Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,995)
- Faculty Publications (598)
- November 2012 (Revised October 2013)
- Supplement
Global Expansion at Sanford C. Bernstein (C)
By: Linda A. Hill and Dana Teppert
Robert van Brugge, CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein, a premier sell-side research firm, has recently appointed a new Director of Asian Research to lead the firm's Hong Kong office. Van Brugge wonders what advice he should give the new Director as the firm continues to... View Details
- 2012
- Working Paper
Modularity and Organizations
Modularity describes the degree to which a complex system can be broken apart into subunits (modules) that can be recombined in various ways. Modularity is important for organizations and the economy because the boundaries of organizational units and corporations are... View Details
- November 2012
- Case
Teaming at GE Aviation
Describes the challenges and successes encountered by GE's Aviation business in implementing a teaming work structure and culture in plants across its supply chain. GE Aviation leadership had seen dramatic gains in productivity, quality, and worker satisfaction in... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Aviation And Aerospace; Capacity Management; Competitiveness; Corporate Culture; Corporate Structure; Labor Relations; Manufacturing; Production Planning; General Electric; Teaming; Managing Change; Transformation; Labor Unions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Leading Change; Management Style; Job Design and Levels; Aerospace Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States
- November 2012 (Revised September 2013)
- Case
Learning Resources: A Hands-On Toy Company Deals with New Challenges and Opportunities
By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi
Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior.... View Details
Keywords: Leading Teams; Strategy Formulation; Strategy And Execution; Innovation; Corporate Culture; Industry Analysis; Organizational Alignment; Entrepreneurs; Sales Channels; Leadership; Strategy; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Sales; Retail Industry; United States
- October 2012 (Revised February 2019)
- Case
Whaling Ventures
By: Tom Nicholas and Jonas Peter Akins
Whaling was a prominent global industry in the nineteenth century and the United States was dominant. By 1850 there were about 900 whaling ships in the world and 700 of these were American. Rates of return on capital were high compared to benchmark investments, at... View Details
- October 2012 (Revised September 2013)
- Teaching Note
The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time
By: Stefan H. Thomke
The Mumbai-based dabbawalas are a 5,000 or so person organization that achieves exceptional service performance with a semi-literate workforce. Every working day, they deliver and return about 130,000 lunchboxes to offices throughout Mumbai. This entails more than... View Details
- Article
Exploring the Duality Between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the 'Mirroring' Hypothesis
By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak
A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that the organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details
- August 2012
- Case
ARISE: A Destination-for-a-Day Spa
By: Michael Beer and Lynda St. Clair
A new Dallas-based health and beauty spa aims to use a highly distinctive human resource system as the foundation of its competitive strategy. By encouraging employees to act as "personal wellness coaches" (PWCs) with high commitment and broad responsibilities, the... View Details
- Aug 2012
- Conference Presentation
Organizational Design in Business Ecosystems
- Article
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Financial Regulation for the Twenty-First Century
By: Leonard J. Kennedy, Patricia A. McCoy and Ethan S. Bernstein
After existing regulatory systems failed to prevent the recent financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a sweeping reform designed to alleviate the crisis and prevent its recurrence. Out of this Act, the Consumer... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Dodd-Frank; CFPB; Financial Crisis; Reform; New Agency; Market-based Approach; Evidence-based Analysis; Innovative Technologies And Transparency Policies; BEST Practices; Government and Politics; Government Administration; Finance; Financial History; Law; Markets; Organizations; Organizational Design; Business and Government Relations; Balance and Stability; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; United States
- July 2012 (Revised August 2015)
- Case
SOHO China: Design, Development, and Social Harmony
By: Arthur I Segel and Mukti Khaire
Founded in 1995 by Zhang Xin and her husband Mr. Pan Shiyi, SOHO China has developed into a world-class real estate development firm that has consistently delivered high-quality projects known for their cutting-edge designs and investment potential. Despite the... View Details
- 2012
- Article
Open Innovation and Organization Design
By: Michael Tushman, Karim Lakhani and Hila Lifshitz - Assaf
This paper calls the organization design community to reconcile the divergent scholarly perspectives on the relationship between firm boundaries and the locus of innovation by moving beyond debates between open vs. closed boundaries and instead embracing the notion of... View Details
- Article
In Search of the Hybrid Ideal
By: Julie Battilana, Matthew Lee, John Walker and Cheryl Dorsey
In the first large-scale, quantitative study of nascent social entrepreneurs, researchers from Harvard Business School and Echoing Green examine the rise of hybrid organizations that combine aspects of nonprofits and for-profits and the challenges hybrids face as they... View Details
- June 2012
- Article
Meta-organization Design: Rethinking Design in Interorganizational and Community Contexts
By: Ranjay Gulati, P. Puranam and Michael Tushman
This article provides conceptual foundations for analyzing organizations comprising multiple legally autonomous entities, which we call meta-organizations. We assess the antecedents of the emergence of such collectives and the design choices they entail. The article... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Design
- June 2012
- Article
The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control
Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, I theorize and test the implications of transparent organizational design on workers' productivity and organizational... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Privacy; Organizational Learning; Operational Control; Organizational Performance; Chinese Manufacturing; Field Experiment; Rights; Interpersonal Communication; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Performance Productivity; Boundaries; Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Labor and Management Relations; Power and Influence; Manufacturing Industry; China
- May 2012
- Case
BoldFlash: Cross-Functional Challenges in the Mobile Division
By: Michael Beer and Rachel Shelton
Roger Cahill has spent less than a year as head of the Mobile Division of BoldFlash, a flash memory component maker. On the corporate level, BoldFlash has adapted to an evolving and difficult marketplace, but the Mobile Division is struggling. The four groups within... View Details
Keywords: United States; Massachusetts; Morale; Human Resource Management; Technology; Leadership; Opportunities; Organizational Design; Conflict and Resolution; Product Development; Change Management; Information Infrastructure; Business Processes; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Massachusetts
- May 2012
- Article
Herbert A. Simon on What Ails Business Schools: More than A Problem in Organizational Design
By: Rakesh Khurana and J.C. Spender
We critically examine Herbert Simon's 1967 essay, "The Business School: A Problem in Organizational Design." We consider this essay within the context of Simon's key ideas about organizations, particularly those closely associated with the 'Carnegie perspective' on... View Details
- 2012
- Working Paper
Organization Design for Distributed Innovation
Systems of distributed innovation—so-called business ecosystems—have become increasingly prevalent in many industries. These entities generally encompass numerous corporations, individuals, and communities that might be individually autonomous but related through their... View Details
- February 2012
- Case
Kent Chemical: Organizing for International Growth
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Laura Winig
In July 2008, Luis Morales, president of Kent Chemical International, is proposing a third reorganization effort after two failed attempts to better align his business with its U.S.-based parent company. With a global expansion strategy placing increasing demands on... View Details
Keywords: International Business; Organizational Change; Multinational Corporations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Global Strategy; Chemical Industry; United States
- February 2012
- Teaching Note
Kent Chemical: Organizing for International Growth (Brief Case)
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Laura Winig
Teaching Note for Product #4409 View Details