Publications

1992
Chapter

Critical Path to Corporate Renewal: Developing Human Resources While Focusing on the Business

By: Michael Beer

May 1992 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Richardson Sheffield

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

The case traces Bryan Upton’s 20-plus years as managing director of a Sheffield-based cutlery company and describes the strategic and organizational actions he took to raise sales and earnings at more than 25% annually, even as the local industry was in steep... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Human Resource Practices; General Management; Human Resources; Management; Leadership; Strategy; United Kingdom

19 Jul 2022
News

Regulated Human Capital Disclosures

March 2022
Article

Developing Strategic Human Resource Theory and Making a Difference: An Action Science Perspective

By: Michael Beer

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September 1993 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Habitat for Humanity International

Habitat for Humanity, a not-for-profit, volunteer-based home builder, is coping with years of rapid growth and success. They now face a series of options to continue their successful course and must make corresponding organizational adjustments. Teaching objectives... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth Management; Housing; Service Industry; United States

August 2016 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Accenture Human Capital Strategy

By: Paula A. Price, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber

Accenture is a leading global consulting, technology, and outsourcing company. It has clients and its own operations throughout the world. This case describes the human resources and related activities necessary to deliver its services to clients. It allows students to... View Details

Keywords: Management Consulting; Technology Consulting; Outsourcing; Human Resources; Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Practices and Processes

Article

The Transformation of the Human Resource Function: Resolving the Tension between the Administrative and Strategic Roles

By: Michael Beer

Web

Research Resources - Doctoral

Research Community Research Resources Our research and teaching resources are unmatched. The research and teaching resources at Harvard are unmatched by any other school.... View Details

October 2019
Supplement

Hidrovias do Brasil: Navigating Unchartered Waters: Video Supplement

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Since its founding eight years earlier, Hidrovias do Brasil (“Hidrovias”), an integrated logistics provider serving corporate customers exporting products from South America via the Atlantic Ocean, had grown to 900 employees and $253 million in annual revenues.... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Finance; Leadership; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Human Capital; Growth and Development; Private Equity; Shipping Industry; Brazil

Spring 1983
Article

Doing What's Right vs. Doing the Right Thing: The Normative Underpinnings of Human Resource Strategy

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

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February 2004
Case

Note on Human Behavior: Reason and Emotion

By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler

Human beings are driven by reasons and emotions. On the one hand, as rational choice theorists assert, human beings are resourceful and evaluative as they strive to maximize their own interests. An individual's interests can converge or diverge from the interests of... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions; Interests; Organizations; Organizational Design; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

In Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, the authors combine the latest thinking from the biological and social sciences to lay out a new theory on human nature. The idea: We are all influenced and... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

Web

Selected Digital Historical Resources – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

HBS Home HBS Index Contact Us A New Vision An Essay by Professors Michel Anteby and Rakesh Khurana Introduction The Hawthorne Plant Employee Welfare Illumination Studies and Relay Assembly Test Room Enter Elton Mayo Human Relations and... View Details

Article

The Impact of the 'Open' Workspace on Human Collaboration

By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban

Organizations’ pursuit of increased workplace collaboration has led managers to transform traditional office spaces into “open,” transparency-enhancing architectures with fewer walls, doors, and other spatial boundaries, yet there is scant direct empirical research on... View Details

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01 Jun 2000
News

Capturing Human Capital

management approaches that proved to be all-powerful in earlier times. "Increasingly, the drive for global expansion must be to capture scarce sources of intellectual and human capital -- resources that can... View Details

29 Jul 2014
News

What It Will Take to Fix HR

Keywords: human resources; strategy

September 2016
Case

Truly Human Leadership at Barry-Wehmiller

By: Dylan Minor and Jan Rivkin

The chief executive of Barry-Wehmiller, a large maker of industrial equipment, has resolved to run the company via “truly human leadership” in which “success is measured by the way we touch the lives of people.” With unusual people practices and a distinctive strategy,... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Employees; Business Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

January 2016
Case

SAP SE: Autism at Work

By: Gary P. Pisano and Robert D. Austin

This case describes SAP's "Autism at Work" program, which integrates people with autism into the company's workforce. The company has a stated objective of making 1% of its workforce people with autism by 2020. SAP's rationale for the program is based on the belief... View Details

Keywords: Software; Human Resource Management; Diversity Management; Germany; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Management; Applications and Software; Recruitment; Diversity; Information Technology Industry; Germany