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    Motivation and IncentivesRemove Motivation and Incentives →

    New research on motivation and incentives from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including what motivates employees to contribute to organizational betterment, money as a motivator, the key to effective habit formation, and leveraging reputations to encourage prosocial behavior.
    Page 1 of 142 Results →
    • 21 Feb 2023
    • Research & Ideas

    Are Your Employees Passing Up Incentives? Try Promoting the Programs More

    by Scott Van Voorhis

    Employees who bow out of a company's wellness program or retirement savings plan might not know these perks exist. Leslie John offers advice for motivating workers to participate in incentive programs.

    • 29 Nov 2021
    • Research & Ideas

    How Bonuses Get Employees to Choose Work Over Family

    by Rachel Kim Raczka

    Working late again? Research by Ashley Whillans and colleagues shows how incentive pay encourages workers to think of downtime as wasted time. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 06 Dec 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt

    by Grant E. Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Stephen Bush, Zoe Chance, and Michael I. Norton

    Many consumers fail to pay off credit card debt each month and suffer financial consequences. Repayment-by-purchase, allocating payment toward specific purchases on a credit card bill, helps consumers gain a sense of progress and control over credit card debt.

    • 08 Oct 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

    by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

    Humans are motivated by four drives: acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams discuss how managers can use all four to keep employees engaged. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 17 Aug 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

    by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

    The Stockdale Paradox and survival psychology contain wisdom for how leaders can manage the coronavirus crisis, according to Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 11 Jun 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Paying It Backward and Forward: Expanding Access to Convalescent Plasma Therapy Through Market Design

    by Scott Duke Kominers, Parag A. Pathak, Tayfun Sönmez, and M. Utku Ünver

    Without a vaccine for COVID-19, the medical community has turned to a century-old therapy. This paper discusses a market design approach for expanding the collection and distribution of convalescent plasma.

    • 19 May 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    Why Privacy Protection Notices Turn Off Shoppers

    by Michael Blanding

    It seems counterintuitive, but website privacy protection notices appear to discourage shoppers from buying, according to Leslie John. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 25 Nov 2019
    • Research & Ideas

    When Your Passion Works Against You

    by Dina Gerdeman

    Passion is supposed to be the secret sauce that transforms average managers into dynamic leaders. The reality is more complicated, says Jon M. Jachimowicz. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 17 Sep 2019
    • Cold Call Podcast

    How a New Leader Broke Through a Culture of Accuse, Blame, and Criticize

    Re: Amy C. Edmondson

    Children’s Hospital & Clinics COO Julie Morath sets out to change the culture by instituting a policy of blameless reporting, which encourages employees to report anything that goes wrong or seems substandard, without fear of reprisal. Professor Amy Edmondson discusses getting an organization into the “High Performance Zone.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 24 Jul 2019
    • Lessons from the Classroom

    Can These Business Students Motivate Londoners to Do the Right Thing?

    by Dina Gerdeman

    In the Harvard Business School course Behavioral Insights, students work in the UK with psychology experts to understand what motivates consumers and workers. What they learn can help businesses of all types, says Michael Luca. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 01 Jul 2019
    • What Do You Think?

    Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

    by James Heskett

    SUMMING UP: Super stretch goals can produce audacious results, but they are best left to companies agile enough to execute then, readers say. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 28 Jan 2019
    • Research & Ideas

    Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

    by Dina Gerdeman

    In today's tight job market, employers must focus on how to attract and keep top talent. Giving away stacks of money may not always be the best incentive, warns Ashley Whillans. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 19 Dec 2018
    • Sharpening Your Skills

    New Year, New Habits

    by Sean Silverthorne

    You are resolved to turn over a new leaf in 2019. Maybe become a better boss or crank up the productivity. What are the best ways to put these good intentions into practice? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 05 Dec 2018
    • Working Paper Summaries

    The Salary Taboo: Privacy Norms and the Diffusion of Information

    by Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia

    Barriers to the diffusion of salary information have implications for a wide range of labor market phenomena. This study of employees of a real organization shows that individuals significantly misinterpret their peers’ salaries, partly due to pervasive preferences for concealing own salary, and a potentially strategic decision of high earners to withhold their personal information.

    • 26 Nov 2018
    • Book

    Make Your Employees Feel Psychologically Safe

    by Martha Lagace

    To do their best work, people need to feel secure and safe in their workplace. In a new book, Amy C. Edmondson details how companies can develop psychological safety. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 22 Oct 2018
    • Sharpening Your Skills

    Motivate Me, Please

    by Sean Silverthorne

    People are often coin-operated when it comes to work, but managers can bring out their best performance using motivators other than money. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 08 Oct 2018
    • Research & Ideas

    Knowing What Your Boss Earns Can Make You Work Harder

    by Rachel Layne

    Learning what your co-worker earns can make you less productive, but knowing your manager's paycheck can motivate you to work harder. Research by Zoë Cullen. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 06 Jun 2018
    • Research & Ideas

    Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

    by Rachel Layne

    When times are tight, companies usually respond with employee layoffs. But what if they held on to workers and cut their salaries instead? New research by Christopher Stanton and colleagues has the answer. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 29 Apr 2018
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Analyzing the Aftermath of a Compensation Reduction

    by Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert, and Christopher Stanton

    This study of the effects of compensation cuts in a large sales organization provides a unique lens for analyzing the link between compensation schemes, worker performance, and turnover.

    • 09 Apr 2018
    • Sharpening Your Skills

    The Dark Side of Performance Bonuses

    by Sean Silverthorne

    To motivate workers, employers often turn to incentives such as money or recognition. What's become clear is that these programs can also result in unintended consequences—like a financial crisis. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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