Bureaucracy - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Jun 2008
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?

recollection of Tony Athos, wrote that "Time-for-thinking is a special moment which can be resource consuming and an unsafe activity " (Fortunately, Athos held a tenured position in an academic organization.) A number of comments alluded to the triumph of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

06 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Strategic Intelligence: Adapt or Die

behavior. There is interesting research that humans are able to self-organize and become very effective without formal bureaucracy in units of up to 100 to 150 people. If you can create components and then effectively create bridges... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

processes in Web 2.0 that we had in 1.0," says Avery. "To be successful we have to be timely and current and pick up on the conversations unfolding around us. We can't do that if we have a big bureaucracy slowing us down and a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

25 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

MNCs in Asia: Investing in the Future

circumstances," said Howson. "In China, regulators and shareholders are one and the same, but they're slowly separating. There's still some confusion of roles as to how privatized firms are supposed to act." "It's important to have a good joint... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

18 Jan 2021
Book

How Thinking Like a Startup Helps Governments Solve More Problems

entrepreneurship in the private and public sectors just like we have bureaucracy in the private and public spaces. Big companies, too, struggle to find ways to be new, novel, and innovative. I think we overestimate some of the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

07 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Government’s Positive Role in Kick-Starting Entrepreneurship

bureaucracy can be wildly at odds with what entrepreneurs and their backers really need. Economists have also focused on a second problem, delineated in the theory of regulatory capture. These writings suggest that private- and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

29 Apr 2020
Book

The Key to Powerful Social Change: Small Villages

Who will solve the great problems facing humanity, a list of critical issues that only begins with the current pandemic? In the interview below, Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses her recent book, Think Outside the Building, and her view that solutions are most likely to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

12 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 12, 2009

the need to recoup shareholder value after paying a two-times premium for Sirtris with his desire to retain Christoph Westphal, Sirtris's co-founder and CEO, and other key individuals at the company. His desire to protect Sirtris from GSK's size and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

decision. Good leaders know when to think slow. All of us need mechanisms for helping us to know. Some elements of bureaucracy can be included among the devices. But, as Ganesh Ramakrishnan said, " we probably (need) to enrich the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

communism as a result of too many layers of bureaucracy and not enough market (true enough). But I then tell students that I made a mistake and that this chart actually represents the managerial organizations of one of the most successful... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

17 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Why Global Brands Work

bureaucracy in which regional managers exaggerate the need for local adaptations to defend their turf; and a deteriorating market share, financial performance, and stock price. Fords worldwide should have a common look, feel, and brand... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Auto

20 May 2016
Op-Ed

World Health Organization Lacks Leadership to Combat Pandemics

public advisories, and it is regarded as more of a policeman than a partner by national governments. Its many dedicated scientists produce useful reports on the global state of public health, but the WHO's bureaucracy impedes the decisive... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Health

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Depression or Euphoria? Navigating the Market’s Mood Swings

success. You try to enshrine your success. You build up bureaucratic processes to make sure you do things the same way next time," he said, adding that bureaucracy is the enemy of small companies that need to change quickly. Small... View Details

Keywords: by Carrie Levine

01 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

What it Takes to Lead Through Turmoil

whether individuals could make a difference in laggard companies. She said one effective strategy for individuals is to back initiatives inside the company—everything from guest speakers to building prototype products—which raise the general education level. No View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

27 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

Should I Pay the Bribe?

been more salient than others. I've been surprised by how little progress we have made with the standard economic model of incentives (to fight corruption). For example, I don't think we could have predicted the little use we have for strategies that would pay high... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia D. Churchwell

02 Feb 2004
What Do You Think?

Leadership: A Matter of Sustaining or Eliminating Groupthink?

especially true if groupthink may in some ways be a means to a worthy end. In Moses' case, he would brook no contrary ideas in amassing the power needed to fight bureaucracy and red tape while he built parks and bridges that were the envy... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

transforming the company's long-standing bureaucracy into an integrated global network, starting with a "values jam" involving 300,000 employees over a 96-hour period. His article in the May/June 2006 edition of Foreign Affairs, The... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

28 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 28

board chairperson, who is at the center of the board bureaucracy in China. Dissent is more likely to occur when the chairperson who appointed the independent director has left the board. Dissent also tends to occur at the end of board... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

22 Apr 2015
Op-Ed

Reforming Greece: Myths and Truths

plus side of the ledger, tariff rates declined, leading to more competition and forcing Greek companies to compete internationally. Reducing bureaucracy also helped: time to export decreased from 20 to 16 days, according to the World... View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

with Azure, acquiring LinkedIn in social media and Activision/Blizzard in gaming, and investing in OpenAI to gain control of ChatGPT. Equally important, he transformed the Microsoft culture from an arrogant bureaucracy into an empowered... View Details