Job Design - Publications - Faculty & Research

03 Apr 2006
What Do You Think?

Has Globalization Reached Its Peak?

annual contest among budding entrepreneurs here at HBS, were awaiting the arrival of software being designed in India that would allow them to demonstrate smoothly-functioning Web sites important to their prospective businesses. Getting... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Mar 2021
What Do You Think?

What Does Remote Work Mean for Middle Managers?

the faster, smoother, more responsive, cross-functional process design that characterized Michael Hammer’s and James Champy’s pathbreaking work in the early 1990s. However, one could also make the argument that middle managers have the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Do You Have Change Fatigue?

own. Such a formula, he believes, has enabled his company to eliminate the "boarding-school issues" that take up 20% to 30% of managers' time—and that many formal change programs are designed to address. Often described as... View Details

Keywords: by Nick Morgan

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

category levels, which over time would destroy the economics of the entire store. Amazon.com and other e-commerce players did a tremendous job focusing on goods and categories that shoppers were now willing to buy via the Internet, such... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

01 May 2019
What Do You Think?

What Should the Leadership of YouTube Do?

Bergen titled “YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant.” The article noted recommendations from current and former employees about ways to alter policies designed to increase “user engagement, ” or the amount... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

changed, and with it the security that used to come almost automatically with an MBA degree. [ ] High-paying jobs are no longer guaranteed to graduates, and the opportunity costs of two years of training—especially for those who still... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

05 Jul 2021
What Do You Think?

Do Companies Really Need Chief Experience Officers to Know Their Customers?

position: the chief experience officer or CXO." A knowledge of customer experiences can be invaluable in the design and distribution of a product or service. We were convinced of that by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore in their influential... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

19 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Company Loyalty

another manager's star employee most likely wants to transfer into their departments. 2. Design work with variety and autonomy. Jobs that provide variety and the freedom to make decisions and mistakes... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Keller Johnson

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

create even within a very traditional, industrial business. We think the basic design of Predix was heading in the right direction, but the challenges in execution have been severe. Lagace: A central concern of The Business of Platforms... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Aug 2012
What Do You Think?

Should CEOs Worry About ‘Too Big to Succeed?’

(through outsourcing), and give their jobs meaning, then overall size will cease to be much of an issue." Shadreck Salli agreed, commenting that "Any entity is designed to function at different... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing; Financial Services

09 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Catching Up With Boards--Jay Lorsch

couple of decades, however, there's been growing pressure to separate the two jobs in the interest of more effective checks and balances. This comes mostly from the big state employee pension funds like CalPERS, some of the big union... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

October 2024
Supplement

Skills-First Hiring at IBM

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah Mehta

A video supplement to accompany "Skills-First Hiring at IBM" (case no. 422-013) View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Society; Social Issues; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

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11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ’The Future of Boards’

well-thought-out decisions.'" Given the prevailing lack of specificity about their duty, most boards gradually develop an implicit understanding of what their job should be. As long as the business was thriving and management was... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Lorsch

27 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Take Responsibility for Rising Stars

Many executives believe that leadership development is a job for the HR department. This may be the single biggest misconception they can have. As corporations have broken down work into manageable activities and then consolidated... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey M. Cohn, Rakesh Khurana & Laura Reeves

06 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Conducting Layoffs: ’Necessary Evils’ at Work

or to fire someone because of poor job performance. We did not find any clear patterns, but we did find strong opinions. Some managers expressed the view that because layoff victims' own performance was not responsible for their fate,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

What to Do When Your Organization Has Dueling Missions

$3.94 billion in sales from its more than 3,000 retail stores and its online auction site. Even so, Goodwill’s core mission is to provide job training and placement to people with disabilities, criminal backgrounds, and other challenges... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

04 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

From Lone Star to Team Player

his or her job but does not help others. Or one asks for help and is sometimes even abrasive when asked to do something for the company that does not benefit him or her directly. The problem with these people is that they can poison the... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

May 2025
Background Note

Skills-First Talent Management: The Importance of Managers

By: Boris Groysberg, Nicole Zelazko, Tom Quinn, Robin Abrahams, Izzy Yeoh and Colleen Ammerman

This note supplements a 2025 series on skills-first talent management in organizations, comprising “Skills-First Talent Management: Hiring” (HBS No. 425-019), “Skills-First Talent Management: Onboarding, Development, and Performance Management” (HBS No. 425-020), and... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Job Design and Levels; Employment; Human Capital; Management Practices and Processes; United States

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