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New research on labor from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including labor standards and unions.
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COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action

by Ashley Whillans and 28 coauthors

Assembling a large, diverse team of researchers to make sense of COVID-19’s impact on issues of work and organizational psychology, this project explores changes that are unfolding for practitioners and human resources professionals.

Corporate Resilience and Response During COVID-19

by Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim, and Hui (Stacie) Wang

Investors look for evidence during a market crisis that a company is resilient. This study includes findings that challenge the notion that companies need to adopt practices that hurt their employees because investors want them to do so.

Working (From Home) During a Crisis: Online Social Contributions by Workers During the Coronavirus Shock

by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Wesley W. Koo, and Xina Li

This study shows that people working from home (WFH) make more online contributions to socially helpful topics, yet face higher psychic costs and anxiety about time constraints. Managers might consider giving WFH workers more temporal flexibility to deal with time constraints during this crisis.

Readers Ask: I Need Tips for Working at Home

by Kristen Senz

Working at home brings with it confusing new rules of conduct. Remote work expert Prithwiraj Choudhury answers questions from our readers. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

by Julia Hanna

Knitting together a diverse workforce into a common fabric is a difficult challenge for managers—and even more difficult for the workers themselves, say Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin Reid. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

For Migrant Workers, Homesickness Can Reduce Productivity

by Kristen Senz

Workers in the global economy increasingly perform their jobs far away from home. It turns out, says Prithwiraj Choudhury, that homesickness is a significant barrier to their productivity. Here's what employers can do. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Impact of Technology and Trade on Migration: Evidence from the US

by Marius Faber, Andres Sarto, and Marco Tabellini

Labor mobility can re-equilibrate local labor markets after an economic shock. Both robot adoption and Chinese import competition between 1990 and 2015 caused large declines in manufacturing employment across US local labor markets (commuting zones, CZs). However, only robots were associated with a decline in CZ population, which resulted from reduced in-migration rather than by increased out-migration.

When to Apply?

by Katherine Coffman, Manuela Collis, and Leena Kulkarni

Using a series of experiments, the authors studied gender differences in how job-seekers perceive their own qualifications for different opportunities and how this affects their decision to apply. Results suggest that soft touch employer interventions can improve the diversity of applicant pools even if candidate beliefs about their own ability are unchanged.

How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely

by Kristen Senz

Letting independent workers choose their locations can boost companies, employees, and even the economy, according to research by Prithwiraj Choudhury and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

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; Comment(s) posted.

Labor Market Shocks and the Demand for Trade Protection: Evidence from Online Surveys

by Rafael Di Tella and Dani Rodrik

This paper provides evidence on the role played by different kinds of labor-market shocks in shaping individuals’ policy preferences. Specifically, it studies how people’s opinions about trade protectionism and compensatory financial transfers change when presented with six different types of shocks, all of which have the same effect on local labor markets.

The Secret Life of Supply Chains

by Michael Blanding

While US policymakers and politicians focus on reviving the manufacturing sector, Mercedes Delgado and Karen Mills unearth a source of better jobs hidden in plain sight. Call it the supply chain economy. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Stuck in Commuter Hell? You Can Still Be Productive

by Dina Gerdeman

Commuters who listen to music or browse social media might be increasing their chance of a stressful workday. Research by Francesca Gino and colleagues offers better ways to cope with a bad commute. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Can Miguel McKelvey Build the ‘Culture Operating System’ at WeWork?

Re: Jeffrey F. Rayport

How deeply does the culture of a startup matter? Can it be shaped? Professor Jeffrey Rayport discusses WeWork cofounder Miguel McKelvey’s innovative role in building a company culture to support rapid growth. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Work from Anywhere or Co-locate? Autonomy versus Learning Effects at the United States Patent Office

by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Cirrus Foroughi, and Barbara Larson

Managers often ask whether worker productivity rises or falls with work-from-anywhere (WFA) policies. This study of a real firm presents robust econometric evidence that WFA regimes can have positive effects on net worker output, especially for experienced hires working interdependently. For new hires, however, colocation is often needed to facilitate their learning.

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; Comment(s) posted.

Vodafone’s Innovative Approach to Advanced Technologies

William Kerr discusses how telecom giant Vodafone incorporated big data, automation, and artificial intelligence to improve productivity while ensuring new opportunities were created for the next generation of workers. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Religion in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know

by Dina Gerdeman

Two recent US Supreme Court cases demonstrate that religion in the workplace issues are increasing. How can managers be prepared? It starts with the right attitude, says Derek van Bever. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Are Free Trade and Free Markets Quaint Ideas From the Past?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP: Free trade and free markets are great concepts but are often corrupted by politics, globalization, and the relative power of consumers and workers, our readers suggest. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Open Office Revolution Has Gone Too Far

Re: Ethan S. Bernstein

When Ethan Bernstein used wearable technology to track workers around their open office, he discovered many who were trying to avoid collaboration rather than engage in it. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.