Publications

December 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Background Note

Layoffs: Management Implications and Best Practices

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Elana Sara Green and David Alberto Rosales

This note reviews decision criteria for carrying out a layoff, best practices for implementation, and ways that managers can prepare themselves to conduct a layoff. View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing

Educators

16 May 2016
HBS Case

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

an effort to differentiate by being more locally sourced and thereby fresher, as perceived by consumers, Chipotle was perhaps putting its brand at greater reputational risk.” Companies are increasingly outsourcing their food inspection... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

November 2011 (Revised January 2014)
Supplement

The Impact of Layoffs

By: Sandra J. Sucher, David Rosales and Elana Green

In video interviews, employees who have been laid off describe their experiences and the effects that the layoff has had on their careers, families, and personal lives. View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing

March 2007
Teaching Note

Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Terence Heymann

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing

June 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Teaching Note

Offshoring at Global Information Systems, Inc. (TN)

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Teaching Note to (9-204-144). View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing

23 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

How Corporate Responsibility is Changing in Asia

exchange for the right to drill in developing countries. But should companies be responsible for government services? What happens when MNC investment moves on? Something has gone wrong with the spirit of corporate social responsibility when it becomes akin to View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

1990
Article

Outsourcing: Harbinger of IS's Transformation

By: R. L. Nolan

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Transformation

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

client. And decisions based solely on finances tend to have a negative effect on customer service, the researchers learned. If a company outsources some or all of its call center activities, for example, service levels go down. Frei,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

Abstract Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard, which can be particularly... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

New Cluster Mapping Project Helps Companies Locate Facilities

conduct research and gain access to company managements. Clusters allow companies to operate more productively than where they must do things themselves (vertical integration) or where they must outsource goods and ideas from distant... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

1995
Article

What Downsizing Does to Creativity

By: T. M. Amabile and R. Conti

Keywords: Creativity; Job Cuts and Outsourcing

April 11, 2010
Article

Solving Jobs Crisis Won't Be a Quick Fix

By: William W. George

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Problems and Challenges

Read Now

2008
Working Paper

A Replication Study of Alan Blinder's 'How Many U.S. Jobs Might Be Offshorable?'

By: Troy Smith and Jan W. Rivkin

In a 2007 working paper, Alan Blinder assessed the "offshorability" of hundreds of U.S. occupations and estimated that between 22% and 29% of all U.S. jobs were potentially offshorable. This note reports the results of an exercise in which members of Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Wages; Research; United States

Read Now

April 2001
Exercise

Selecting a Hosting Provider

Asks students to develop criteria for selecting a Web hosting company, then to select one of three profiled in case exhibits. In choosing a hosting vendor, students represent one of two companies: one a start-up, the other an industrial-age manufacturer. By assigning... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Partners and Partnerships; Internet