-
The High Cost of Neglecting Low-Wage Workers
Finance & Accounting SpotlightMany companies blame outside factors for the trouble they've been having in finding and retaining frontline workers: the pandemic, the government's stimulus... -
The DHL EuroCup: Shots on Goal
Organizational culture Magazine ArticleFor 20 years, employees of the worldwide delivery service have held a soccer tournament to strengthen company culture across national boundaries. The trick: figuring out how to foster corporate team building through intense competition. -
Augmented Reality Is Already Improving Worker Performance
Operations and supply chain management Digital ArticleOne example shows a productivity boost of over 30% — on a worker’s first use, and without prior training. -
Myths of the Gig Economy, Corrected
Organizational Development Digital ArticleFor one thing, Millennials aren't that into it. -
What California’s New Gig Work Law Gets Wrong About Gig Work
Labor ResearchAnd what we need instead. -
The Department of Mobility
Costing Magazine ArticleEmployees are constantly in motion—making sales calls or taking service trips; visiting an international office for a few days or relocating there for a few years; soaring across oceans in the corporate jet or heading across town in the company car. Typically, these activities are administered by an assortment of departments and vendors. But we […] -
The New Tools of Trade
Labor Magazine ArticleToday, most multinationals have a conspicuous social conscience. They publicize their internal codes of conduct, monitor labor conditions in their global supply chains, and require suppliers to meet basic labor practice standards. But despite efforts to be better global citizens, companies by themselves are unable to eliminate abuses in their supply chains. In fact, so […] -
Emotional Labor Doesn't Pay
Communication Digital ArticleWhy is it that we pay people handsomely for analyzing financial data, say, but not for the much harder work of smiling in the face of an insult? Every... -
Why So Many CEOs Don't Realize They've Got a Bad Jobs Problem
Organizational Development Digital ArticleThey're using the wrong data to assess job quality. -
5 Questions We Should Be Asking About Automation and Jobs
Global Business Digital ArticleHow will the supply of labor change? How will searching for jobs? -
What Should Unions Do?
International business Magazine ArticleBy any standard, the 1980s have been a difficult decade for the American worker. When inflation is taken into account, average weekly earnings have dropped more than 30% since 1969. Dislocations caused by takeovers, shutdowns, and downsizings have pushed mistrust of corporations to new heights. Disgruntled employees are filing record numbers of wrongful discharge suits […] -
Time-and-Motion Regained
Labor Magazine ArticleWith workers defining their own job standards, quality and productivity at the Fremont plant went from worst to best. -
When Did the U.S. Stop Seeing Teachers as Professionals?
Global Business Digital ArticleWhat's really behind the recent strikes. -
Research: Technology Is Only Making Social Skills More Important
Economics Digital ArticleTechnical skills are easier to automate. -
Workers Shouldn't Have to Sign Away Their Rights to Class Action Lawsuits
Global Business Digital ArticleA new U.S. Supreme Court decision further diminishes employee voice at the workplace. -
Why Wages Aren't Growing in America
Global Business Digital ArticleA short explainer of a complicated problem. -
Stress-Test Your Strategy: The 7 Questions to Ask
Labor Magazine ArticleAn economic downturn can quickly expose the shortcomings of your business strategy. But can you identify its weak points in good times as well? And can you focus on those weak points that really matter? A stress test—an assessment of how a system functions under severe or unexpected pressure—can help you home in on the […] -
Paying Skilled Workers More Would Create More Skilled Workers
Global Business Digital ArticleNew research on the skills gap. -
When Can You Fire for Off-Duty Conduct?
Dismissing employees Magazine Article“One time they brought me a lot of stuff about his personal life, and I told them I didn’t give a damn about that. That wasn’t my business. It was while he was at work that was my business.” (President Harry S Truman commenting on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover)1 The consequences of private indiscretions […] -
Quality Comes to City Hall
Labor Magazine ArticleGovernment may be the biggest and the oldest industry in the world, but the statement “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you” is universally considered a bad joke. Increasingly, people don’t believe that government knows how to help or wants to bother. They find concepts like “total quality,” “customer-driven,” and “continuous improvement” […]
-
The Grand Afroport: Confidential Instructions for the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of the Republic of Africania
Communication Case Study5.00View Details "The Grand Afroport" is a cross-cultural contextualization of Harvard University's Harborco exercise. The case can be used in the context of multicultural,... -
Jieliang Phone Home! (B), Chinese Version
Global Business Case Study5.00View Details At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators-bright and capable young men and (mostly) women... -
Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details A brief note on the origins and uses of standard times in production process flow diagrams and on the benefits and drawbacks of division of labor. A rewritten... -
Bayer CropScience in India (A): Against Child Labor
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details The case explores value-driven strategy formulation and implementation by bringing to the fore issues of ethics, responsible leadership, social intitiatives... -
White Working Class, With a New Foreword by Mark Cuban and a New Preface by the Author: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America
19.99View Details "It is really worth a read..." -- Former Vice President Joe Biden, interviewed on Pod Save America. Now in paperback with a new Foreword by Mark Cuban... -
The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work
32.00View Details From MIT professor and pre-eminent voice on Good Jobs comes a leadership guide for choosing excellence and providing good jobs that offer a living wage,... -
The Gig Economy: Leasing Skills to Pay the Bills
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details This primer provides a comprehensive exploration into the gig economy and how it is reshaping global business. It shows how the Uber driver, the freelancing... -
Even Cargo: India's Women Only E-commerce Logistics Company
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details In 2016, a social entrepreneur founded Even Cargo in Delhi, India to provide last-mile logistics by employing only women. Even Cargo trained and provided... -
Uber and the Ethics of Sharing: Exploring the Societal Promises and Responsibilities of the Sharing Economy
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details This case explores the changes wrought by the "sharing economy", examining the innovations and controversies surrounding the online ride-hailing service... -
YAAS's Service Center
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details This case is about a compensation change at an automotive service company in the Middle East. The case allows investigation and analysis of many issues... -
Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google's temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors ("TVCs") were unhappy with the... -
Uber: The Turbulent Rise of "Everyone's Private Driver"
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details The meteoric rise of ride-sharing firm Uber illustrates how gig-economy firms can grow to prominence and disrupt older, mature industries. Yet Uber's... -
White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America
22.99View Details Around the world, populist movements are gaining traction among the white working class. Meanwhile, members of the professional elite--journalists, managers,... -
YAAS's Service Center (C)
Leadership & Managing People Case Study5.00View Details Supplement to case 914049. This case is about a compensation change at an automotive service company in the Middle East. The case allows investigation... -
Labor Problems at 7-Eleven's Combined Distribution Centre
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details Henry Tam, the logistic director at 7-Eleven's Combined Distribution Centre (CDC), is considering how to tackle a high employee turnover rate. This challenge... -
Skills-First Hiring at IBM
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details This case reviews IBM's efforts to widen its hiring funnel and broaden its talent pool. -
Taking a Bite Out of Apple: Labor Rights and the Role of Companies and Consumers in a Global Supply Chain
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details An NPR report, which uncovers labor-camp-like working conditions at Apple's Foxconn supplier in China has gone viral. With 2011 revenues of $92 billion,... -
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program: 2009-2021
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details In December 2021, more than a decade after its founding, Goldman Sachs's 10,000 Small Businesses program was still going strong - and the firm now needed... -
The Panic of 1873 and the "Long Depression" (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes must decide whether to sign the Bland-Allison Act and commit the United States to minting silver coins and thus... -
Upwork in 2019
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details Stephane Kasriel, the CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, updates his progress on how to redesign its business model in 2019.
-
The High Cost of Neglecting Low-Wage Workers
Finance & Accounting SpotlightMany companies blame outside factors for the trouble they've been having in finding and retaining frontline workers: the pandemic, the government's stimulus... -
The DHL EuroCup: Shots on Goal
Organizational culture Magazine ArticleFor 20 years, employees of the worldwide delivery service have held a soccer tournament to strengthen company culture across national boundaries. The trick: figuring out how to foster corporate team building through intense competition. -
Augmented Reality Is Already Improving Worker Performance
Operations and supply chain management Digital ArticleOne example shows a productivity boost of over 30% — on a worker’s first use, and without prior training. -
Myths of the Gig Economy, Corrected
Organizational Development Digital ArticleFor one thing, Millennials aren't that into it. -
What California’s New Gig Work Law Gets Wrong About Gig Work
Labor ResearchAnd what we need instead. -
The Department of Mobility
Costing Magazine ArticleEmployees are constantly in motion—making sales calls or taking service trips; visiting an international office for a few days or relocating there for a few years; soaring across oceans in the corporate jet or heading across town in the company car. Typically, these activities are administered by an assortment of departments and vendors. But we […] -
It’s Time to Officially End Unpaid Internships
Your time is valuable, and that value is worth $$$. -
The Grand Afroport: Confidential Instructions for the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare of the Republic of Africania
Communication Case Study5.00View Details "The Grand Afroport" is a cross-cultural contextualization of Harvard University's Harborco exercise. The case can be used in the context of multicultural,... -
The New Tools of Trade
Labor Magazine ArticleToday, most multinationals have a conspicuous social conscience. They publicize their internal codes of conduct, monitor labor conditions in their global supply chains, and require suppliers to meet basic labor practice standards. But despite efforts to be better global citizens, companies by themselves are unable to eliminate abuses in their supply chains. In fact, so […] -
Emotional Labor Doesn't Pay
Communication Digital ArticleWhy is it that we pay people handsomely for analyzing financial data, say, but not for the much harder work of smiling in the face of an insult? Every...