business;
Retail Industry;
Technology Industry;
United States
- June 2014
- Article
The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity
By: Silvia Bellezza, Francesca Gino and Anat Keinan
We examine how people react to nonconforming behaviors, such as entering a luxury boutique wearing gym clothes rather than an elegant outfit or wearing red sneakers in a professional setting. Nonconforming behaviors, as costly and visible signals, can act as a...
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- May 2014
- Case
Building a High Performance Culture at IDFC
By: V.G. Narayanan and Vidhya Muthuram
IDFC was set up in 1997 to direct private finance to infrastructure projects in India. Over the years, it expanded its capabilities to become a 'complete solutions provider' offering financing solutions including debt and equity, investment banking, brokerage and asset...
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