Publications

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January 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Comcast New England: A Journey of Organizational Transformation

By: Michael Beer and Anita Arun

This case describes how Kevin Casey, Comcast's New England Region general manager, transformed a low commitment and performance organization. When he took charge of this Comcast region he inherited an organization that was bureaucratic, had low customer satisfaction,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Relationship Management; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; New England

August 1999
Case

Leaving

By: David A. Thomas

A company supervisor listens to an employee, an African American woman, announce she is leaving the company and tries to understand the situation. View Details

Keywords: Resignation and Termination; Retention; Race; Behavior; Diversity; Interpersonal Communication; Labor and Management Relations

26 Mar 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact

Keywords: by Michelle A. Shell and Ryan W. Buell; Health

23 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘Talk, Inc.’

Editor's note: As traditional hierarchical organizations flatten, new ways of thinking about internal communications must be developed—news no longer flows just from top to bottom. In Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to... View Details

Keywords: Re: Boris Groysberg

July 2002 (Revised November 2002)
Case

Crucial Conversations

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayraghavan

Todd McKenna, a third-year associate at an investment banking firm, confronts his boss. His boss had told him he would be the top paid associate at the firm, and McKenna finds out that this isn't true. He approaches his boss to find out why he was lied to. View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Investment Banking; Executive Compensation; Employee Relationship Management; Rank and Position; Banking Industry

22 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Articles, Papers of the Decade

collection look at how to improve decision making, encouraging employees to speak up, and the difficulty of coordinating communication in a complex organization. Enjoy! Most Popular Articles 2000-2010 Creating a Positive Professional... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

December 1999
Article

Changes in the Work Environment for Creativity during Downsizing

By: T. M. Amabile and Regina Conti

This study examined the work environment for creativity at a large high-technology firm before, during, and after a major downsizing. Creativity and most creativity-supporting aspects of the perceived work environment declined significantly during the downsizing but... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Situation or Environment; Creativity; Resignation and Termination; Employees; Business or Company Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Crisis Management; Groups and Teams; Communication; Announcements; Interpersonal Communication

Find at Harvard

13 Mar 2018
First Look

March 13, 2018

little is known about the interpersonal consequences of the advice-seeking process. In this paper, we investigate the interpersonal consequences when an advisor believes his or her advice will be ignored. We... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2010
Article

Change for Change's Sake

By: Freek Vermeulen, Phanish Puranam and Ranjay Gulati

No one disputes that firms have to make organizational changes when the business environment demands them. But the idea that a firm might want change for its own sake often provokes skepticism. Why inflict all that pain if you don't have to? That is a dangerous... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Innovation and Invention; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Creativity; Power and Influence; Adaptation

Find at Harvard

18 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

New Hires Lose Psychological Safety After Year One. How to Fix It.

“Delivering patient care is one of those situations where timely speaking up can be a matter of life and death, or frequently a matter of high- or low-quality care.” “Psychological safety describes a belief that the work environment is safe for View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

June 2018
Case

Candor at Clever

By: Ethan Bernstein and Om Lala

Clever, a high-growth EdTech company based in San Francisco, had grown quickly in market share and headcount. As with many high-growth companies, however, early employees (many of whom had never managed people before) had been given the opportunity to manage teams, and... View Details

October 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Century Bank: Closing Time?

By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Bill Kwon

Barry Sloane, second-generation Chairman, President, and CEO of his family’s bank, Century Bank, weighed whether to sell to Eastern Bank. As a small regional bank, Century faced a number of challenging trends, such as digitization and market share decline in the coming... View Details