Cross-training of nursing staff has been used in hospitals to reduce labor cost, provide scheduling flexibility, and meet patient demand effectively. However, cross-trained nurses may not be as productive as regular nurses in carrying out their tasks because of a new work environment and unfamiliar protocols in the new unit.
A recent meta-analysis from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Elad Sherf and co-authors examines the literature on "seeking behavior" at work – such as asking for information, feedback or help. Why does it matter and how can it be harnessed to the benefit of both employers and employees?
Failing to consider neurodiversity when trying to create truly diverse and inclusive workplaces has crucial implications for productivity and general life satisfaction. Organizations should consider these three points of action to improve their work environments and cultures.
Corporate executives have begun to glimpse the strategic value of incorporating artificial intelligence as an “employee” within their organization. In this Kenan Insight, we explore a framework that outlines the critical elements for harnessing the potential of human-AI working relationships.
The Biden administration has proposed several multi-trillion dollar initiatives to invest more federal dollars in infrastructure, education, healthcare and more. However, these big ticket items come at a significant cost, which the president hopes to cover through tax reforms. Proposed changes could affect individual income taxes for high earners, corporate taxes, international taxes and capital gains – and needless to say, the proposed reforms have drawn both strong critics and supporters. As dizzying negotiations and politicking continue in Washington, two of our experts unpack the proposed tax changes and their potential impacts on businesses and households in this week’s Kenan Insight.
More than ever, businesses are tasked with pleasing both shareholders and stakeholders, including employees, customers and even communities. But can it be done? In this week's Kenan Insight, our experts explore the most successful strategies employed by a class of businesses that have been navigating this debate for generations: family firms.
Stakeholders can and should play an important role in business decisions, but how can their interests be incorporated into business practices to create win-win solutions? In this week’s Insight, our experts dive into this question and discuss whether stakeholder capitalism models can help us find the right solution.
More than four years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine the essential elements that build small-business resilience, emphasizing the importance of personal fortitude and intangible resources in ensuring business survival.
To attract skilled talent in an evolving economic landscape, public and private sector leaders must understand the factors – economic, social and political conditions – that push and pull people and drive relocation.
Consumers will long associate the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic with seemingly apocalyptic searches for toilet paper, hand sanitizer and PPE. But even now, amid continued surges of the Delta variant, many global supply chains continue to experience disruptions at record rates. This week’s Kenan Insight invites our experts to weigh in on the immediate impact of these disruptions for business and society, the longer term effects across industries and the roles government and emerging tech should be playing to drive solutions.
Isabelle and Scott Black Professor of Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School, and 2025 Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow
An inside look at the plenary sessions of the fourth annual Frontiers of Entrepreneurship conference, which convened practitioners, policymakers and academics to discuss the most challenging issues in the field of entrepreneurship and set the agenda for future research and policy.
On Thursday, March 28, about 250 private equity professionals gathered for the 12th annual Alternative Investments Conference, hosted by the Institute for Private Capital, to discuss portfolio positioning for the late-stage cycle environment.
We investigate how auditor alignment, i.e. parent and subsidiary are audited by auditors from the same audit firm network, affects the quality of the internal information environment of groups and their subsidiaries decision making and performance management processes. We predict that auditor alignment improves internal information quality via better information coordination across the group, and via lower internal information asymmetry between parent and subsidiaries.
As federal, state and local governments struggle to reopen the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic surges onward, efforts to ensure people’s health and safety are seemingly at odds with attempts to spur economic activity. In this Kenan Insight, we explore how a data-driven approach to reopening North Carolina (and the U.S. as a whole) can help preserve both lives and livelihoods.