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Power and InfluenceRemove Power and Influence →

New research on power and influence from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including when leaders really matter, the negative impact of leader power on team performance, and when leaders should invoke authority or persuasion.
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Readers Ask: How Can I Gain Power and Influence?

by Kristen Senz

Who has the real power in an organization? Julie Battilana says it comes down to two questions. She discusses power and more on Working Knowledge’s “Office Hours” series. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

by Jay Fitzgerald

Employees lower down the organizational ladder have far more power than they realize. If they worked together, they could effect significant change within their workplaces, says Julie Battilana. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Persuasion by Populist Propaganda: Evidence from the 2015 Argentine Ballotage

by Rafael Di Tella, Sebastian Galiani, and Ernesto Schargrodsky

This paper studies data generated prior to the 2015 Argentine presidential ballotage, when a government propaganda campaign was used to attack the opposition candidate and influence voter preferences. Results show the propaganda was persuasive.

Activist CEOs Are Rising Up—and Their Customers Are Listening

by Michael Blanding

Are product sales affected by the CEO's stance on political and social issues? Michael Toffel and Aaron Chatterji study how consumers react to vocal chief executives. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Do Experts Listen to Other Experts? Field Experimental Evidence from Scientific Peer Review

by Misha Teplitskiy, Hardeep Ranu, Gary Gray, Michael Menietti, Eva Guinan, and Karim R. Lakhani

Influence is a fundamental aspect of collective decisions. It is thus crucial to consider not only the composition of evaluation panels but also their deliberation process. This study illuminates drivers of influence among an elite population of experts and contributes to our understanding of resource allocation in science and other expert domains.

Ignore This Advice at Your Own Peril

by Dina Gerdeman

Refusing to act on advice from a respected colleague or mentor can backfire and damage your working relationship, a new study says. Hayley Blunden explains the career implications of seeking counsel from others. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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.

Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

by Dina Gerdeman

If you want to get your messages through to employees, be ready to confess your own management shortcomings, counsels Alison Wood Brooks. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Did Entrepreneur Ernesto Tornquist Help or Hurt Argentina?

Geoffrey Jones examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Celebrating 'The Men and Women of the Corporation' 40 Years Later

by Robin J. Ely

Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s Men and Women of the Corporation inspired and informed a generation of scholars studying gender, status, and power. Robin J. Ely interviews Kanter about her groundbreaking research and why it remains relevant today. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

In an Era of 'Fake News,' What is the Future of Advertising and Publishing?

by Jen Deaderick

A recent panel discussion at Harvard Business School considered how traditional institutions of democracy such as publishing and advertising are being undermined by the use of internet technologies. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What's Behind the Unexpected Trump Support from Women

by Laura Morgan Roberts and Robin Ely

Why did Donald Trump’s candidacy appeal to so many women voters? Laura Morgan Roberts and Robin Ely say women from varying backgrounds cast their ballots for a number of reasons related to gender, economics, and perceptions of leadership. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Brand Lessons From the Nobel Prize

by Carmen Nobel

What makes the Nobel Prize so coveted? Stephen Greyser and Mats Urde discuss the first field-based study exploring the prize from a brand and reputation perspective. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Lessons from the Lance Armstrong Cheating Scandal

by Michael Blanding

Clayton S. Rose's recent case study looks at the behavior of teammates who were swept up in Lance Armstrong's cheating scandal. When do followers need to break away from their leader? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Status: When and Why It Matters

by Dina Gerdeman

Status plays a key role in everything from the things we buy to the partnerships we make. Professor Daniel Malter explores when status matters most. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Is Your iPhone Turning You Into a Wimp?

by Carmen Nobel

The body posture inherent in operating everyday gadgets affects not only your back, but your behavior. According to a new study by Maarten Bos and Amy Cuddy, operating a relatively large device inspires more assertive behavior than working on a small one. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Developing the Global Leader

by Julia Hanna

The shift from a country-centric company to one more global in its outlook will have a radical impact on leadership development, says Professor of Management Practice William George. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Book Excerpt: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter

In his new book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, HBS professor Gautam Mukunda addresses the question of whether leaders create history or are created by it. Read our excerpt. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Why Most Leaders (Even Thomas Jefferson) Are Replaceable

by Kim Girard

Leaders rarely make a lasting impact on their organizations—even the really, really good ones. Then out of the blue comes a Churchill. Gautam Mukunda discusses his new book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Earnings Management from the Bottom Up: An Analysis of Managerial Incentives Below the CEO

by Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Julie Wulf

Many studies as well as anecdotes document a link between the structure of chief executive officer (CEO) compensation and various measures of earnings manipulation. In this paper, HBS professors Oberholzer-Gee and Wulf analyze all components of compensation packages for CEOs and for managers at lower levels in a large sample of firms over more than 10 years, between 1986 and 1999. Results suggest that the effects of incentive pay on earnings management vary considerably by both type of incentive pay and position. Overall, it appears that the primary focus of compensation committees on equity incentives for CEOs overlooks a critical component in curbing earnings manipulation. If one wanted to weaken incentive pay to get more truthful reporting, diluting bonuses-particularly that of the chief financial officer (CFO)-would be the place to start. This may be the first study to analyze the relationship between CEO, division manager, and CFO compensation and earnings management. Key concepts include: It is important to look at positions below the CEO because it is unclear if all or even most financial misreporting is decided at the top. In addition to division managers, the importance of the CFO's role in financial reporting and the numerous recent corporate fraud cases suggest that CFOs can significantly affect accounting quality. Companies report significantly higher discretionary accruals and excess sales and have a higher incidence of future lawsuits when CFOs are paid larger bonuses. Importantly, the magnitudes of these effects are much larger for CFOs in comparison to both CEOs and division managers. Since the quality of financial reporting is difficult to assess, the researchers have used various measures of earnings manipulation in this study, including discretionary accounting accruals, end-of-year excess sales, and class action litigation. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.