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- January 10, 2022
- Article
The Secret Ingredient of Thriving Companies? Human Magic
By: Hubert Joly
The traditional corporate approach to motivating people has been a combination of carrots and sticks: a system of financial incentives designed to mobilize everyone around a plan designed by a few smart people at the top. Multiple studies have confirmed that, for any...
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- 1 Dec 2021
- Interview
Hubert Joly on Humanizing the Profit Motive
Can businesses afford to see employees in terms other than unit labor cost? How do you factor the Golden Rule into a profit and loss statement? Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly explains how unlearning business orthodoxies helped him prove that a human-centered approach...
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- Article
Are They Useful? The Effects of Performance Incentives on the Prioritization of Work Versus Personal Ties
By: Julia Hur, Alice Lee-Yoon and Ashley V. Whillans
Most working adults report spending very little time with friends and family. The current research explores the aspects of work that encourage employees to spend less time with personal ties. We show that incentive systems play a critical role in shaping how people...
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- May 2021
- Teaching Note
From Globalization to Dual Digital Transformation: CEO Thierry Breton Leading Atos Into 'Digital Shockwaves'
By: Tsedal Neeley
Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 419-027 and 419-046. Thierry Breton, chairman and CEO of IT company Atos, faces a pivotal juncture. After spending eight intense years scaling the company globally to over 100,000 employees in 70 countries, he sees digital shockwaves...
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- March 29, 2021
- Editorial
Research: A Little Recognition Can Provide a Big Morale Boost
By: Shibeal O'Flaherty, Michael Sanders and Ashley V. Whillans
As organizations large and small face the twin challenges of increasingly strained budgets and burned out workforces, what can managers do to keep employees engaged—without breaking the bank? In this piece, the authors share new research on the power of symbolic awards...
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- March 2021
- Article
Active Choice, Implicit Defaults, and the Incentive to Choose
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
Home-delivered prescriptions have no delivery charge and lower copayments than prescriptions picked up at a pharmacy. Nevertheless, when home delivery is offered on an opt-in basis, the take-up rate is only 6%. We study a program that makes active choice of either home...
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- March 2021
- Article
Opting-in to Prosocial Incentives
By: Daniel Schwartz, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Alex Imas and Ayelet Gneezy
The design of effective incentive schemes that are both successful in motivating employees and keeping down costs is of critical importance. Research has demonstrated that prosocial incentives, where individuals’ effort benefits a charitable organization, can sometimes...
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- January 2021
- Case
Value-Based Insurance Design at Onex
By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Amitabh Chandra and Amram Migdal
The operating executives of Health and Benefits for Onex Partners, Megan Jackson Frye and Sam Camens, faced a challenge: Healthcare costs for employees of Onex’s portfolio companies were continuing to rise above the consumer price index, reflecting broader trends...
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Keywords:
Decision Making;
Cost vs Benefits;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Decisions;
Finance;
Behavioral Finance;
Insurance;
Health;
Health Care and Treatment;
Human Resources;
Compensation and Benefits;
Markets;
Demand and Consumers;
Consumer Behavior;
Social Psychology;
Behavior;
Interests;
Motivation and Incentives;
Perception;
Health Industry;
Insurance Industry;
North America;
United States
- 2021
- Article
Helping and Happiness: A Review and Guide for Public Policy
By: Lara B. Aknin and Ashley V. Whillans
Perhaps one of the most reaffirming findings to emerge over the past several decades is that humans not only engage in generous behavior, they also appear to experience pleasure from doing so. Yet not all acts of helping lead to greater happiness. Here, we review the...
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- November 2020
- Teaching Note
Social Salary Setting at Spiber
By: Ashley Whillans and John Beshears
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 920-050. The case tells the story of Spiber, a Japanese technology start-up company. To reflect the company’s values, the leadership team implemented a new and unique salary-setting process: each employee had the authority to choose their...
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- August 2020
- Article
Workplace Knowledge Flows
By: 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...
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- 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
Working (From Home) During a Crisis: Online Social Contributions by Workers During the Coronavirus Shock
By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Wesley W. Koo and Xina Li
Prior research has documented that during mortality-related crises workers face psychic costs and are motivated to make social contributions. In addition, management practices that encourage workers to make social contributions during a crisis create value for firms....
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- March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Culture at Google
By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta
Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google’s contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of...
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Keywords:
Human Resources;
Employee Relationship Management;
Recruitment;
Retention;
Resignation and Termination;
Labor;
Working Conditions;
Employment;
Labor Unions;
Wages;
Law;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Rights;
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
Fairness;
Organizations;
Organizational Culture;
Mission and Purpose;
Social Psychology;
Attitudes;
Behavior;
Conflict Management;
Trust;
Motivation and Incentives;
Prejudice and Bias;
Power and Influence;
Technology;
Search Technology;
Web;
Hardware;
Society;
Social Issues;
Culture;
Civil Society or Community;
Demographics;
Diversity;
Ethnicity;
Gender;
Race;
Technology Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
California
- February 2020
- Technical Note
Talent Management and the Future of Work
By: William R. Kerr and Gorick Ng
The nature of work is changing—and it is changing rapidly. Few days go by without industry giants such as Amazon and AT&T announcing plans to invest billions of dollars towards retraining nearly half of their respective workforces for jobs of the future. What changes...
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Keywords:
Human Resource Management;
Human Capital Development;
Human Resource Practices;
Talent;
Talent Acquisition;
Talent Development;
Talent Development And Retention;
Talent Management;
Talent Retention;
Labor Flows;
Labor Management;
Labor Market;
Strategy Development;
Strategy Management;
Strategy Execution;
Strategy And Execution;
Strategic Change;
Transformations;
Organization;
Organization Alignment;
Organization Design;
Organizational Adaptation;
Organizational Effectiveness;
Management Challenges;
Management Of Business And Political Risk;
Change Leadership;
Future Of Work;
Future;
Skills Gap;
Skills Development;
Skills;
Offshoring And Outsourcing;
Investment;
Capital Allocation;
Work;
Work Culture;
Work Force Management;
Work/life Balance;
Work/family Balance;
Work-family Boundary Management;
Workers;
Worker Productivity;
Worker Performance;
Work Engagement;
Work Environment;
Work Environments;
Productivity;
Organization Culture;
Soft Skills;
Technology Management;
Technological Change;
Technological Change: Choices And Consequences;
Technology Diffusion;
Disruptive Technology;
Global Business;
Global;
Workplace;
Workplace Context;
Workplace Culture;
Workplace Wellness;
Collaboration;
Competencies;
Productivity Gains;
Digital;
Digital Transformation;
Digital Transition;
Competitive Dynamics;
Competitiveness;
Competitive Strategy;
Data Analytics;
Data;
Data Management;
Data Strategy;
Data Protection;
Aging Society;
Diversity;
Diversity Management;
Millennials;
Communication Complexity;
Communication Technologies;
International Business;
Work Sharing;
Global Competitiveness;
Global Corporate Cultures;
Intellectual Property;
Intellectual Property Management;
Intellectual Property Protection;
Intellectual Capital And Property Issues;
Globalization Of Supply Chain;
Inequality;
Recruiting;
Hiring;
Hiring Of Employees;
Training;
Job Cuts And Outsourcing;
Job Performance;
Job Search;
Job Design;
Job Satisfaction;
Jobs;
Employee Engagement;
Employee Attitude;
Employee Benefits;
Employee Compensation;
Employee Fairness;
Employee Relationship Management;
Employee Retention;
Employee Selection;
Employee Motivation;
Employee Feedback;
Employee Coordination;
Employee Performance Management;
Employee Socialization;
Process Improvement;
Application Performance Management;
Stigma;
Institutional Change;
Candidates;
Digital Enterprise;
Cultural Adaptation;
Cultural Change;
Cultural Diversity;
Cultural Context;
Cultural Strategies;
Cultural Psychology;
Cultural Reform;
Performance;
Performance Effectiveness;
Performance Management;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Appraisal;
Performance Feedback;
Performance Measurement;
Performance Metrics;
Performance Measures;
Performance Efficiency;
Efficiency;
Performance Analysis;
Performance Appraisals;
Performance Improvement;
Automation;
Artificial Intelligence;
Technology Companies;
Managerial Processes;
Skilled Migration;
Assessment;
Human Resources;
Management;
Human Capital;
Talent and Talent Management;
Retention;
Demographics;
Labor;
Strategy;
Change;
Change Management;
Transformation;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Working Conditions;
Technology;
Technology Adoption;
Disruption;
Economy;
Competition;
Globalization
- 2020
- Working Paper
Incentive Effects of Subjective Allocations of Rewards and Penalties
By: Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani and Jee Eun Shin
We examine the incentive effects of subjective adjustments in the allocation of tournament-based financial rewards and penalties based on performance rankings. We use data from a company where the reward and penalty allocations are based on a combination of objective...
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Keywords:
Compensation Interdependence;
Nominal And Opportunity Effects;
Managerial Discretion;
Performance Measurement;
Subjectivity;
Rewards;
Expectancy Theory;
Tournament-based Incentives;
Penalties;
Tournaments;
Reciprocity Theory;
Employees;
Compensation and Benefits;
Management;
Decisions;
Performance;
Measurement and Metrics
- February 2020
- Article
Effects of a Tournament Incentive Plan Incorporating Managerial Discretion in a Geographically Dispersed Organization
By: Carolyn Deller and Tatiana Sandino
Using retail chain data, we study the effects of a tournament incentive plan based primarily on objective performance, but incorporating managerial discretion in the selection of winners. In principle, such plans could motivate employees to perform both at a high...
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- December 24, 2019
- Article
Why It's So Hard to Change People's Commuting Behavior
By: Ariella S. Kristal and A.V. Whillans
Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters—in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations. Some employers are trying to get involved and reduce car...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA
By: Jana Gallus, Olivia S. Jung and Karim R. Lakhani
What might motivate employees to participate in internal crowdsourcing, a peer-based approach to innovation? Should organizations use incentives that are congruent with their established hierarchical structures, or should they use incentives that are aligned with the...
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- September 2019
- Case
Shell: A Company of Opportunity?
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney
The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had...
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Keywords:
Business Divisions;
Change Management;
Competency and Skills;
Experience and Expertise;
Talent and Talent Management;
Energy;
Energy Sources;
Non-Renewable Energy;
Renewable Energy;
Human Resources;
Employees;
Retention;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Jobs and Positions;
Job Design and Levels;
Knowledge Sharing;
Knowledge;
Knowledge Use and Leverage;
Labor;
Human Capital;
Labor Unions;
Leading Change;
Resource Allocation;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Productivity;
Strategic Planning;
Projects;
Motivation and Incentives;
Business Strategy;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
Technology Platform;
Chemical Industry;
Energy Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Technology Industry;
United Kingdom;
Netherlands