Publications

January – February 2012
Article

How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication

By: Paul Leonardi, Tsedal Neeley and Elizabeth M. Gerber

Several recent studies have found that managers engage in redundant communication; that is, they send the same message to the same recipient through two or more unique media sequentially. Given how busy most managers are, and how much information their subordinates... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Media; Information; Groups and Teams; Projects; Management Style; Power and Influence; Motivation and Incentives; Technology

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June 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Buurtzorg

By: Ethan Bernstein, Tatiana Sandino, Joost Minnaar and Annelena Lobb

As co-founders of home nursing company Buurtzorg, Jos de Blok and Gonnie Kronenberg prized both self-management and organizational learning. Buurtzorg’s 10,000 nurses across 950 neighborhood nursing teams in the Netherlands were empowered to manage themselves, both in... View Details

2009
Chapter

Do Private Equity-owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from over 4,000 medium sized manufacturing firms across Asia, Europe and the US. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level performance (e.g. productivity,... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Management Practices and Processes; Production; Private Ownership; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity

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July 1996
Case

Buck & Pulleyn's Team Management

In 1993, the firm began to move from a traditional hierarchical structure to client-focused teams. The case describes the process and some consequences of this restructuring. Performance seems to be improving, but some employees preferred the structure certainty and... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Change Management; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams

01 Feb 1997
News

Conversing in Cyberspace: Students and Alumni Talk Management

find that the boss isn't interested in their suggestions? These are very real questions for anyone making the transition from functional to general manager. Last October, in Professor David A. Garvin's elective course General Management: View Details

Keywords: Daniel Penrice

Summer 2013
Article

Analyzing Performance of Service Organizations: Balanced Benchmarking Can Identify Best Practices That Are Often Hidden

By: H. David Sherman and Joe Zhu

Just as sports teams have increasingly relied on rigorous quantitative analyses, so have many businesses. In particular, a growing number of service organizations have been investigating the use of a sophisticated linear programming technique called DEA, or data... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Benchmarking; Management

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30 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

or arrogance. Martina suggested that “pride in one’s organization stems from a collective reach for excellence, civility, and a humble perspective this is what is fostered by management teams who lead by... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2012
Case

Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc.

By: John Bingham and Michael Beer

Vitality Health Enterprises, a medium-sized firm that manufactures health and personal care products, has experienced six straight quarters of strong revenue growth. James Hoffman, the new Senior Vice President of Human Resources, fears that the chain of success is... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Talent and Talent Management; Health Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

September 1995 (Revised December 2018)
Case

Managing Innovation at Nypro, Inc. (A)

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Rebecca Voorheis

Nypro is the world's leading injection molder of precision plastic parts, operating a global network of 21 plants. Nypro's strategy is for each plant to offer identical capabilities, because its customers are global companies with worldwide sourcing needs. The case... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Operations; Performance Consistency; Manufacturing Industry

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 16 Oct 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Management Essentials

Maximize your managerial effectiveness by shaping and influencing processes in the critically-important treetop level between 50,000 feet (strategy) and ground level (daily tasks and activities). Program Dates: October 16, 2019 - December 11, 2019 View Details

April 1999
Teaching Note

Managing Experimentation: Module Overview Note for Managing Product Development(Note for Instructor)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Describes the conceptual foundations and pedagogy for a module on managing experimentation in the development of products and services. The module has been taught in the second-year elective MBA course Managing Product Development. The purpose of the module is to help... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Business or Company Management; Product Development; Personal Development and Career; Science; Technology Adoption

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 07 Aug 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Management Essentials

Maximize your managerial effectiveness by shaping and influencing processes in the critically important treetop level between 50,000 feet (strategy) and ground level (daily tasks and activities). Program Dates: August 7, 2019 - October 2, 2019 View Details

Teaching Interest

Risk Management for Corporate Leaders

As companies adapt to the aftershocks of the global recession, risk management is a top priority for their senior executives and boards—and for those of nonprofit and public-sector enterprises as well. The financial crisis revealed that risk management processes cannot... View Details

January–February 2021
Other Article

Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation

By: Andy Wu and Dagny Dukach

An interview with Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu is presented. Wu discusses the usefulness of stand-up meetings, their role in agile management practices, and their impact on innovations and creativity by the participants. View Details

Keywords: Agile Practices; Meetings; Management Practices and Processes; Creativity; Innovation and Invention

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Program

Managing Health Care Delivery

Summary Today's health care organizations need leaders who can respond to the challenge of delivering greater value through a combination of higher quality, lower cost, and broader access. Managing Health... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care

March 1990 (Revised July 1991)
Case

Digital Equipment Corp.: Complex Order Management

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the proposed creation of a low end 3000 configuration workstation using Digital's competitive advantage of offering a la carte configuration capability and ability to build different options for customers. Disadvantages of this 3000 configuration workstation... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost; Management Practices and Processes; Distribution; Competitive Advantage

21 Feb 2005
Op-Ed

Is Business Management a Profession?

and practices out of the network of those that have been found to be associated with professions. We use these traits and practices both to set... View Details

Keywords: by Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria & Daniel Penrice

February 1996
Background Note

Managing for Creativity

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Organizational stimulants and obstacles to creativity are summarized. The management tasks of supporting creativity and encouraging innovation are described as a delicate balance between over-control and chaos. A technology used to assess the climate for creativity is... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Technology