Publications

December 1981 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Mike Miller (A)

Mike Miller, Harvard MBA '78, resigned his first job out of HBS within six months because he believed his personal values and learning objectives could not be accommodated. Students may discuss the problems of anticipating corporate culture, learning the ropes,... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Values and Beliefs; Jobs and Positions; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics

01 Oct 1999
News

The View from the Pit

up a genetics lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and earned a master's degree in social psychology from Boston University. "I came to HBS to get a degree that would be broad enough to apply to any area within the administration of... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

July 2003 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Mitchells/Richards

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim

Describes a small, luxury retail chain's operational sophistication achieved through the use of technology and high-touch customer service. A family-run business, Mitchells has built its success with a customer service strategy know internally as "hugging." The term is... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Expansion; Family Business; Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Luxury; Customer Focus and Relationships; Retail Industry

2008
Working Paper

Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Prior work in organizational learning has failed to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. While some studies find a positive relationship between these two variables, others find no effect or even a negative relationship. In this paper, we... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Familiarity; India

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01 Jul 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

adding the software was very large. The engineers undoubtedly felt the pressure of a long-standing culture comprising equal parts of pride, arrogance, and fear. The Company is still recovering from the costs of enormous government fines,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 2005 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Shinhan Financial Group (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ryan Raffaelli

Mr. Young Hwi Choi, president and CEO of Shinhan Financial Group, embarked on an unconventional post-merger integration strategy with recently acquired Chohung Bank. The strategy focused on integrating traditional operations while attending to employees' reactions to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Employees; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Emotions; Integration; South Korea

August 1992 (Revised December 1994)
Case

Sexual Harassment, Free Speech or ...?

By: Lynn S. Paine

Presents two brief vignettes about female employees who object to gender discrimination in their work environment. In one case, the manager of a convenience store removes "adult" magazines from the store's shelves because she sees them as damaging to women. In the... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Working Conditions; Law; Behavior; Managerial Roles; Crime and Corruption; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Gender

09 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 9

two countries reveals that America's love affair with credit was not primarily the consequence of its culture of consumption, as many writers have observed, nor directly a consequence of its less generous welfare state. It emerged instead... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

image of a cowboy, the Lone Ranger, or Prince Valiant coming in to clean up the town or rescue the distressed. So, in many ways they are just as much embedded in this larger kind of cultural construct. If you look at business magazines,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

16 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

At the Center of Corporate Scandal Where Do We Go From Here?

organizational processes, systems, and culture that drive individual and organizational integrity. Accountability and responsibility to customers, the larger community, and society. Of course, we ought to—and we do—come at this work with... View Details

Keywords: by Kim B. Clark

10 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 10

hold when considering changes in India's incumbent industry structures from 1989, determined before large-scale deregulation began, to 2005. Publisher's link: http://www.people.hbs.edu/wkerr/Ghani_Kerr_OConnell_RS_IndiaSpatial-8-26-13.pdf 2006 View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2024
Teaching Note

Making Progress at Progress Software (A) and (B)

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman, Hannah Riley Bowles, Emma Ronzetti and Alexis Lefort

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 924-010 and 924-011. View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Prejudice and Bias; Employee Relationship Management; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry

June 2008
Teaching Note

The Treadway Tire Company: Trouble at the Lima Tire Plant (Brief Case)

By: C. Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham

Teaching Note for (2189) View Details

Keywords: Superior ＆ Subordinate; Labor Relations; Work Force Management; Human Resource Management; Hiring; Job Satisfaction; Leadership; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Satisfaction; Organizational Culture; Rank and Position; Labor and Management Relations

24 May 2004
Research & Ideas

The Watsons: IBM’s Troubled Legacy

organization is in recognition of the part played by art in industry and its importance to industry in broadening the horizons of culture and influencing the needs and desires of the people of every country. Whatever that might mean. This... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow

21 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 21, 2008

higher prices can increase use, either by targeting distribution to high-use households (a screening effect), or by stimulating use psychologically through a sunk-cost effect. We develop a methodology for separating these two effects. We... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2002 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Massachusetts Financial Services

By: Brian J. Hall and Jonathan Lim

This case describes the compensation and performance evaluations at an investment management company. The senior management team of Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS) Investment Management was contemplating an introduction of hedge funds at the firm, but many... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Management Teams; Compensation and Benefits; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts

04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

in which it is carried out. Joe Schmid observed that "both medical doctors and organizational managers work in cultures that are historically problem definition poor and solution rich. Their individual rewards systems are both driven... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

2021
Book

Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business--and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Family and Family Relationships; Outcome or Result; Business Model; Conflict and Resolution; Organizational Culture