Publications

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December 2023
Article

Managerial Pluralism: Thirty Years of Teaching Business Ethics

The author reflects on 30 years of teaching business ethics at Harvard Business School. The paper presents tactical lessons for teaching courses in professional ethics and introduces “managerial pluralism.” This concept is akin to Isaiah Berlin’s value pluralism and... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Ethics; Judgments

2020
Book

Step Back: How to Bring the Art of Reflection into Your Busy Life

July 1991 (Revised March 1992)
Background Note

Integrity and Management

Describes the role that issues of personal integrity play in managers' decisions. Defines personal integrity, the factors that influence it, the situations in which it becomes particularly relevant to company decisions, and ways of overcoming the blind spots that can... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Moral Sensibility; Planning; Situation or Environment; Trust; Value

Educators

17 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 17

Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Mar 2019
News

The HBS Fund

Joseph Badaracco and David Moss, taught and shared their research in the January 2019 week-long program, which also educates business executives and government officials about the importance of empowering... View Details

June 2021 (Revised June 2024)
Teaching Plan

PepsiCo, Profits, and Food: The Belt Tightens

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 314-055. View Details

July 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Background Note

Conflicting Responsibilities

Presents a framework for resolving issues in which managers' responsibilities--to shareholders, employees, other stakeholder groups, and to their own values and commitments in life--conflict with each other. The framework analyzes these issues in terms of duties,... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Employees; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations

Educators

Research Summary

Reflection

Corporations as Critical Social Institutions

My current research examines the extent to which corporations are emerging as critical social institutions. Over the past century, and especially in recent decades, firms have taken on... View Details

Keywords: Reflection

June 2021
Teaching Plan

Karin Vinik at South Lake Hospital

Teaching Plan for HBS Case Nos. 320-071, 320-072, 320-073, and 320-074. View Details

Article

How to Tackle Your Toughest Decisions

The toughest calls managers have to make come in situations when they have worked hard to gather the facts and have done the best analysis they can, but they still don’t know what to do. Then judgment—a fusion of thinking, feelings, experience, imagination, and... View Details

Keywords: Management; Judgments