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    TrainingRemove Training →

    New research on training from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including "the great training robbery," and the most effective ways to learn on the job.
    Page 1 of 15 Results
    • 28 Feb 2023
    • Research & Ideas

    Can Apprenticeships Work in the US? Employers Seeking New Talent Pipelines Take Note

    by Michael Blanding

    What if the conventional college-and-internship route doesn't give future employees the skills they need to build tomorrow's companies? Research by Joseph Fuller and colleagues illustrates the advantages that apprenticeships can provide to employees and young talent.

    • 09 Aug 2021
    • Research & Ideas

    OneTen: Creating a New Pathway for Black Talent

    by Rawi E. Abdelal, Katherine Connolly Baden, and Boris Groysberg

    A new organization aims to help 1 million Black Americans launch careers in the next decade, expanding the talent pool. Rawi E. Abdelal, Katherine Connolly Baden, and Boris Groysberg explain how. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 19 May 2021
    • Op-Ed

    Why America Needs a Better Bridge Between School and Career

    by Joseph B. Fuller and Rachel Lipson

    As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, America faces a critical opportunity to close gaps that leave many workers behind, say Joseph Fuller and Rachel Lipson. What will it take? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 23 Mar 2021
    • Cold Call Podcast

    Managing Future Growth at an Innovative Workforce Education Startup

    Re: William A. Sahlman

    Guild Education is an education marketplace that connects employers and universities to provide employees with “education as a benefit.” Now CEO and co-founder Rachel Carlson must decide how to manage the company’s future growth. Professor Bill Sahlman discusses this unique startup and Carlson’s plans for its growth in his case, “Guild Education: Unlocking Opportunity for America's Workforce.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 06 Aug 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    Who Will Give You the Best Professional Guidance?

    by Julia B. Austin

    Even the most powerful leaders need support and guidance occasionally. Julia Austin offers advice own how and where to find the right type of mentor. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 27 Apr 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding

    by Boris Groysberg

    COVID-19 has turned many companies into federations of remote workplaces, but without guidance on how their onboarding of new employees must change, says Boris Groysberg. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 07 Jul 2019
    • HBS Case

    Walmart's Workforce of the Future

    by Julia Hanna

    A case study by William Kerr explores Walmart's plans for future workforce makeup and training, and its search for opportunities from digital infrastructure and automation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 30 Jun 2019
    • Working Paper Summaries

    The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

    by Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim, and Byoung G. Park

    When sales forces are well managed, firms can induce greater performance from them. For this study, the authors collaborated with a major multinational firm to develop and estimate a dynamic structural model of sales employee responses to various management instruments like compensation, training, and recruiting/termination policies.

    • 03 Apr 2019
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Learning or Playing? The Effect of Gamified Training on Performance

    by Ryan W. Buell, Wei Cai, and Tatiana Sandino

    Games-based training is widely used to engage and motivate employees to learn, but research about its effectiveness has been scant. This study at a large professional services firm adopting a gamified training platform showed the training helps performance when employees are already highly engaged, and harms performance when they’re not.

    • 02 Apr 2019
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Managerial Quality and Productivity Dynamics

    by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, and Jorge Tamayo

    Which managerial skills, traits, and practices matter most for productivity? This study of a large garment firm in India analyzes the integration of features of managerial quality into a production process characterized by learning by doing.

    • 23 Jul 2018
    • Working Paper Summaries

    The Creative Consulting Company

    by Robert S. Kaplan, Richard Nolan, and David P. Norton

    Management theories cannot be tested in laboratories; they must be applied, tested, and extended in real organizations. For this reason the most creative consulting companies balance conflicting demands between short‐term business development and long‐term knowledge creation.

    • 25 Jul 2016
    • Research & Ideas

    Who is to Blame for 'The Great Training Robbery'?

    by Roberta Holland

    Companies spend billions annually training their executives, yet rarely realize all the benefit they could, argue Michael Beer and colleagues. He discusses a new research paper, The Great Training Robbery. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 19 Apr 2016
    • Working Paper Summaries

    The Great Training Robbery

    by Michael Beer, Magnus Finnstrom, and Derek Schrader

    There is a widely held assumption in corporate life that well trained, even inspired individuals can change the system. This article explains why training fails and discusses why the “great training robbery” persists. The authors offer a framework for integrating leadership and organization change and development, and discuss implications for the corporate HR function.

    • 08 Sep 2015
    • Research & Ideas

    Knowledge Transfer: You Can't Learn Surgery By Watching

    by Michael Blanding

    Learning to perform a job by watching others and copying their actions is not a great technique for corporate knowledge transfer. Christopher G. Myers suggests a better approach: Coactive vicarious learning. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 17 Oct 2011
    • Research & Ideas

    How ‘Hybrid’ Nonprofits Can Stay on Mission

    by Carmen Nobel

    As nonprofits add more for-profit elements to their business models, they can suffer mission drift. Associate Professor Julie Battilana says hybrid organizations can stay on target if they focus on two factors: the employees they hire and the way they socialize those employees. Key concepts include: In order to avoid mission drift, hybrid organizations need to focus on whom they hire and whether their employees are open to socialization. Because early socialization is so important, hybrid firms may be better off hiring new college graduates with no work background rather than a mix of seasoned bankers and social workers. The longer their tenure in a hybrid organization, the more likely top managers may be to hire junior people. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

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