Publications

Educators

March 2015 (Revised January 2020)
Supplement

Behavioural Insights Team (B)

By: Michael Luca and Patrick Rooney

The Behavioural Insights Team case introduces students to the concept of choice architecture and the value of experimental methods (sometimes called A/B testing) within organizational contexts. The exercise provides an opportunity for students to apply these principles... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Experiments; Choice Architecture; Public Entrepreneurship; United Kingdom

Web

Programs for Small Teams

The organizational impact of team collaboration. Sending small teams of executives or individuals to the same program can have a profound impact on long-term organizational... View Details

2009
Working Paper

Varied Experience, Team Familiarity, and Learning: The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety

By: Bradley R. Staats, Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano

Prior work examining the relationship of varied experience (i.e., the concurrent completion of multiple tasks) and learning by groups finds inconsistent results. We hypothesize that team familiarity, i.e, individuals' prior shared work experience, may help explain this... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Social Psychology; Familiarity

June 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Background Note

The Virtual Entrepreneurial Team Exercise—VETE ; Overview and Instructions for Participants

By: Daniel J. Isenberg

Describes the virtual entrepreneurial team exercise, a role-play simulation involving teams of five students from several international business schools around the world. Provides a detailed set of instructions to faculty from non-HBS business schools. The teams... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Entrepreneurship

2008
Working Paper

Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Prior work in organizational learning has failed to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. While some studies find a positive relationship between these two variables, others find no effect or even a negative relationship. In this paper, we... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Familiarity; India

Read Now

09 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Performance Pressure as a Double-Edged Sword: Enhancing Team Motivation While Undermining the Use of Team Knowledge

Keywords: by Heidi K. Gardner

June 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Team Rubicon: Bridging the Gap from Startup to National Organization

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Dan Nidess

Team Rubicon, a military veteran volunteer disaster relief organization, has experienced significant success in attracting attention and support in its first four years of operation. The challenges of managing the volunteer base, the cost of responding to disasters,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy And Execution; Disaster Relief; NGO; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Non-Governmental Organizations

Educators

27 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured

the expertise of all their members? A: No matter what level of pressure, teams need to work diligently to make the most of their members' knowledge. To draw out individual expertise, View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

2007
Article

Three Perspectives on Team Learning: Outcome Improvement, Task Mastery, and Group Process

By: Amy C. Edmondson, James R. Dillon and Kate Roloff

The emergence of a research literature on team learning has been driven by at least two factors. First, longstanding interest in what makes organizational work teams effective leads naturally to questions about how members of newly formed teams learn to work together... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Practice; Groups and Teams; Research; Adaptation; Cooperation

June 2014
Teaching Note

Doing Deals and Leading Teams at XAF Partners

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott and Robin Abrahams

Private equity firm XAF Partners had grown steadily over the last decade, establishing offices across Asia. At the end of their day-long partners' retreat, several firm partners discuss the challenges they face as "producing managers." These include collaboration and... View Details

Keywords: Management; Time Management; Development; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management; Management Practices and Processes; Financial Services Industry; China

November 2008
Article

Teaming Up to Crack Innovation and Enterprise Integration

By: Jim I. Cash Jr., Michael J. Earl and Robert Morison

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Innovation and Invention; Integration

07 Apr 2021
News

How Teams Work: Lessons from the Pandemic

18 May 2022
News

10 Teams Tackle Climate Change

Article

Disrupted Routines: Team Learning and New Technology Adaptation

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Richard Bohmer and Gary P. Pisano

Keywords: Learning; Information Technology; Groups and Teams; Disruption

Read Now

09 Apr 2024
News

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

June 1997
Teaching Note

Team New Zealand (A), (B), and (C) TN

By: Marco Iansiti and Alan D. MacCormack

Teaching Note for (9-697-040), (9-697-041), and (9-697-042). View Details

Keywords: Sports Industry; Transportation Industry; New Zealand; United States

2022
Working Paper

When Do Individuals Give Up Agency? The Role of Decision Avoidance

By: Holly Dykstra, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle

A common policy problem is that individuals reject recommended options and insist on making their own choices. Via a large-scale experiment, we document and investigate what factors contribute to this preference for agency. Our main results show that individuals’... View Details

Keywords: Choice; Decision Making; Policy; Cognition and Thinking