MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER)

Congratulations to George Ward! George, who earned his PhD at MIT IWER in 2022, and his coauthor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve have been named to the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025 for their work on well-being in the workplace: https://lnkd.in/gDGpscNQ.

Michael Piore, Professor Emeritus at MIT Political Science, MIT Department of Economics, & the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) on innovation: “If we looked in a different direction, we would find different technologies. The direction in which we choose to look, where we should be pushing it seems to me, should be the welfare of society as a whole.” https://lnkd.in/edrvw_Yw

Read about Lotte Bailyn's recent presentation at the IWER seminar on the new book she coauthored, "Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You":

Recently published research by Yaminette Díaz-Linhart, Tom Kochan, Arrow Minster, Dongwoo Park, & Duanyi Yang finds that having a larger gap between how much say workers have on workplace issues and how much they think they ought to have is associated with lower job satisfaction and well-being: https://lnkd.in/eWj9gnre

Read our new compendium of research on worker voice from the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) : https://lnkd.in/eFRVZBuc

Despite its limitations, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 had a positive effect on women’s advancement in the workplace in the years immediately following its passage, especially at companies with preexisting family-friendly organizational policies. That’s according to the paper “Points of Departure: Family Leave Policy and Women’s Representation in Management in U.S. Workplaces,” co-authored by MIT Sloan School of Management professor Erin Kelly, who is co-director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER). https://bit.ly/4hwvvNX

We just kicked off our OMT winter meeting ?? Thank you, MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER), for sponsoring this year's meeting ?? Cc: Emilio J Castilla, Wendy K. Smith, Joel Gehman, Silviya Svejenova, Forrest Briscoe, Eva Boxenbaum, Pedro Monteiro, Shubha Patvardhan, Madeline Toubiana, Emily Block, Hila Lifshitz, Andrea Prado, Mia Raynard, Erica Salvaj, Katie Stephenson, Christine Moser, Deborah Anderson, PhD, CPA, Massimo Maoret, Ilaria Orlandi, Giada Baldessarelli, Kevin W. Lee, Richard Haans, Academy of Management #OMT #AOM2025 #OMTtheplacetobe

Building an Economy That Works for Everyone

An updated and expanded version of the?“Work Design for Health” employer toolkit—developed by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the MIT Sloan School of Management—has been launched. This free online toolkit, originally created in 2021, maps how employers can create work environments that foster?worker health and well-being. Building on decades of previous “work redesign” research and frameworks, the toolkit identifies three strategies to reshape work conditions that not only improve worker well-being, but may also benefit the organization: *Increasing workers’ control over their schedules and giving them greater voice over work conditions; * Moderating job demands; and *Offering training and employer support aimed at enhancing social relations at work. In October 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General released a website and framework outlining the five essentials that employers can focus on to help create workplaces that are “engines of well-being” and pointed to the?“Work Design for Health” employer toolkit?as a helpful resource. Now the “Work Design for Health” toolkit, expanded with support from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), features a new?implementation guide?that offers employers key steps and resources for implementing a Work Design for Health approach. The web-based guide (also available as a print-ready PDF) introduces a step-by-step approach that employers can follow to launch an effective change initiative for improving worker well-being and organizational health. In addition, the toolkit has been updated to include more information on topics such as hybrid work and supervisor support for employees’ mental health. The research team that developed the Work Design for Health employer toolkit and the underlying Work Design for Health framework included?Meg Lovejoy, PhD, who was serving as the Research Program Director of the Work and Well-being Initiative at the The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies;?Erin Kelly, the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies?at MIT Sloan and Co-Director of the?MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER);??Laura D. Kubzansky, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Chan School; and?Lisa F. Berkman, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and Director of the?Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. Check out the updated "Work Design for Health" toolkit here: https://lnkd.in/gnvEMege I

The MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) is delighted to warmly welcome back Richard Locke, who is the?newly announced incoming Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management. Locke earned his doctorate in Political Science from MIT, and he subsequently had a distinguished career at MIT, serving as the Class of 1922 Professor of Political Science and Management, head of MIT’s Political Science Department, and Deputy Dean at MIT Sloan. Locke later was Provost at Brown University and Dean of Apple University, where he has demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision. During his previous time with the MIT faculty, Locke was an active faculty affiliate and critical contributor to IWER. “We have long admired Rick’s scholarship on labor standards in a global economy, private regulation, and comparative labor politics and employment relations, as well as his ability to bring people together fruitfully to innovate and face new challenges,” said IWER Co-Director Erin Kelly, who is the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies?at MIT Sloan. “We are excited for MIT and for MIT Sloan specifically to have Rick Locke share his vision and his values as our new Dean,”?added IWER Co-Director Emilio J Castilla, who is the?NTU Professor of Management?and a Professor of Work and Organization Studies at MIT Sloan. “Welcome home, Rick!”