Publications

July 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Banking on Change: Aligning Culture and Compensation at Morgan Stanley

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This case study was prepared as part of a research project on Culture, Conduct, and Governance in Financial Firms. The objective of this project is to compare and contrast the efforts of U.S. and European banks to induce changes in organization culture in the aftermath... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Corporate Governance; Banks and Banking; United States; Europe

February 2014 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams

By: Tatiana Sandino

Indian cell phone retailer Go Mobile had implemented high-powered incentives to motivate its store employees to behave as owners and provide exceptional service. As the company scaled up, it faced multiple challenges in building a layer of district managers that were... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth Management; Organizational Design; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Telecommunications Industry; India

2013
Article

The Strategic Fitness Process: A Collaborative Action Research Method for Developing Organizational Prototypes and Dynamic Capabilities

By: Michael Beer

Organizations underperform and sometimes fail because their leaders are unable to learn the unvarnished truth from relevant stakeholders about how the design and behavior of the organization is misaligned with its goals and strategy. The Strategic Fitness Process (SFP)... View Details

Keywords: Organization Alignment; Dynamic Capabilities; Organization Design; Organizational Prototyping; Organizational Silence; Organizational Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Organizational Design

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23 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Strategy-Focused Organization

write Kaplan and Norton,"is perhaps our best example of putting the five principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization into practice." (The five principles are: translate the strategy to operational terms; View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

29 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

How Organizations Create Social Value

organizations wanting to create social value. The researchers stressed the importance of synergies between Economic Value (EV) and Social Value (SV), calling them "two sides of the same coin." By View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

February 1985 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Health Stop (A): What Type of Innovation Is It? And Six Factors Alignment

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Joyce Lallman, Nancy Kane, Jefferson C. Grahling and James Wallace

How can we evaluate if innovative health care ventures can do good—benefit society—and do well—become financially viable? This question is the topic of the first module in the Innovating In Health Care course book. This note and case series enables readers to conduct... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Health Care and Treatment; Strategy; Valuation; Health Industry; Retail Industry

2014
Article

The Governance of Social Enterprises: Mission Drift and Accountability Challenges in Hybrid Organizations

By: Alnoor Ebrahim, Julie Battilana and Johanna Mair

We examine the challenges of governance facing organizations that pursue a social mission through the use of market mechanisms. These hybrid organizations, often referred to as social enterprises, combine aspects of both charity and business at their core. In this... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Hybrid Organizations; Nonprofit; Performance Measurement; Legal Form; Agency Theory; Stakeholder Management; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Corporate Accountability

Find at Harvard

Corporate political activity is an increasingly important source of institutional change in the 21st century which has seen a decline of collective political action among the business elite and a rise in political action by individual firms. Rather... 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

2018
Working Paper

Managing Through Organizational Change: Employee Alignment in the Presence of Unexpected Career Concerns

By: Ohchan Kwon and Jee-Eun Shin

This study examines performance consequences due to unexpected career concerns – layoff risks due to institutional reasons. Exploiting a company-wide announcement of a merger decision by management as a trigger event for unexpected career concerns, we examine employee... View Details

Keywords: Career Changes; Performance Measures; Incentives; M＆A; Employees; Personal Development and Career; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

Research Summary

Economics of Organization and Firm Performance

A great deal of theoretical and empirical research indicates that economic actors should organize activities so as to minimize the 'transaction costs' associated with managing these activities. But little is known about the consequences of violating this prescription.... View Details

04 Jun 2024
Blog Post

Finding Alignment to Make Impact: Layla Ramirez (MBA 2017)

and Finding Alignment Currently, as Director of DEIB at Justworks, Ramirez has taken on her latest challenge of leading impactful initiatives at the growing human resource software company. Most recently, she has been focused on building... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

January 2025
Supplement

Go Mobile: Aligning District Managers and Store Teams (B)

By: Tatiana Sandino and Samuel Grad

In January 2025, Modi reflects on the past decade of Go Mobile and looks ahead to new growth strategies. View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Growth Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Telecommunications Industry; India

Web

Aligning Reimbursement with Value - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

HBS ISC Health Care Health Care Value-Based Health Care Health Care Courses Fast Facts Value-Based Health Care Value-Based Health Care Cases & Teaching Notes Key Concepts Key Stakeholders Publications Team Work With Us Presentations Key Concepts Key Concepts View Details

2006
Working Paper

Cross-Functional Alignment in Supply Chain Planning: A Case Study of Sales and Operations Planning

In most organizations, supply chain planning is a cross-functional effort. Functional areas such as sales, marketing, finance, and operations traditionally specialize in portions of the planning activities, which results in conflicts over expectations, preferences, and... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Planning

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25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

its administrative heritage; also, the "fit" or alignment among important organization design elements such as structure, business systems, staffing, rewards, and tasks.1 In other words, the... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

04 Jun 2024
Blog Post

Finding Alignment to Make Impact: Layla Ramirez (MBA 2017)

and Finding Alignment Currently, as Director of DEIB at Justworks, Ramirez has taken on her latest challenge of leading impactful initiatives at the growing human resource software company. Most recently, she has been focused on building... View Details

August 2014
Case

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details