Labor And Management Relations - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2011 (Revised February 2018)
Supplement

Wealth Management Crisis at UBS (B)

The case describes the resolution of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud and the increasing pressure on the wealth management business. View Details

Citation

Purchase

September – October 2011
Article

Manage the Culture Cycle

By: James L. Heskett

Organizational culture—the shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that determine "how we do things around here"—can be measured and shaped. In organizations with large numbers of customer-facing employees, it can account for up to half of the difference in operating... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Value; Behavior; Retention; Customer Focus and Relationships; Change Management; Learning; Innovation and Invention; Labor

Citation

2000
Article

The Consequences of Customization on the Use of Management Accounting Systems

By: J. Bouwens and Margaret A. Abernethy

The understanding of the antecedent conditions influencing the design of management accounting systems (MASs) is very limited. In recent years, significant research attention has been devoted to understanding how different strategic priorities influence these systems.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Systems; Accounting; Customization and Personalization

Citation

Find at Harvard

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

transparent as possible with the entire organization in discussing layoffs. Elaine Varelas, managing partner of Keystone Partners, stresses that senior leaders should be present on teleconference company calls during layoff announcements.... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

Citation

Find at Harvard

Purchase

January–February 2019
Article

Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance

By: Claudine Gartenberg, Andrea Prat and George Serafeim

We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey responses of worker perceptions about their employers. We find that this measure of purpose is not related to financial performance. However, high... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Purpose; Purpose; Employee Motivation; Belief Systems; Corporate Performance; Human Capital; Middle Management; Culture; Corporate Culture; Meaning; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employees; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Performance Effectiveness

Citation

SSRN

Find at Harvard

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

for natural gas, and to create derivative supply contracts that could help customers manage the risks of demand volatility and price swings more effectively than before. In... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

May 1996
Background Note

The GM's Operational Challenge: Managing Through People

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Highlights and explores how a general manager adds value to the firm at the operational level by managing through people. Discusses how assumptions about human motivation influence the employment contract that the general manager implicitly enters into with the workers... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value

Citation

Educators

Purchase

13 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Managing the Support Staff Identity Crisis

adversarial custodians." More often than not, support staffers are unhappy about this role. They would rather identify themselves as necessary and important, not as innovation blockers. But when Gulati asks View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

August 2011
Teaching Note

Martha Rinaldi: Should She Stay or Should She Go? (Brief Case)

By: Linda A. Hill and Mark Rennella

Teaching Note for 4310. View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Relations; Management Styles; Managing Up; Career Planning; Conflict; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence

Citation

Purchase

January 2013 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

In June of 2012, Barclays plc admitted that it had manipulated LIBOR—a benchmark interest rate that was fundamental to the operation of international financial markets and that was the basis for trillions of dollars of financial transactions. Between 2005 and 2009... View Details

Keywords: Financial Systems; Financial Services; Corruption; Regulation; General Management; Management; Leadership; Economic Systems; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Culture; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

Citation

Educators

Purchase

22 Feb 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Platforms, Open/User Innovation, and Ecosystems: A Strategic Leadership Perspective

Keywords: by Elizabeth J. Altman and Michael L. Tushman

2025
Report

High Stakes: A Framework for Geopolitical Risk Management

By: Meg Rithmire and David Fagan

This report provides a data-based assessment of how U.S. companies perceive geopolitical risk and articulates a recommended decision-making process and framework to manage such risk. The research reflected in the report indicates that various concerns related to China... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; International Relations; Business or Company Management; Risk Management

Citation

Read Now

July 2017
Article

The Four Stages to Becoming an Excellent Front-Line Sales Manager

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Sales occupations account for more than 10% of the total U.S. labor force, and that official estimate is almost certainly low: In an increasingly service economy, many people who do business development for a living are not listed as “sales” for reporting purposes.... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management

Citation

Read Now

August 2009 (Revised February 2011)
Background Note

Managing Organizational Human Capital: Research Resources

By: Boris Groysberg and Ann Cullen

This technical note provides a list of library resources for researching various aspects of managing human capital within organizations. View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Human Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Organizations; Research

Citation

Find at Harvard

05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

on middle management During the 1980s and 1990s, middle managers became prime targets of large-scale downsizing at the behest of shareholder activists—yet the ranks of middle... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

06 Mar 2013
What Do You Think?

Who Should Manage Our Work Time?

overloading forces better time management " KHA attributed part of the problem to the perception that "We love a 'hard worker,'" rewarding effort and time spent at work as much or more than... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

showed that a company's overall management score was directly related to how many competitors a firm faces—the higher number of reported competitors, the higher the management... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2025
Case

Techint: Strategic Choices for Community Impact

By: Lauren Cohen, Virak Prum, Kenneth Charman, Pedro Levindo and Mariana Cal

In early 2024 Erika Bienek, Chief Community Relations Officer at Techint, had to decide whether to invest in a new company-owned and operated technical school in Veracruz, Mexico, or invest instead in strengthening the city’s public education system. Techint, a global... View Details