Publications

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January 2025
Technical Note

Skills-First Talent Management: Hiring

By: Boris Groysberg, Tom Quinn, Robin Abrahams and Katherine Connolly Baden

The first in a series of notes on how organizations manage skills-first talent-management chains, covering recruiting: the process of creating a job description, publicizing the job and attracting applicants, and assessing candidates. Other notes in this series include... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions

October 2020
Article

Patronage and Selection in Public Sector Organizations

By: Emanuele Colonnelli, Mounu Prem and Edoardo Teso

In all modern bureaucracies, politicians retain some discretion in public employment decisions, which may lead to frictions in the selection process if political connections substitute for individual competence. Relying on detailed matched employer-employee data on the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Selection and Staffing; Political Elections; Public Sector; Brazil

January 16, 2023
Article

40 Ideas to Shake Up Your Hiring Process

By: Joseph Fuller, Nithya Vaduganathan, Allison Bailey and Manjari Raman

Many companies today are struggling to hire and retain talent, but more often than not the problem is self-inflicted: They’re simply not using a broad enough array of tools, sometimes because they don’t even know the tools exist. In this article, the authors list 40... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Retention; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing

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September 2019 (Revised May 2021)
Case

pymetrics: Early Days

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2013, CEO Frida Polli was contemplating the next steps for her start-up business, pymetrics. After receiving her PhD in neuropsychology and MBA from HBS, she was determined to put her scientific and academic knowledge to work to build a business solving real world... View Details

April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

CitySoft, Inc.

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti, Andrea H. Chermayeff and Diana S. Gardner

Two entrepreneurs are discussing how to scale-up their new company. They face a variety of issues, ranging from hiring and training to strategy and focus. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Selection and Staffing; Internet; Web Services Industry

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Enterprising Women

meant making quick, difficult staffing decisions when some of her colleagues weren't able to grow with the company. "It took a long time to get funding," she continued, recalling that she was eight months pregnant when she made... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Dewberry Capital

By: William J. Poorvu

In 2003, key executives of Dewberry Capital, a fast-growing, Atlanta-based real estate company, are evaluating their growth strategy and the resultant organizational issues. John Dewberry, the entrepreneurial founder of the firm, has developed a portfolio of... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Selection and Staffing; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Real Estate Industry; Atlanta

March 1993
Supplement

Praxair: Creating a Board (B)

By: Jay W. Lorsch

Discusses the final formation of Praxair's board. Lists the members chosen with their backgrounds. Also describes the selection process of board members, and the structure and process of board meetings. View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Governing and Advisory Boards; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes

December 1997 (Revised January 1998)
Exercise

COO and Country Manager Job Selection Exercise

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

From seven candidates, students must choose two who are most qualified for the COO position at an entrepreneurial Danish multinational organization, and two who are the best choices for country manager in Vietnam for the company. View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Experience and Expertise; Multinational Firms and Management

24 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality

school systems typically devote up to 85 percent of their budgets to personnel. This creates heavy managerial burdens and difficulties in aligning staffing to meet the needs of students and parents. AltSchool's microschool strategy... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Jong-Hyun Kim; Education

18 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bunch: Evaluating Job Candidates in Groups

New research suggests that organizations wishing to avoid gender stereotyping in the hiring or promotion process-and employ the most productive person instead—should evaluate job candidates as a group, rather than one at a time. “The three of us have produced one of... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

05 Feb 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t We Figure Out How to Select Leaders?

Summing Up How do we close the gap between theory and results in selecting leaders? In discussing why our achievements in selecting leaders are less than stellar, contributors offered a rich set of ideas. Given their number, I've tried to categorize them into several... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

November 2007 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Allston: Brand vs. Architecture

By: Andre F. Perold, Arthur I Segel and Christopher M. Gordon

Harvard President Lawrence Summers had presided over the final interviews of world-renowned architects being considered for the science complex planned for Harvard's expanded campus in Allston. The selection process had absorbed nine months in 2005 and amplified the... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Brands and Branding; Design; Urban Development; Selection and Staffing; Construction Industry; Boston

August 2024
Background Note

A Brief Note on U.S. Presidential Transitions

By: Robert F. White

This note provides background information on the U.S. presidential transition process, including the history of presidential transitions, the modern transition process, and the responsibilities of the executive branch. It includes a brief overview of the primary laws... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Government Administration; Selection and Staffing; Political Elections; Laws and Statutes; Public Administration Industry; United States

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Earl Martin Phalen: Ready to ROAR?

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Julia Taylor and Yael Braid

Earl Martin Phalen is in the midst of starting his second non-profit organization, Summer Advantage, by implementing the lessons he learned from BELL, the non-profit he had founded and run for the prior 15 years. His aspirations for Summer Advantage were to make it... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Leadership Development; Financial Management

June 1983
Article

Elicitation of Honest Preferences for the Assignment of Individuals to Positions

By: Dutch Leonard

Keywords: Jobs and Positions; Selection and Staffing

02 Jun 2003
What Do You Think?

What Can Aspiring Leaders Be Taught?

portion of faculty discussion and planning time as well in the coming months. Should the topics be addressed in separate courses staffed by those with substantial training in philosophy as well as management theory? Or should they be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Feb 2001
What Do You Think?

Do MBA Programs Face “The Innovator’s Dilemma”?

implemented by a new breed of educator, one that has had little to do with the traditional halls of ivy or institutions such as academic tenure. The Christensen defense to this educational competitive threat might be for traditional purveyors of management education to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 24, 2025
Article

Behaviorally Designed Training Leads to More Diverse Hiring

By: Cansin Arslan, Edward H. Chang, Siri Chilazi, Iris Bohnet and Oliver P. Hauser

Many organizations have shown interest in increasing the diversity of their workforces for various reasons. Collectively, they have spent millions of dollars and countless employee hours on diversity training. Yet, there is little empirical evidence that such training... View Details

Keywords: Training; Diversity; Selection and Staffing; Behavior; Outcome or Result; Organizational Change and Adaptation