Publications

September 2013
Article

Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers

By: Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely and Deborah Kolb

Even when CEOs make gender diversity a priority—by setting aspirational goals for the proportion of women in leadership roles, insisting on diverse slates of candidates for senior positions, and developing mentoring and training programs—they are often frustrated by a... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Leadership Development; Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Gender; Diversity

21 Jul 2020
Cold Call Podcast

Starbucks Commits to Raising Awareness of Racial Bias

Keywords: & Katherine B. Coffman; Food & Beverage; Service

18 Nov 2022
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Safeguard a Legacy in Asset Management?

Last year, the pioneering Black-owned global asset management firm Brown Capital Management found itself at a crossroads. The secret to its success had been a deliberately diverse hiring strategy, but with the looming retirement of its... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

04 Jan 2021
What Do You Think?

How Do We Sustain Organization Diversity?

with skills training to foster inclusion takes time, perhaps too much time to satisfy those impatient for the more immediate gratification of increasing numbers of minority hires and ringing the diversity... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2005 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs

By: Boris Groysberg, Scott A. Snook and David Lane

In November 1999, 11 of Goldman Sachs' finest gathered to put the final touches on a revolutionary leadership development plan. Following Goldman's explosive growth during the 1990s and its eventual IPO in 1999, a diverse group of leaders from across the firm were... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Skills; Organizational Design; Planning

Article

Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust

By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino

One of the toughest challenges leaders face is managing diverse perspectives—and given heightened tensions over politics and movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, that’s more difficult today than ever before. At the same time, productive disagreement and... View Details

Keywords: Polarization; Employees; Perspective; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust

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03 Oct 2018
What Do You Think?

How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace?

column about how best to foster a climate of inclusion in an organization. Dianne Jacobs made the case for inclusion succinctly when she said: “Those that manage diversity and inclusion well tend to manage change well.” MarufSalmon added,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March–April 2023
Article

The New-Collar Workforce

By: Colleen Ammerman, Boris Groysberg and Ginni Rometty

Many workers today are stuck in low-paying jobs, unable to advance simply because they don’t have a bachelor’s degree. At the same time, many companies are desperate for workers and not meeting the diversity goals that could help them perform better while also reducing... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Recruitment; Social Issues; Higher Education; Competency and Skills

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September 2016
Case

Hewlett Packard Enterprise: The Dandelion Program

By: Gary P. Pisano and Robert D. Austin

This case describes Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s “Dandelion Program," which has developed a new service offering for the company’s clients by drawing on the special talents of people with autism. The company has deployed “pods” organized around 8 or 9 employees with... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Talent and Talent Management; Service Operations; Training; Diversity; Innovation and Invention; Technology Industry

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Manager or Mentor? Why You Must Be Both

Manager as Mentor: Effectively Managing a Diverse Workforce," had employed the word "mentor" to lure Harvard managers to the early-morning session. What Thomas prefers, he explained to the group, is the more tongue-twisty... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Apr 2016
First Look

April 19, 2016

involvement of nonbank institutions and, in particular, the rise of mutual fund participation in the leveraged loan market after the financial crisis. Based on the wider syndication, (narrower) skills, and diverse incentives of nonbank... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovation Corrupted: How Managers Can Avoid Another Enron

in diverse markets proved a significant challenge. Still, supreme overconfidence and perverse financial incentives led to a gladiator culture in which executives proposed—and risk managers and the board of directors approved—a growing... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Energy; Utilities

February 2020
Technical Note

Talent Management and the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr and Gorick Ng

The nature of work is changing—and it is changing rapidly. Few days go by without industry giants such as Amazon and AT&T announcing plans to invest billions of dollars towards retraining nearly half of their respective workforces for jobs of the future. What changes... View Details

Keywords: Human Resource Management; Human Capital Development; Human Resource Practices; Talent; Talent Acquisition; Talent Development; Talent Development And Retention; Talent Management; Talent Retention; Labor Flows; Labor Management; Labor Market; Strategy Development; Strategy Management; Strategy Execution; Strategy And Execution; Strategic Change; Transformations; Organization; Organization Alignment; Organization Design; Organizational Adaptation; Organizational Effectiveness; Management Challenges; Management Of Business And Political Risk; Change Leadership; Future Of Work; Future; Skills Gap; Skills Development; Skills; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Investment; Capital Allocation; Work; Work Culture; Work Force Management; Work/life Balance; Work/family Balance; Work-family Boundary Management; Workers; Worker Productivity; Worker Performance; Work Engagement; Work Environment; Work Environments; Productivity; Organization Culture; Soft Skills; Technology Management; Technological Change; Technological Change: Choices And Consequences; Technology Diffusion; Disruptive Technology; Global Business; Global; Workplace; Workplace Context; Workplace Culture; Workplace Wellness; Collaboration; Competencies; Productivity Gains; Digital; Digital Transition; Competitive Dynamics; Competitiveness; Competitive Strategy; Data Analytics; Data; Data Management; Data Strategy; Data Protection; Aging Society; Diversity; Diversity Management; Millennials; Communication Complexity; Communication Technologies; International Business; Work Sharing; Global Competitiveness; Global Corporate Cultures; Intellectual Property; Intellectual Property Management; Intellectual Property Protection; Intellectual Capital And Property Issues; Globalization Of Supply Chain; Inequality; Recruiting; Hiring; Hiring Of Employees; Training; Job Cuts And Outsourcing; Job Performance; Job Search; Job Design; Job Satisfaction; Jobs; Employee Engagement; Employee Attitude; Employee Benefits; Employee Compensation; Employee Fairness; Employee Relationship Management; Employee Retention; Employee Selection; Employee Motivation; Employee Feedback; Employee Coordination; Employee Performance Management; Employee Socialization; Process Improvement; Application Performance Management; Stigma; Institutional Change; Candidates; Digital Enterprise; Cultural Adaptation; Cultural Change; Cultural Diversity; Cultural Context; Cultural Strategies; Cultural Psychology; Cultural Reform; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Management; Performance Evaluation; Performance Appraisal; Performance Feedback; Performance Measurement; Performance Metrics; Performance Measures; Performance Efficiency; Efficiency; Performance Analysis; Performance Appraisals; Performance Improvement; Automation; Artificial Intelligence; Technology Companies; Managerial Processes; Skilled Migration; Assessment; Human Resources; Management; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Retention; Demographics; Labor; Strategy; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Working Conditions; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Disruption; Economy; Competition; Globalization; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Transformation

24 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 24

Working PapersWalking the Talk in Multiparty Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation Authors:Kathleen L. McGinn, Katherine L. Milkman, and Markus Nöth Abstract We study the framing effects of communication in multiparty bargaining. Communication has been shown to... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2021
Article

The Undervalued Power of Self-relevant Research: The Case of Researching Retirement While Retiring

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Douglas T. (Tim) Hall

For decades, training in management research has emphasized objectivity, typically viewed as an arm’s length distance between the topic of the research and the interests of the researcher. This emphasis has led most scholars to avoid research topics of deep personal... View Details

Keywords: Qualitative Research Methods; Case Research Methods; Organizational Behavior; Careers; Career Changes And Transitions; Self-relevant Research; Research; Personal Development and Career; Transition; Identity; Retirement

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July 2022
Article

The Passionate Pygmalion Effect: Passionate Employees Attain Better Outcomes in Part Because of More Preferential Treatment by Others

By: Ke Wang, Erica R. Bailey and Jon M. Jachimowicz

Employees are increasingly exhorted to “pursue their passion” at work. Inherent in this call is the belief that passion will produce higher performance because it promotes intrapersonal processes that propel employees forward. Here, we suggest that the pervasiveness of... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Self-fufilling Prophecy; Lay Beliefs; Interpersonal Processes; Employees; Performance; Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Social Psychology

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February 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Case

CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

By: William Kerr, Michael Norris and Manjari Raman

In 2018, Ann Randazzo, executive director of the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) is assessing the organization’s performance since its 2006 founding. Founded to address an imminent retirement bubble of middle skills workers in the utilities industry,... View Details

Keywords: Workforce Development; Industry Cooperation; Skills Gap; Middle Skills; Training; Strategic Planning; Competency and Skills; Utilities Industry; United States

03 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 3

Ibarra, Herminia, Robin Ely, and Deborah Kolb Abstract—Even when CEOs make gender diversity a priority-by setting aspirational goals for the proportion of women in leadership roles, insisting on diverse... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2017
Article

Relationship Between Labor and Delivery Unit Management Practices and Maternal Outcomes

By: Avery C. Plough, Grace Galwin, Zhonghe Li, Stuart R. Lipsitz, Shehnaz Alidina, Natalie J. Henrich, Lisa R. Hirschhorn, William R. Berry, Atul A. Gawande, Doris Peter, Rory McDonald, Donna L. Caldwell, Janet H. Muri, Debra Bingham, Aaron B. Caughey, Eugene R. Declercq and Neel T. Shah

OBJECTIVE: To define, measure, and characterize key competencies of managing labor and delivery units in the United States and assess the associations between unit management and maternal outcomes. METHODS: We developed and administered a management measurement... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Outcome or Result; United States