In Russia, the role of connections in career success is important, but connections through friends or family and business connections can contribute to careers in different ways. While business connections help those who have already earned a good professional reputation, friends and family can give one’s career a headstart, but their role often stops at this, according to a team of researchers* of the HSE's Centre for Study of Social Organisation of a Firm (CSSOF)

A company that makes more effort to encourage initiative among its employees, supports their professional growth, and cares for their well-being will find it easier to hang on to motivated workers and improve the chances of company success. At the HSE XV April International Conference Alla Kupreychenko showed how corporate social responsibility predisposes an organisation to good results

Hierarchical relationships and outdated methods of internal communication prevail in many Russian companies. Less common are participatory communication, collegiality, and a commitment to negotiation and conflict prevention, suggests the study 'Internal Communication and Internal Marketing as Tools for Advancing Corporate Mission and Strategy' conducted by the HSE’s Higher School of Marketing and Business Development

Informal connections between a supervisor and direct reports increase an employee’s commitment to a company. The higher employees’ attachment to their leader, the more likely it is that they will work devotedly for the good of the company, noted Lusine Grigoryan, a junior researcher in HSE’s Faculty of Psychology, in a study entitled “Informal Connections and Organizational Loyalty: A Cross-cultural Analysis”

Cultivating guilt, the use of bonuses and penalties, and psychological pressure on employees are not the best ways to improve a company’s efficiency. According to a HSE Laboratory of Positive Psychology study of work motivations, professionals will be most efficient if they have an intrinsic motivation to work, which is related not to earnings, but instead, to an interest in what they do

Opportunistic behaviour among Russian employees is often provoked by employers themselves. Delays in payment of salaries result in absences and a decrease in productivity. Andrey Kaplan studied these issues in his paper ‘Influence of Employee’s Individual Characteristics and Company’s Specifics on the Level of Absenteeism’

Abolishing piece-work payment for pilots as well as reduction of using fixed pilots combinations could help to improve air transportation safety, according to Anton Nakonechny in his recent study