Publications

06 Jul 2009
What Do You Think?

Are You Ready to Manage in an Irrational World?

world of irrationality. Much of traditional economics becomes outmoded when complex relationships based on often counter-intuitive behaviors are taken into account. Instead of a management philosophy centered around the View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

15 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: It Takes a Village

Editor's note: This is the first of occasional columns on managing the family business written by Senior Lecturer John A. Davis. In this first of two articles, Davis discusses leadership models. Part One: Global Norms And The One-leader... View Details

September 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Zurich Insurance: Diversity and Inclusion

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case “Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People... View Details

Keywords: Managing Change; Organizational Behavior; Diversity Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Leadership; Human Capital; Human Resources; Insurance; Diversity; Insurance Industry

September 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Zurich Insurance: Zurich Oxygen

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

Zurich Insurance was undergoing organizational change after implementing five new people practices focused on manager development, diversity and inclusion, job model and data analytics, recruitment, and talent pipeline. The case “Zurich Insurance: Fostering Key People... View Details

Keywords: Managing Change; Management Development; Leadership; Organization Behavior; Management Skills; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Leadership Development; Human Capital; Human Resources; Insurance; Insurance Industry

25 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity

Companies all over the world have striven for transparency in the workplace, literally tearing down walls in an effort to let managers and employees observe each other. Take, for example, one of the 14 key principles of The Toyota Way,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business Case for Diabetes Disease Management

diabetes is a public health crisis that needs urgent attention. However flawed, early programs that attempt to manage the disease may at least get more people thinking about serious solutions for their... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

January – February 2012
Article

How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication

By: Paul Leonardi, Tsedal Neeley and Elizabeth M. Gerber

Several recent studies have found that managers engage in redundant communication; that is, they send the same message to the same recipient through two or more unique media sequentially. Given how busy most managers are, and how much information their subordinates... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Media; Information; Groups and Teams; Projects; Management Style; Power and Influence; Motivation and Incentives; Technology

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12 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Crowded at the Top: The Rise of the Functional Manager

game-changers such as e-mail accounts, intranets, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. "You might expect that advances in information technology would increase the number of people you could View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Oct 2021
In Practice

Reunited and It Feels (Not) So Good: Tips for Managing a Rocky Return

people return to prior patterns of in-office hours, we have to make sure those who are still constrained by the pandemic don’t face additional penalties. Employers and managers who take their employees’... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

September 2018
Article

Rumors and Refugees: How Government-Created Information Vacuums Undermine Effective Crisis Management

By: Melissa Carlson, Laura Jakli and Katerina Linos

Although more than 800,000 displaced people arrived in Greece by sea in 2015, fewer than 5 percent applied for asylum in this first country of arrival. Instead, they either traveled northward informally or remained in Greece in legal limbo. The resultant chaotic... View Details

Keywords: Refugees; Governance Compliance; Knowledge Dissemination; Policy; Crisis Management; Communication; Greece

Read Now

January 2017
Supplement

Q&A: Ghislain de Charentenay, Sanford C. Bernstein Director of Research, Asia

By: Linda A. Hill and Allison J. Wigen

In this video supplement to the HBS case series "Sanford C. Bernstein Goes to Asia," case protagonist Ghislain de Charentenay recalls his leadership priorities and challenges upon being appointed director of research in Asia. View Details

Keywords: Talent Management; Sell-side Analysts; Organizational Behavior; Leadership And Managing People; Leadership, Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Leadership Style; Asia; Hong Kong; Collaboration; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Talent and Talent Management; Financial Services Industry; Asia; Hong Kong

01 Dec 2003
What Do You Think?

Is This the Twilight Era for the Managed Mutual Fund?

As he says, "Linking management fees/rewards to fund performance would be very attractive to investors: Who can argue with shared ambition?" The importance of these questions lies in the heavy reliance that so many View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2016
Supplement

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details

Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan

21 Jan 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Going Through the Motions: An Empirical Test of Management Involvement in Process Improvement

Keywords: by Anita L. Tucker; Health

23 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

The Challenges and Enhancing Opportunities of Global Project Management: Evidence from Chinese and Dutch Cross-Cultural Project Management

Keywords: by Ying Zhang, Christopher Marquis, Sergey Filippov, Henk-Jan Haasnoot & Martijn van der Steen

21 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Health Care Managers Need to Know--and How to Teach Them

Global health care is entering its most challenging era, with increasing demand for services from consumers newly arrived in the middle class, under-served people, and rapidly aging populations, all the while dealing with the need to View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health; Education

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

and organizations, strategic planning, and operations management as we have come to know them. Professor Christopher Bartlett is faculty chair of the Program for Global Leadership. Executive Education recently invited him to discuss his... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

September 2024
Article

The Human Side of the Future of Work: Understanding the Role People Play in Shaping a Changing World

By: Jochen I. Menges, Lauren C. Howe, Erika Hall, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Sharon K. Parker, Riki Takeuchi, Abhijeet K. Vadera, Ashley Whillans and Susan K. Cohen

For as long as there has been work, there has been a “future of work,” through humans’ ingenuity and drive to get things done easier, faster, and better. With the industrial revolution, efforts to shape a better future of work were dominated by improvements in... View Details

Keywords: Change; Labor

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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