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    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      Cold Call
      A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
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      • 05 Jan 2021
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Using Behavioral Science to Improve Well-Being for Social Workers

      For child and family social workers, coping with the hardships of children and parents is part of the job. But that can cause a lot of stress. Is it possible for financially constrained organizations to improve social workers’ well-being using non-cash rewards, recognition, and other strategies from behavioral science? Assistant Professor Ashley Whillans describes the experience of Chief Executive Michael Sanders’ at the UK’s What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, as he led a research program aimed at improving the morale of social workers in her case, “The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being.”  Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      Read the Transcript

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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.
      Page 1 of 67 Results →
      • 17 Oct 2019
      • Working Paper Summaries

      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.

      • 20 May 2019
      • Research & Ideas

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 14 May 2019
      • Working Paper Summaries

      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.

      • 13 Mar 2019
      • Research & Ideas

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 05 Dec 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 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.

      • 20 Sep 2018
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Did Entrepreneur Ernesto Tornquist Help or Hurt Argentina?

      Re: Geoffrey G. Jones

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 10 Sep 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 26 Oct 2017
      • Research Event

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 17 Nov 2016
      • Op-Ed

      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; Comment(s) posted.

      • 03 Nov 2014
      • Research & Ideas

      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; 4 Comment(s) posted.

      • 18 Dec 2013
      • HBS Case

      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; 4 Comment(s) posted.

      • 23 Sep 2013
      • Research & Ideas

      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; 9 Comment(s) posted.

      • 24 Jun 2013
      • Research & Ideas

      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; 20 Comment(s) posted.

      • 25 Oct 2012
      • Research & Ideas

      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; 15 Comment(s) posted.

      • 04 Sep 2012
      • Research & Ideas

      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; 20 Comment(s) posted.

      • 04 Sep 2012
      • Research & Ideas

      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; 4 Comment(s) posted.

      • 07 Feb 2012
      • Working Paper Summaries

      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 Comment(s) posted.

      • 06 Sep 2011
      • Research & Ideas

      The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

      by Bill George

      Twenty-first-century organizations are breaking with traditional command-and-control hierarchies to develop a new generation of values-centered leadership, argues Professor Bill George, author of True North. The best way to get there? True North Groups. Open for comment; 5 Comment(s) posted.

      • 06 Jul 2011
      • Research & Ideas

      Are You a Level-Six Leader?

      by Mitch Maidique

      Asking the question, whom do you serve? is a powerful vector on which to build a useful typology of leadership. Visiting professor Modesto Maidique offers a six-level Purpose-Driven Model of Leadership ranging from Sociopath to Transcendent. Key concepts include: The most telling question to ask a leader is, whom do you serve? Yourself? Your group? Society? The answer to this question often reveals more about leaders than knowing their personality traits, level of achievement, or whether they were "transformational" or "transactional" leaders. The six levels of leadership are Sociopath, Opportunist, Chameleon, Achiever, Builder, and Transcendent. Closed for comment; 78 Comment(s) posted.

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