Resignation and Termination - Publications - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School

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June 2025
Case

(Family) Size Matters: Nico Oprée and the Decreasing Power of Family Unity over Time

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati, Dominik V. Eynern and Sophia Pan

Nico Oprée, a fourth-generation (G4) member of his family’s heavy manufacturing business, found himself reflecting on how the firm would navigate a deepening shareholder conflict. While the second generation (G2) had managed the business in harmony, dynamics shifted... View Details

April 2025
Case

Giving Up on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Alexis Lefort

For 20 years, Elizabeth Rowe was a world-renowned principal flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But in 2024, Rowe decided to leave her position to pursue a new full-time career as a leadership coach. At 50, Rowe was well under the typical retirement age, and,... View Details

December 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Strategy and CEO Succession at Starbucks

By: Krishna G. Palepu and David Lane

On August 13, 2024, Starbucks announced that Laxman Narasimhan who was appointed as the CEO only in September 2023, was stepping down as CEO and board director “with immediate effect.” Laxman would be replaced on September 9 by Brian Niccol, CEO since 2018 of Chipotle... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Corporate Governance; Leadership; Management Succession; Cost Management; Labor Unions; Working Conditions; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Service Operations; Investment Activism; Governing and Advisory Boards; Resignation and Termination; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

March 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Governing OpenAI (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Suraj Srinivasan and Will Hurwitz

In late November 2023, OpenAI’s new board of directors took stock of the situation. The company, which sought to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI)—computer systems with capabilities exceeding human abilities—was looking to regain its footing after a chaotic... View Details

March 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort

In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Talent; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Cybersecurity; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Recruitment; Resignation and Termination; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Europe; United States

December 4, 2023
Comment

The Great Resignation, Employment, and Wages in Health Care

By: Amitabh Chandra and Louis-Jonas Heizlsperger

Notwithstanding concerns about staffing levels and burnout in health care, federal wage and employment data does not support the suggestion that a COVID-19 pandemic-related spike in quitting has had an enduring impact for hospitals or physician offices. Employment in... View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Employment; Wages; Health Industry

April 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Teaching Note

Netflix's Culture: Binge or Cringe?

By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-096. View Details

March 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Background Note

Economic Analysis: The Hidden Costs of Layoffs and Managing Staff Reductions

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Marilyn Morgan Westner and Christopher Diak

Globally, over the past fifty years, more companies have used layoffs to cut costs during periods of decreased demand or economic downturns. But layoffs have far-reaching consequences, generate hidden costs, and harm the company in myriad ways. This note reviews ways... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Layoffs; Furloughs; Human Resources; Management Practices and Processes; Employee Relationship Management; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; United States

March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Layoffs in the Tech Industry: 2022–2023

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner

This case examines the mass layoffs that swept through the tech industry (2022-2023) through the lens of four companies: Twitter, Stripe, Meta, and Google. How these companies implemented workforce change through mass layoffs raises critical questions applicable beyond... View Details

Keywords: Layoffs; Human Resource Management; Workforce Reductions; Ethics; Human Resources; Management; Values and Beliefs; Employee Relationship Management; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; Technology Industry; United States; United Kingdom

January 2023
Case

Gerald Weiss (2023)

By: Brian J. Hall, Carleen Madigan, Andrew Wasynczuk and Caroline Witten

Gerald Weiss left Wall Street for the promise of a CFO position at a well-established corporation. He was given a 10-year options package with a guaranteed floor of $12 million and unlimited upside. To ensure the entire package would be worth at least $12 million after... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Resignation and Termination; Executive Compensation; Organizational Culture; Agreements and Arrangements; Stock Options; Conflict and Resolution; New York (city, NY)

December 8, 2022
Article

What Companies Still Get Wrong about Layoffs

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Marilyn Morgan Westner

Research has long shown that layoffs have a detrimental effect on individuals and on corporate performance. The short-term cost savings provided by a layoff are often overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and... View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Employment; Selection and Staffing; Performance

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June 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Netflix's Culture: Binge or Cringe?

By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger, James Barnett and Stacy Straaberg

In May 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of... View Details

2022
Article

The Great Resignation Didn't Start with the Pandemic

By: Joseph B. Fuller and William R. Kerr

COVID-19 spurred on the Great Resignation of 2021, during which record numbers of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. But what we are living through is not just short-term turbulence provoked by the pandemic. Instead, it’s the continuation of a trend of rising quit... View Details

Keywords: Quit Rate; Labor Market; Great Resignation; Jobs and Positions; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Health Pandemics

March 8, 2022
Article

Women Can’t Go Back to the Pre-Pandemic Status Quo

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Survey data collected in 2018 and 2019 from Harvard Business School graduates revealed that for women—and especially women of color—well-being at work was suffering long before the pandemic. While 17% of all respondents said that they often or very often experienced... View Details

Keywords: Women; Burnout; Gender; Race; Resignation and Termination; Well-being; Employees

December 2021
Article

Employee Responses to Compensation Changes: Evidence from a Sales Firm

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

What are the long-term consequences of compensation changes? Using data from an inbound sales call center, we study employee responses to a compensation change that ultimately reduced take-home pay by 7% for the average affected worker. The change caused a significant... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Wages; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Performance; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Analysis

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September 2021
Case

Francoise Brougher (A)

By: Edward H. Chang, Nour Kteily and Kathleen McGinn

Francoise Brougher was a high-powered technology executive in Silicon Valley. After successful stints at Google (where she rose to lead a $16 billion ad sales business) and Square (which she helped take public), she joined Pinterest as its first Chief Operating Officer... View Details

Keywords: Gender Discrimination; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Prejudice and Bias; Resignation and Termination; Negotiation

September 2020
Case

Uber at a Crossroads (2017)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the history of Uber, its business model—including the ways it differed from that of the traditional taxi industry—and its competition with Lyft. The case is set in 2017, a year in which Uber was plagued by even more scandals than usual, though its... View Details

March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Culture at Google

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta

Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google’s contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of... View Details

September 2019
Exercise

Difficult Conversations (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

The exercises can be used as a follow-up to the Yesware (A) case (#816-039), or in conjunction with any case that involves replacing a founding team member (and/or providing feedback to a top executive). This is a role-playing exercise, and has been carried out in the... View Details

Keywords: Firing; Feedback; Founders; Culture; Values; Neuroscience; Business Startups; Organizational Culture; Resignation and Termination; Communication; Emotions; Trust; Human Resources; Entrepreneurship

September 2019
Exercise

Difficult Conversations (B)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai

The exercises can be used as a follow-up to the Yesware (A) case (#816-039), or in conjunction with any case that involves replacing a founding team member (and/or providing feedback to a top executive). This is a role-playing exercise, and has been carried out in the... View Details

Keywords: Firing; Feedback; Founders; Culture; Values; Neuroscience; Business Startups; Organizational Culture; Resignation and Termination; Communication; Emotions; Trust; Human Resources; Entrepreneurship

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