Publications

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March 10, 2025
Article

How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon

In the near future, gen AI is likely to affect some 50 million jobs, automating away elements of some jobs and augmenting workers’ abilities in others. The extent of those changes will compel companies to reshape their organizational structures and rethink their talent... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Structure; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career

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03 Oct 2005
What Do You Think?

What’s the Future of Globally Organized Labor?

competency and its ability to move up the value chain that will allow it to share the positive gains. If labor tries the old tactic of strikes, management will just outsource the staff from somewhere else ... " Globally organized... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan

The Bradley Marquez advertising agency had created a successful niche delivering ethnic markets to their clients, corporate giants like Compaq, Sprint, Texaco, and British Airways. The company was operating in aggressive growth mode when, in 2000, the stock market... View Details

Keywords: Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financial Crisis; Price Bubble; Human Resources; Employees; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Advertising Industry

January 2013
Supplement

Austal, Ltd. (B)

By: Willy Shih, Margaret Pierson and Dawn H. Lau

Austal, Ltd. was an Australian builder of high-speed passenger ferries. It had translated that expertise into a foothold in the defense market on the US Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program with an Alabama assembly facility. In January 2009 it had just completed the... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Ship Transportation; Transportation Industry; Australia; United States; Alabama; Philippines

05 Mar 2001
What Do You Think?

Fine Coupling: Can Human Resource Management Learn from Supply Chain Management?

Productivity will improve as the alternation of job assignments eliminates the 'indispensable' worker." Connie Luthy says, "I have practiced 'Just-In-Time' hiring ... in the pharmaceutical industry.... I have advised my client companies to View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Where Do Workers Go When the Robots Arrive?

computer science, actually emerge in regions that import less expensive goods from China. Service jobs like retail and restaurants fall slightly, but not in a statistically significant way, the researchers found. Robots on the march Changes in the American economy from... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Manufacturing

01 Jan 2020
What Do You Think?

Why Not Open America's Doors to All the World’s Talent?

one country, India. Chinese citizens are the next most frequent recipients. The largest recent recipients of the visas have often been American subsidiaries of Infosys and Wipro, Indian-based companies that provide outsourced services and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

October 2014
Case

Honeywell and the Great Recession (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg

CEO Dave Cote spent six years turning around an ailing Honeywell and in 2008 Cote and his team face a new challenge: how to respond to the Great Recession. Cote does not want to give up the gains he made in transforming and unifying Honeywell. With a fall-off in... View Details

Keywords: Layoffs; Furloughs; Downsizing; Work Sharing; Short Time Work; Recessions; Earnings Forecast; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Cost Management; Executive Compensation; Crisis Management; Financial Crisis; Manufacturing Industry

September 2006
Teaching Note

OfficeTiger (TN)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III

Teaching Note to (804-109). View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Service Delivery; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; India; Europe; United States; Asia

17 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

policy makers. The skills, know-how, and capabilities underpinning an industrial commons accumulate over time. Both government policies and the investment decisions of private enterprises determine what capabilities are fostered where. Decisions by US companies to... View Details

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano & Willy C. Shih; Manufacturing

March 2012
Background Note

Managing the Layoff Process: India

By: Sandra J. Sucher

This note is an overview of the context for managing layoffs in India. It describes the legal responsibilities of managers in conducting layoffs, recent unemployment trends, and the financial, health, training, job placement, and other benefits that laid-off employees... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; Ethics; Management; Employees; Governance Compliance; India

March 2012
Background Note

Managing the Layoff Process: The United States

By: Sandra J. Sucher

This note is an overview of the context for managing layoffs in the United States. It describes the legal responsibilities of managers in conducting layoffs, recent unemployment trends, and the financial, health, training, job placement, and other benefits that... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; Ethics; Management; Employees; Governance Compliance; United States

31 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 31, 2009

and Sugata Roychowdhury Abstract We examine the accrual choices of outsourcing firms with links to U.S. congressional candidates during the 2004 elections, when corporate outsourcing was a major campaign... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

These Employers Pay Higher Salaries than Necessary

buyer. Now translate the same situation from a brick-and-mortar bazaar to an online peer-to-peer marketplace such as Upwork, which allows businesses to outsource work to freelancers, frequently overseas. “Workers on the market have lots... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment; Technology; Computer

July–August 2023
Article

Case Study: How Should a Start-Up Cut Its Burn Rate?

By: Nitin Nohria, Katie Josephson, Sophia Wronsky and Elizabeth Rha

Tyler Smith, the founder and CEO of the enterprise software firm Puck.io, is facing a hard decision. Just three months earlier the company laid off 20% of its employees to reduce its burn rate amid growing economic uncertainty and a suddenly unattractive funding... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business or Company Management; Business Startups

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March 2000 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Menem and the Populist Tradition in Argentina

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Eliseo Neuman

Argentina has flourished under a fixed exchange rate system, yet there are large income and employment fluctuations. The social cost of unemployment is threatening the viability of the economic model. Building a welfare state is one alternative, but this may be a... View Details

Keywords: History; Governance; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Employment; Currency Exchange Rate; Welfare; Government Administration; Government and Politics; Argentina

16 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘The Strategist’

Editor's Note: Back in the day, crafting and owning the company strategy was at the forefront of a business leader's priorities. Over the years, though, more and more, the responsibility has tended to be outsourced to consultants armed... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia A. Montgomery

04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

creativity. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for research in workplace diversity and creativity. The Microwork Solution: A New Approach to Outsourcing Can Support Economic Development—and Add to Your Bottom Line... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

April 2004 (Revised July 2007)
Case

OfficeTiger

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Johanna Regine Naunton Blaxall

OfficeTiger was founded in late 1999 with an innovative approach to global outsourcing. The company's employees, located primarily in India, provided services for corporations, investment banks, and professional services firms throughout the United States, Europe, and... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Globalized Markets and Industries; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; India