Publications

1998
Case

Nucor Corporation (A)

By: Vijay Govindarajan

Under the leadership of CEO Ken Iverson, Nucor thrived. Nucor's structure was decentralized, with only four management layers. Only 22 employees worked at the corporate headquarters; plants were located in rural areas across the U.S. and the general manager of each... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy

August 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Teaming at Disney Animation

By: Amy C. Edmondson, David L. Ager, Emily Harburg and Natalie Bartlett

Jonathan Geibel, Director of Systems at Walt Disney Animation Studios (hereafter referred to as Disney Animation), walked through the workspace occupied by the group he had been tasked to lead. Geibel knew he was part of a creative and magical environment. The Disney... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Creativity; Organizational Structure; Animation Entertainment; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

17 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 17

apart; the less they share, the more likely they are to be best executed separately. Nevertheless, managing multiple models is a tall order. LAN has had to face greater complexity, broaden its organizational skills, increase the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee handbook) includes 100% self-allocated time,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Research Summary

Optimal Contracting with Reciprocal Agents

(with Florian Englmaier) (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: Empirically, compensation systems often seem to generate substantial effort despite weak incentives. We consider reciprocal motivations as a source of incentives. We solve for the optimal... View Details

July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Supplement

Piramal e-Swasthya (B): Considering Change

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim

From 2008 to 2010 Anand Piramal ran a series of pilots for his digital healthcare startup, Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS) to “democratize healthcare” in rural areas of India. PeS ran into difficulties so Anand Piramal had to decide whether to continue the organization and,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Healthcare; Innovation; Emerging Economies; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Industry; India

November 2006
Article

The Flattening Firm: Evidence from Panel Data on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Using a detailed database of managerial job descriptions, reporting relationships, and compensation structures in over 300 large U.S. firms, we find that firm hierarchies are becoming flatter. The number of positions reporting directly to the CEO has gone up... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Change; Business Ventures; Compensation and Benefits; Rank and Position; Wages; Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Jobs and Positions; United States

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Research Summary

Governance and Accountability in Social Sector Organizations

This research examines governance in two types of organizations: international NGOs and socioeconomic hybrids.

First, over the past decade, many of the world's most prominent international nongovernmental organizations and networks (INGOs) ... View Details

01 Aug 2006
First Look

First Look: August 1, 2006

lectures of Robert Merton and Myron Scholes as a backdrop to this literature. Publisher's link: http://www.nowpublishers.com/product.aspx?product=FIN&doi=0500000005 The Changing Structure of the Legal Services Industry and the Careers... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Aug 2020
Conference Presentation

Impacting Grand Challenges: A 'Both/And' Approach

By: Natalie Slawinski, Wendy K. Smith, Robin J. Ely, Tobias Hahn, Andrew J. Hoffman and Anita M. McGahan

In this panel symposium, we seek to build on growing efforts by management scholars to engage with grand challenges and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Reflective of the All- Academy Theme description, we note that research and scholarship... View Details

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Research Summary

Overview

I am a field researcher studying the relational nature of work. Organizations are inherently social institutions and provide myriad opportunities for relationship formation. My work begins with the simple insight that all relationships are not equal: interpersonal... View Details

November 1992
Background Note

Note on Service Mapping

By: James L. Heskett

Illustrates a simple technique for diagramming operations flows in service companies. Can be used to help structure analysis and discussion of cases involving sequenced operations. View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Operations; Business Processes; Organizational Structure; Service Industry

April 2020 (Revised February 2023)
Case

GitLab and the Future of All-Remote Work (A)

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Emma Salomon

GitLab is arguably one of the world’s largest “all-remote” companies. Started in 2011 and with more than 1,000 employees at present, it has no physical offices and all employees, including the entire C-Suite, work remotely from all parts of the world. The case... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Business Model; Organizational Structure

2013
Working Paper

Imprinting: Toward A Multilevel Theory

By: Christopher Marquis and Andras Tilcsik

The concept of imprinting has attracted considerable interest in numerous fields—including organizational ecology, institutional theory, network analysis, and career research—and has been applied at several levels of analysis, from the industry to the individual. This... View Details

Keywords: History; Situation or Environment; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure

SSRN

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31 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

You’re Wasting Your Employees! What You Can Do About It

operations of any company that wishes to flourish in the new age. And yet, a decade of organizational delayering, destaffing, restructuring, and reengineering has produced employees who are more exhausted than empowered, more cynical than... View Details

Keywords: by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

Research Summary

Research overview

By: Julie Battilana

How can actors – be they individuals or organizations – diverge from deeply-seated norms and develop new ones, when their beliefs and actions are shaped by these very norms? This question lies at the heart of Professor Battilana’s research. To address it, she... View Details

August 2005
Background Note

Dual Class Share Companies

By: Samuel L. Hayes III, Lynn S. Paine and Christopher Bruner

Provides a brief historical overview of dual class share companies in the United States, focusing on the New York Stock Exchange's evolving position on dual class structures since the 1920s, the impact of hostile takeovers on their use since the 1980s, and recent... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Debates; Capital Structure; Equity; Business History; Law; Organizational Structure; Business and Shareholder Relations; Perspective; Europe; United States

Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi is a Berol Corporation Fellow and assistant professor in the Accounting and Management unit, where he teaches the Financial Reporting and Control course in the MBA required curriculum. He is a faculty affiliate to the Gender Initiative at HBS... View Details

December 2010
Article

Building Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations

By: Julie Battilana and Silvia Dorado

We explore how new types of hybrid organizations (organizations that combine institutional logics in unprecedented ways) can develop and maintain their hybrid nature in the absence of a "ready-to-wear" model for handling the tensions between the logics they combine.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Microfinance; Growth and Development Strategy; Identity; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Policy; Recruitment; Business Model

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