Publications

18 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Your Best Employees Are Burning Out: A Framework for Retaining Talent

Burnout, retention, and renewed labor organization are critical challenges for leaders, especially amid COVID-19 and a looming recession. Leaders must ask themselves: What is it about my organization’s culture that is contributing to such... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and MaShon Wilson

22 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 22

self-sorting, and manager-directed joint learning. It shows that such culture will be stronger among more important employees and in older and more successful firms where employees make important decisions and the manager has strong... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2023
What Do You Think?

How Much Does 'Deep Purpose' Matter to the Bottom Line?

(iStockphoto/PeopleImages) An organization’s mission is widely recognized as its reason for being. Enlightened leaders have long known and believed that the heart of an organization’s culture is described not just by “how we do things... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

21 May 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Do Friends Influence Purchases in a Social Network?

Keywords: by Raghuram Iyengar, Sangman Han & Sunil Gupta; Technology

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

negotiated relationship that individuals have with other individuals or that individuals have with society. In addition, there is a cultural quality about what constitutes a leader that changes across social situations, whether we are... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

between those two bosses and how to negotiate what will be your priorities, given their priorities. Q: Due to technological advances and globalization, more and more managers find themselves leading, collaborating with, and reporting to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons on Life, Graffiti, and Value: 'It's in That Darkness That You Can Actually Develop and Evolve'

Riley was naturally drawn to graffiti because of its significance in hip-hop culture and for how it helped him find his voice. “Being neurodivergent and having learning differences, creative outlets like drawing were always a way for me... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

31 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Japan Disaster Shakes Up Supply-Chain Strategies

The full cultural and sociological aftershocks of the earthquake in Japan—the worst disaster to hit the country since World War II—are washing like a tsunami across many industries as manufacturers and their customers scramble to replace... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Auto; Technology; Computer; Electronics

03 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 3

and user-friendly tips on how to make organizational culture more intimate, more interactive, more inclusive, and more intentional-in short, more conversational. Order the book:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

HBS. The Canadian Red Cross puts pseudo-sets to the test The researchers proved the efficacy of pseudo-set framing through a series of laboratory and real-world field studies. In one study, they teamed up with the Canadian Red Cross, a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

their culture so that some of these ideas begin to permeate and shape the behaviors and actions of their employees. Level 4: At level 4, firms become agnostic about whether they produce all the inputs they provide to their customers and,... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

23 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Power of Conversational Leadership

the company." Borne of those interviews, the book advocates an approach called "organizational conversation," which applies to all processes a company uses to circulate information across the organization, rather than just from the top down. "It's about creating a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

August 2012
Case

Jess Westerly at Kauflauf GmbH

By: John J. Gabarro and Colleen Kaftan

Jess Westerly is the assistant product owner of CRM applications for computer and office supply wholesalers and retailers at Kauflauf, a fast-growing provider of subscription enterprise software headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. Only months into her job, outsider... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Leading Change; Behavior; Salesforce Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Planning; Web Services Industry; Germany

May 2011
Article

The Power of Small Wins

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers' diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and... View Details

Find at Harvard

August 2014
Case

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

pandemic is likely to change how companies do business. Here’s what they said: Michael Beer: Organizations will develop trust-based cultures with employees The coronavirus challenge demands an organization-wide, honest conversation that... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

March 2001 (Revised July 2007)
Background Note

Power and Influence: Achieving Your Objectives in Organizations

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Elizabeth Long Lingo

Power is the potential to mobilize energy. This rather neutral definition does not address the issues of how to exercise power or to what ends. The answers to these questions determine the ultimate value of an individual's power. This note is written to help readers... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value