3. Three Successful Work Redesigns

About This Video

Focus on results, not the time spent in the office.

This video offers three case studies of work redesigns that focus on universally implemented policies as opposed to individual accommodations, thus improving work for employees broadly. These include examples of a global solution, both professional and hourly work and a redesign that has been implemented across multiple companies. In the end, we look at similarities as well as unique learning points.

View Three Successful Work Redesigns Resources
View Three Work Redesigns Biographies

Nicholas Bloom

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is a Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and a Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the UK Treasury and McKinsey & Company.

 His work has been covered in a range of media including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of an Alfred Sloan Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Career Award, the Bernacer Prize and the Frisch Medal. He has a BA from Cambridge, an MPhil from Oxford, and a PhD from UCL. He lives in Stanford, California, with his family.

 


Shelley J. Correll

Shelley J. Correll

BARBARA D. FINBERG DIRECTOR, CLAYMAN INSTITUTE

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

PROFESSOR, BY COURTESY, OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

VOICE & INFLUENCE EDUCATION MODULE PRESENTER

Shelley Correll is professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Stanford University and the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Her expertise is in the areas of gender, workplace dynamics and organizational culture. She has received numerous national awards for her research on the “motherhood penalty,” research that demonstrates how motherhood influences the workplace evaluations, pay and job opportunities of mothers. Professor Correll recently led a nationwide, interdisciplinary project on “redesigning work” that evaluates how workplaces structures and practices can reconfigured to be simultaneously more inclusive and more innovative. She is also studying how gender stereotypes and organizational practices affect the entry and retention of women in technical professions and how the growth of the craft beer industry affects the founding and success of women brewers.  She is currently writing a book called Delivering on Diversity: Eliminating Bias and Spurring Innovation


Erin Kelly

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 

Erin L. Kelly is Professor and the Martindale Chair of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, director of the Life Course Center, and an affiliate of the Minnesota Population Center. She studies the adoption and implementation of new workplace policies and the consequences of these innovations for employees, families, and work organizations. Her research on flexibility initiatives, family leaves, childcare benefits, sexual harassment policies, and diversity programs has been published in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Law & Society Review, and other venues. Kelly’s research integrates quantitative and qualitative methods, including group-randomized trials, quasi-experimental designs, multilevel models, event history analysis as well as semi-structured interviews and ethnographic methods. Kelly is part of the Work, Family and Health Network, supported by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control. 

 


Lori Nishiura Mackenzie

Lori Nishiura Mackenzie

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

FOUNDER, ONLINE VOICE & INFLUENCE PROGRAM

EXECUTIVE EDITOR, UPRISING AND GENDER NEWS

As Executive Director, Lori Nishiura Mackenzie leads the strategic direction and operations of the Institute, including finance, community relations, marketing, and program development. She is co-founder of the Institute's latest initiative, the Center for Women's Leadership. Mackenzie is creator of the workshops the Language of Leadership and the Dyanmics of Hyper-Effective Teams. She is founder of the online Voice & Influence program aimed at providing people with the skills, information and inspiration to be as effective as possible. This curriculum has been widely viewed through the Clayman Institute's partnership with LeanIn.org, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Darden Graduate School of Business and INSEAD.

Mackenzie frequently speaks about Women's Leadership and Seeing | Blocking Bias at leading companies and organizations. Conference presentations include Mt. St. Mary's Women's Leadership Conference, Girls Alliance Keynote, the MAKERS Conference, Professional Business Women of California, eBay WIN Summit, Cisco CTSO Women's Conference, Amelia Earhart Society, VMWorld, the Latina Coalition, HR People & Strategy Global Conference, and the Grace Hopper Celebration Technical Executive Forum. Company presentations include CA Technologies,Cisco, Deloitte, eBay, Genentech, General Mills, LinkedIn, Mozilla, RedHat, Schwab, Shearman & Sterling, State Street, and VMware.


Phyllis Moen

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 

Phyllis Moen holds a McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair and is Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, arriving there in 2003 after twenty-five years as a professor at Cornell University where she held the Ferris Family Chair in Life Course Studies.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1978.  Professor Moen co-directs (with Erin Kelly) the Flexible Work and Well-Being Center (located in the Minnesota Population Center), part of a larger research network initiative supported by the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control to investigate workplace policy initiatives aimed at promoting individual and family health and life quality as well as positive business outcomes. 

Moen has published numerous books and articles on careers, retirement, health, gender, policy and families as they intersect and as they play out over the life course. Her two most recent books are It’s About Time: Couples and Careers (2003) and The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream (2005, with Pat Roehling), which won the 2005 Award for Excellence in Sociology from the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division.  Dr. Moen’s recent research is examining the effects of promoting flexibility and control over time on both older and younger women and men workers. 

Professor Moen is currently on the board of SHiFT, a small non-profit in the Twin Cities focused on adults in transition. She has previously served on the board of Civic Ventures, a national non-for profit organization that generates ideas and programs to reframe and redefine the second half of life.  Dr. Moen has also served as a member of the Conference Board’s Work-Life Leadership Council.  She currently serves on the research advisory committee for the Center on Aging and Workplace Flexibility at Boston College.  She has been elected as a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gerontological Society of America, and the National Council of Family Relations.  Dr. Moen is currently writing another book, Boomers on the Edge: Navigating the Risks and Promise of Encore Adulthood, to be published by Oxford University Press.


Leslie Perlow

PROFESSOR OF LEADERSHIP, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL 

Leslie Perlow is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership in the Organizational Behavior area at the Harvard Business School. She currently teaches Authentic Leadership Development in the MBA program and runs a doctoral seminar on the craft of qualitative inductive research. She recently published a new book, Sleeping with your smartphone: How to break the 24-7 habit and change the way you work. 

Professor Perlow’s research focuses on the micro-dynamics of work. She seeks to understand what really happens at work – i.e., what do people do all day, how do they spend their time, with whom do they interact – and with what consequences for organizations and individuals. She documents individuals’ work practices and explores the implications of these practices for organization productivity, individuals’ careers and family life. Through her work, she identifies ways organizations can change their practices to the benefit of both the organization’s productivity and the individuals’ personal lives. She also engages with organizations trying to make these changes and studies the change process itself.

Professor Perlow is trained as an ethnographer, which means she spends long periods of time observing people as they go about their daily work, trying to better understand their world, from their perspectives. Her field studies range from software engineers in high tech companies to entrepreneurial ventures to management consulting teams to project teams in a pharmaceutical company. 

Before joining the Harvard faculty, Professor Perlow was on the faculty of the University of Michigan Business School. She received her B.A. in Economics from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Organization Studies from MIT. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a management consultant.

View Three Work Redesigns References

Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment (No. w18871)

Bloom, Nicholas, James Liang, John Roberts, and Zhichun Jenny Ying. 2013. "Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment (No. w18871)." National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-family Program Users

Briscoe, Forrest and Katherine C. Kellogg. 2011. "The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-family Program Users." American Sociological Review 76(2): 291–319.

Clarifying Work–family Intervention Processes: The Roles of Work–family Conflict and Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviors

Hammer, Leslie B., Ellen E. Kossek, W. Kent Anger, Todd Bodner, and Kristi L. Zimmerman. 2011. "Clarifying Work–family Intervention Processes: The Roles of Work–family Conflict and Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviors." Journal of Applied Psychology 96

Finding an Extra Day a Week: The Positive Influence of Perceived Job Flexibility on Work-Family Life Balance

Hill, E. Jeffrey, Alan J. Hawkins, Maria Ferris, and Michelle Weitzman. 2001. "Finding an Extra Day a Week: The Positive Influence of Perceived Job Flexibility on Work-Family Life Balance." Family Relations 50(1): 49-58.

Changing Workplaces to Reduce Work-Family Conflict Schedule Control in a White-Collar Organization

Kelly, Erin L., Phyllis Moen, and Erin Tranby. 2011. "Changing Workplaces to Reduce Work-Family Conflict Schedule Control in a White-Collar Organization.” American Sociological Review 76(2): 265-290.

Designing Organizational Work, Family and Health Change Initiative

Kossek, Ellen Ernst, Leslie B. Hammer, Erin L. Kelly and Phyllis Moen. 2013. "Designing Organizational Work, Family and Health Change Initiatives." Organizational Dynamics 43(1): 53-63.

Workplace Social Support and Work–Family Conflict: A Meta‐Analysis Clarifying the Influence of General and Work–family‐specific Supervisor and Organizational Support.

Kossek, Ellen Ernst, Shaun Pichler, Todd Bodner, and Leslie B. Hammer. 2011. "Workplace Social Support and Work–Family Conflict: A Meta‐Analysis Clarifying the Influence of General and Work–family‐specific Supervisor and Organizational Support." Personne

Does Enhancing Work-time Control and Flexibility Reduce Turnover? A Naturally Occurring Experiment

Moen, Phyllis, Erin L. Kelly, and Rachelle Hill. 2011. "Does Enhancing Work-time Control and Flexibility Reduce Turnover? A Naturally Occurring Experiment." Social Problems 58(1): 69.

Healthy Work Revisited: Do Changes in Time Strain Predict Well-Being?

Moen, Phyllis, Erin L. Kelly, Jack Lam. 2013. "Healthy Work Revisited: Do Changes in Time Strain Predict Well-Being?" Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 18(2): 157–172.

Changing Work, Changing Health: Can Real Work Time Flexibility Promote Health Behaviors and Well Being?

Moen, Phyllis, Erin L. Kelly, Eric Tranby, Quinlei Huang. 2011. "Changing Work, Changing Health: Can Real Work Time Flexibility Promote Health Behaviors and Well Being?" Journal of Health and Social Behavior 52(4): 402-429.

Making Time off Predictable—and Required

Perlow, Leslie and Jessica L. Porter. 2009. "Making Time off Predictable—and Required." Harvard Business Review 87(10).