Communication →
- 04 May 2017
- Cold Call Podcast
Leading a Team to the Top of Mount Everest
In a podcast, Amy Edmondson describes how students learn about team communication and decision making by making a simulated climb up Mount Everest. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Oct 2016
- Book
Three Critical Mistakes Digital Businesses Make With Content
Do companies really understand the nature of today's digital transformation? Bharat Anand's book The Content Trap offers a new view of digital strategy that shifts the focus from "produce the best content" to "create the best connections." Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Aug 2016
- Research & Ideas
Ominous Background Music Is Bad for Sharks
Experimental research reveals the influential power of music to help or hurt fundraising campaigns. Elizabeth Keenan and Andrew P. Nosal discuss how the scary music associated with sharks gives them a bad rap, which may hinder conservation efforts. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 May 2016
- Research & Ideas
Why People Don’t Vote--and How a Good Ground Game Helps
Recent research by Vincent Pons shows that campaigners knocking on the doors of potential voters not only improves overall turnout but helps individual candidates win more of those votes. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Feb 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Do Interactions with Candidates Increase Voter Support and Participation? Experimental Evidence from Italy
Elections in established democracies regularly attract less than half of the voting-age population. This low electoral participation raises concerns for the overall legitimacy and stability of the democratic regimes. This study of a mid-sized city in northern Italy during the 2014 municipal elections finds that while volunteers’ visits increased participation by a significant 1.8 percentage points, surprisingly the candidates’ own visits affected neither the average voter nor any subgroup of the population, whether defined by age, gender, place of birth, or turnout history.
- 11 Feb 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Will a Five-Minute Discussion Change Your Mind? A Countrywide Experiment on Voter Choice in France
A countrywide field experiment conducted during François Hollande's door-to-door campaign for the 2012 French presidential election finds that one-on-one discussions with campaigners have strong potential to shift people's decisions even when the principal's control on campaign agents is limited. The implications reach beyond political campaigns to persuasive communication directed at consumers, donors, or investors.
- 01 Jun 2015
- Research & Ideas
The Surprising Benefits of Oversharing
In a social media culture that encourages sharing of embarrassing information, revealing too much can benefit individuals but hurt businesses. New research papers from Leslie John and Michael Luca help explain why. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Mar 2015
- Research & Ideas
Advice on Advice
To be effective leaders, we all need good advice, and we need to give good advice to others. Problem is, advice sharing is not as easy as it sounds, explain Joshua Margolis and the late David Garvin. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Feb 2014
- What Do You Think?
Has Listening Become a Lost Art?
Summing Up: Managers may have ears, but do they use them? Jim Heskett's readers offer opinions on why listening might be a lost art. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Nov 2013
- Research & Ideas
Pulpit Bullies: Why Dominating Leaders Kill Teams
Power interrupts, and absolute power interrupts absolutely. Francesca Gino and colleagues discover that a high-powered boss can lead a team into poor performance. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Jan 2013
- What Do You Think?
Should We Rethink the Promise of Teams?
Summing Up: Teams that are properly structured and managed can support innovative thinking that depends on contributions from both extroverts and introverts, according to Professor Jim Heskett's readers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Jul 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Power of Conversational Leadership
Communication is always a challenge, especially in multinational corporations. Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind discuss why it makes sense to adopt the principles of face-to-face conversation in organizational communication. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Apr 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Inner Workings of Corporate Headquarters
Analyzing the e-mails of some 30,000 workers, Professor Toby E. Stuart and colleague Adam M. Kleinbaum dissected the communication networks of HQ staffers at a large, multidivisional company to get a better understanding of what a corporate headquarters does, and why it does it. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Mar 2012
- HBS Case
HBS Cases: Overcoming the Stress of ‘Englishnization’
CEOs of global companies increasingly mandate that their employees learn English. The problem: these workers can experience a loss of status and believe they aren't as effective in their learned language, says Assistant Professor Tsedal Neeley. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 12 Mar 2012
- Research & Ideas
Crowded at the Top: The Rise of the Functional Manager
It's not lonely at the top anymore—today's CEO has an average of 10 direct reports, according to new research by Julie M. Wulf, Maria Guadalupe, and Hongyi Li. Thank a dramatic increase in the number of "functional" managers for crowding in the C-suite. Key concepts include: The number of managers reporting directly to the CEO has doubled, from an average of 5 direct reports in 1986 to an average of 10 today. In 2008, companies averaged 2.9 general managers, compared with 1.6 in 1986, according to data from several surveys. The average number of functional managers reporting directly to the CEO increased much more dramatically, from 3.1 in the late 1980s to 6.7 in 2008. Two main factors have driven the C-suite sea change: an overall increase in IT investments and an overall decrease in firm diversification. As hierarchical flattening occurs, companies are pushing some decisions toward the top, casting doubt on the common idea that firms flatten in order to push ideas down the organization. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Oct 2011
- Research & Ideas
Horrible Boss Workarounds
Bad bosses are generally more inept than evil, and often aren't purposefully bad, says Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. She discusses common bad-boss behaviors, and how good colleagues can mobilize to overcome the roadblocks. Key concepts include: Common traits of bad bosses include a failure to communicate goals effectively, if at all; a failure to realize that employees have more to offer than their job descriptions dictate, and a tendency to get caught up in the details to the detriment of the big picture. Employees can work around bad-boss roadblocks by proactively mobilizing their peers toward a common goal. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Apr 2011
- Research & Ideas
It’s Not Nagging: Why Persistent, Redundant Communication Works
Managers who inundate their teams with the same messages, over and over, via multiple media, need not feel bad about their persistence. In fact, this redundant communication works to get projects completed quickly, according to new research by Harvard Business School professor Tsedal B. Neeley and Northwestern University's Paul M. Leonardi and Elizabeth M. Gerber. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Nov 2010
- HBS Case
United Breaks Guitars
A new case coauthored by HBS marketing professor John Deighton and research associate Leora Kornfeld offers an object lesson in the dangers social media can bring for big, recognizable companies and their brands. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Nov 2010
- Research & Ideas
Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution
Successful business strategy lies not in having all the right answers, but rather in asking the right questions, says Harvard Business School professor Robert Simons. In an excerpt from his book Seven Strategy Questions, Simons explains how managers can make smarter choices. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Using Language to Build a Global Company
In her new book The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley describes Japanese tech giant Rakuten's five-year effort to adopt English as its lingua franca of business. Open for comment; 0 Comments.