Publications

26 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Manager or Mentor? Why You Must Be Both

Missouri. There's a lot of history attached to this accent." The professor asked him, "What's it like to be up there in the classroom?" "I thought it was a trick question," Thomas told the Harvard group with a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

June 2021
Article

The Role of Beliefs in Driving Gender Discrimination

By: Katherine B. Coffman, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle

While there is ample evidence of discrimination against women in the workplace, it can be difficult to understand what factors contribute to discriminatory behavior. We use an experiment to both document discrimination and unpack its sources. First, we show that, on... View Details

Keywords: Gender Discrimination; Behavioral Decision Making; Gender; Attitudes; Prejudice and Bias; Economics; Behavior; Decision Making

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Teaching Interest

Overview

Laura taught undergraduate Military Leadership and Intro to Sociology for 6 and 4 semesters, respectively, at the United States Military Academy (West Point) from 2013-2016 (see course descriptions and links below). She was promoted from instructor to Assistant... View Details

02 Nov 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Managing Functional Biases in Organizational Forecasts: A Case Study of Consensus Forecasting in Supply Chain Planning

Keywords: by Rogelio Oliva & Noel H. Watson

10 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Motivation and the Cross-Sector Alliance

multinational corporations that "export" this practice to their subsidiaries. The Danone Group provides a good example, as their corporate mission is to create economic and social value, and hence... View Details

Keywords: by James Austin, Ezequiel Reficco & SEKN research team

28 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Self-Serving Altruism? When Unethical Actions That Benefit Others Do Not Trigger Guilt

Keywords: by Francesca Gino, Shahar Ayal & Dan Ariely

October 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital

By: Laura Huang and Sarah Mehta

Frustrated by an inability to convince existing venture capital firms to invest in companies led by women, people of color, and LGBT founders, Arlan Hamilton started her own firm, Backstage Capital, in 2015. Hamilton understood the untapped potential of companies run... View Details

Keywords: Black Leadership; LGBTQ; Women; People Of Color; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Gender; Race

14 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 14

effectiveness and research on knowledge in organizations. They offer complementary insights: the former stream focuses on group dynamics and measures team inputs, processes, emergent states, and outcomes, while the latter closely... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2022
Background Note

Native American Incarceration

By: Reshmaan Hussam, Sophus A. Reinert and Jordan Naylor

In the early twenty-first century the Native American populations of the United States continued to live with the legacy of colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and cultural destruction. Although other minority groups had increasingly been able to make their voices heard,... View Details

Keywords: Colonialism; Incarceration; Social Issues; Race; Equality and Inequality; History

May 2012
Case

BoldFlash: Cross-Functional Challenges in the Mobile Division

By: Michael Beer and Rachel Shelton

Roger Cahill has spent less than a year as head of the Mobile Division of BoldFlash, a flash memory component maker. On the corporate level, BoldFlash has adapted to an evolving and difficult marketplace, but the Mobile Division is struggling. The four groups within... View Details

Keywords: United States; Massachusetts; Morale; Human Resource Management; Technology; Leadership; Opportunities; Organizational Design; Conflict and Resolution; Product Development; Change Management; Information Infrastructure; Business Processes; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry; Massachusetts

August 2020
Case

This Old House of Worship: St. Anthony Shrine (A)

By: Ryan Raffaelli

This multimedia case asks students to consider how leaders of non-profit organizations manage difficult financial, operational, and cultural turnarounds. Since its founding in 1947, St. Anthony Shrine had been a central partner in serving the Downtown Boston community.... View Details

Keywords: Leadership And Change Management; Turnarounds; Non-profit Management; Leadership; Change Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Management; Religion; Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Organizational Culture; United States

October 1993
Case

Analyst's Dilemma (A), The

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

A young investment banker returns home one night to find that her roommate and best friend has been laid off from Universal Bank because Universal is shutting down its capital finance group. Her roommate makes her promise to keep this information confidential because... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Leveraged Buyouts; Conflict of Interests; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty

Forthcoming
Article

On the Limits of Anonymization for Promoting Diversity in Organizations

By: Linda W. Chang and Edward H. Chang

Anonymization of job applicant resumes is a recommended strategy to increase diversity in organizations, but large-scale tests have shown mixed results. We consider decision-makers’ social dominance orientation (SDO), a measure of anti-egalitarianism/endorsement of... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Selection and Staffing; Rank and Position

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August 1998 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Harbus Foundation, The

By: James E. Austin and Linda Carrigan

Describes the challenges faced by a group of HBS students as they create a foundation. Given surplus funds generated by the student-run newspaper, The Harbus leadership decides to find a meaningful use for the excess cash. Profiles both the entrepreneurial process used... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Asset Management; Financial Institutions; Investment Portfolio; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Problems and Challenges; Social Enterprise; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

January 31, 2022
Article

Who Pays Tolls at Work and Who Cruises on an Open Highway?

By: Siri Chilazi, D. Kolb, Kathleen L. McGinn and Jessica L. Porter

As organizations continue to navigate a changed world amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and the reverberations of the Black Lives Matter movement, many of the issues that affect underrepresented groups in organizations, including women of all different races and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Opportunities; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues

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November 1976 (Revised July 1983)
Case

Nuclear Tube Assembly Room (A) (Condensed)

By: John J. Gabarro

Supervisory practices and social structure in an electronics company assembly room. To be used with the (B) case. Based on American Radiatronics Corp. (A) by M.J. Steckler and P.R. Lawrence. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Groups and Teams; Social Psychology; Electronics Industry

June 2021
Article

Cognition and Emotion in Extreme Political Action: Individual Differences and Dynamic Interactions

By: Leor Zmigrod and Amit Goldenberg

Who is most likely to join and engage in extreme political action? While traditional theories have focused on situational factors or group identity attributes, an emerging science illustrates that tendencies for extreme political action may also be rooted in... View Details

Keywords: Extreme Political Action; Ideology; Political Psychology; Cognition-emotion Interactions; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions; Personal Characteristics