Publications

January – February 2011
Article

Stop Holding Yourself Back

By: Anne Morriss, Robin J. Ely and Frances X. Frei

After working with hundreds of leaders in a wide variety of organizations and in countries all over the globe, the authors found one very clear pattern: when it comes to meeting their leadership potential, many people unintentionally get in their own way. Five barriers... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Personal Characteristics

Find at Harvard

27 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11

including Rivkin, who had spent their academic careers studying organizational design and organizational identity. A comprehensive study of the FBI’s transformation resulted in the paper "Does 'What We Do' Make Us 'Who We Are'?... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Jun 2023
What Do You Think?

Is the Anxious Achiever a Post-Pandemic Relic?

decisions that impact vast members of the population, it may be time to start informed discussions on reasonable control measures.” Francois Fouche Goosen put it bluntly this way: “One can only regulate if you can convince all... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

sets out to follow. An emergent strategy involves the decision to follow a new path when opportunity knocks unexpectedly, or when an unexpected roadblock arises. In work and in life, the question is always which path to take. To help... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Oct 2020
Book

Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time

long commutes, household chores, and mindless scrolling on social media. We must make deliberate, sometimes difficult choices that protect the precious hours in our days, Whillans says, whether it’s a big decision like pursuing a... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

a second-hand truck for $120. This purchase set McLean on his lifelong career in the transportation industry. McLean soon began hauling dirt, produce, and other odds and ends for the farming community in Maxton, where reliable... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

December 2013 (Revised November 2015)
Case

(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek

By: Tsedal Neeley

Tariq Khan arrived home after a nearly 16-hour meeting. He was grappling with whether to take the global sales and marketing team manager position that had been offered to him, and had spent the entire day with the senior leadership of his potential new team. He wanted... View Details

Keywords: Global Teams; Language; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

they tend to remain silent, fearful that speaking up could put their careers at risk. “A CEO might be trying to execute this corporate strategy and everybody in the organization knows it’s off the rails, but no one wants to be the bearer... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

February 2022
Case

Leading The UK Vaccine Task Force

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Claudia Pienica

This case describes the first six months of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, under the leadership of Kate Bingham. With a career spent in the private sector as a biotech investor, Bingham’s appointment within the government was considered unusual. The overarching brief given... View Details

28 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Can Apprenticeships Work in the US? Employers Seeking New Talent Pipelines Take Note

Many American companies have made a four-year degree a default qualification for entry-level jobs, elevating an expensive university education—with a smattering of internship experience—above paths that might prepare young talent for today’s workforce better. In a new... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2020
Supplement

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO (B)

By: Tsedal Neeley and Briana Richardson

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has... View Details

Keywords: Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California

22 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Salespeople Struggle at Leading

people. That’s a big transition that many people can’t make.” Source: Harvard Business School Working Knowledge It’s a problem that can permeate any layer of a business—a star performer is tapped to become a manager, then flops on the next rung of the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Teaching Interest

Managing the Future of Work (MBA Education—Elective Curriculum)

By: Christopher T. Stanton

The nature and scope of work is changing rapidly, creating massive business challenges in the shadow of broader political and social shifts. HBS launched a major initiative in 2017 on Managing the Future of Work to define these workplace issues and... View Details

Research Summary

Institutions and Corporate Lobbying

“Institutions and Make-or-Buy Decision of Lobbying: The Role of Sociopolitical Legitimacy on Foreign MNEs’ Lobbying Internalization”

In this study, I examine how legitimacy comes into play in foreign MNEs’ make-or-buy decisions... View Details

Keywords: Institutions; Make V. Buy; Lobbying; Legitimacy; Corruption; Culture; Multinational Enterprise; United States

25 Aug 2014
HBS Case

Starbucks Reinvented

it, he bemoaned decisions (for which he accepted responsibility) that improved efficiency and increased economies of scale but robbed stores of some of their essential magic, such as the smell of roasting coffee and the sights and sounds... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

07 Mar 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Prominent Job Advertisements, Group Learning, and Wage Dispersion

Keywords: by Julio J. Rotemberg

June 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley and John Masko

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California