Publications

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Maritz Automotive

By: Ashley V. Whillans and Lamar Pierce

This case focuses on Charlotte Blank, the Chief Behavioral Officer at Maritz, as she tries to assist a major automotive manufacturer (CarCo) with increasing their sales by prepaying monthly bonuses to independently franchised car dealers and clawing them back if the... View Details

Keywords: Loss-framing; Sales; Performance Improvement; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Theory; Auto Industry

January 2010 (Revised February 2010)
Case

IBM Retail Business Assessment at Dillard's, Inc.: Managing Staffing Levels to Improve Conversion

This case illustrates the challenges associated with matching staffing levels with variable workload in retail stores and highlights how decisions related to staffing and scheduling affect operational performance and the quality of labor at the stores. The case... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Market Transactions; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Retail Industry

February 2005 (Revised November 2012)
Supplement

UAL 2004: Pulling Out of Bankruptcy (CW)

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Kenneth A. Froot and Darren Robert Smart

UAL is a large air transportation company with roots that go back to the 1920s. As a legacy carrier, going back to before the 1978 deregulation of air transportation markets, United Airlines is burdened with cost structures that make it difficult to compete with newer... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Compensation; Costs; Loans; Reorganization; Restructuring; Financing and Loans; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Compensation and Benefits; Air Transportation Industry; United States

2004
Working Paper

Are Perks Purely Managerial Excess?

By: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf

Why do some firms tend to offer executives a variety of perks while others offer none at all? A widespread view in the corporate finance literature is that executive perks are a form of agency or private benefit and a way for managers to misappropriate some of the... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Performance Productivity; Executive Compensation; Corporate Finance

Read Now

February 2003 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Yahoo!: Becoming a Competitor in the Career Listings Space (A)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Nicole Nasser

In late 2001, Yahoo!'s new executive leadership team faces a decision. With online advertising revenues significantly off, the company has decided to explore new strategic businesses, including online recruiting. The team must decide whether to make a bid for... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Recruitment; Management Teams; Negotiation Deal; Employment Industry

March 2000
Case

Dell Computer Corporation: Share Repurchase Program

By: George C. Chacko and Luis M. Viceira

Dell Computer Corp. announced a share repurchase program shortly after a significant stock price drop. In this announcement, the company also states that it will use options contracts. This case looks at the options transactions and how they relate to Dell's employee... View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Stock Options; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Computer Industry

July 1999
Case

Restructuring General Motors North America (A): Pay-for-Performance

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Presents the new pay-for-performance scheme adopted by General Motors (GM) in its 1999 reorganization of its sales and marketing organization. Once in operation, many administrative problems developed requiring a reconsideration of the scheme's basic architecture. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Compensation and Benefits; Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Auto Industry; North America

April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
Case

CitySoft, Inc.

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti, Andrea H. Chermayeff and Diana S. Gardner

Two entrepreneurs are discussing how to scale-up their new company. They face a variety of issues, ranging from hiring and training to strategy and focus. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Business Growth and Maturation; Selection and Staffing; Internet; Web Services Industry

Find at Harvard

August 1975 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Acton-Burnett, Inc.

By: John J. Gabarro

Describes the formation, selection, and experience of a task force with multidepartmental membership. The problems faced by the task force leader at the end of the case raise issues of who does the selection; the establishment of group norms, values, and goals; the... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Groups and Teams; Conflict Management

October 1984
Teaching Note

NIKE (D): Leisure Shoes, Teaching Note

Teaching Note for (9-385-031). View Details

Keywords: Luxury; Decisions; Performance Effectiveness; Management Practices and Processes; Management Teams; Apparel and Accessories Industry

23 Feb 2022
News

Rethinking Low-Wage Work

28 Oct 2020
News

What Workers Lose by Working from Home for Long Periods—or Permanently

15 Oct 2020
News

Dear HBR: Sexism

06 Mar 2020
News

The Key to Inclusive Leadership

01 Dec 2022
News

Road to Recovery

in 2016, with Gastfriend as CEO and his father as chief medical officer. A 2014 study estimated that 12.5 million Americans had substance use disorders, and that number was rising, largely due to opioid use. In addition to the human toll,... View Details

Keywords: April White; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

09 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

The Manager in Red Sneakers

Want to gain more respect at the office? Consider wearing red sneakers to work. OK, so maybe it's not quite that cut-and-dried. But recent research does find that people who wear offbeat clothes in a professional setting are often perceived as having a higher status... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

02 Sep 2008
Research & Ideas

Indulgence vs. Regret: Investing in Future Memories

We all know the moral of Aesop's fable about the industrious ant and the fun-loving grasshopper: Work now and save for the future, or else regret the consequences. And who hasn't been confronted with a similar dilemma? You know you should work late to finish that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

April 2025
Case

Radical Transformation at Bayer: Dynamic Shared Ownership

By: Boris Groysberg and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2023, Bill Anderson became CEO of Bayer AG, a 160-year-old life sciences giant looking to strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Business Strategy; Alignment; Innovation and Management; Organizational Structure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry