Publications

07 Mar 2005
What Do You Think?

Should Business Management Be Regarded as a Profession?

management relies on "a common body of knowledge resting on a well-developed, widely accepted theoretical base." Even if one believes that it meets this test, say the authors, it would also have to embody: 1) "a View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

May 2017
Supplement

ATH Technologies (C)

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

Supplements the (A) case. Designed as an in-class handout. View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Management; Balancing Innovation And Control; Management Systems; Performance; Health Industry

May 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Background Note

Managing Talent Pipelines in the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman and Carl Kreitzberg

In the face of a rapidly-changing economy, organizations that wish to compete in the future of work must develop strategies for acquiring, retaining, and developing talent for their organizations. This primer reviews the major trends shaping jobs, workplaces, and... View Details

Keywords: Future Of Work; Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Demographics; Labor; Problems and Challenges; Risk and Uncertainty; Quality; Supply Chain

Educators

January–February 2022
Article

Mobilizing the U.S. Military’s TRICARE Program for Value-Based Care: A Report From the Defense Health Board

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Paul R. Schaettle, Vivian S. Lee, Michael D. Parkinson, Gregory H. Gorman and Michael-Anne Browne

The U.S. Military Health System spends about $50 billion annually through its TRICARE health plans to provide care to 9.6 million active duty service members, retirees, and their families. TRICARE, historically, has used the predominant U.S. fee-for-service payment... View Details

Keywords: Military Health System; Value-based Healthcare; Health Care and Treatment; United States

Read Now

2018
Chapter

The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Paul Verdin

Despite discussion in the management literature about agile organizations or learning organizations, many large organizations are top-down, slow to change, and fraught with obstacles to learning. We describe “strategy-as-learning” to contrast with the traditional... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Learning; Safety; Organizational Culture; Performance Consistency

Research Summary

Overview

By: Michael W. Toffel

My research examines how companies manage environmental issues, occupational safety, and working conditions in global supply chains. More recently, I have also begun researching the drivers and implications of CEO activism, where organizational leaders speak out on... View Details

June 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Teaching Note

Atlanta Schools: Measures to Improve Performance

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This is the teaching note for Atlanta Schools: Measures to Improve Performance (HBS No. 114-001) View Details

Keywords: Execution; Management Control Systems; Risk; Balancing Innovation And Control; Strategy; Risk Management; Education Industry

May 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Teaching Note

ATH Technologies Case Series

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 117-012, 117-013, 117-014, 117-015, 117-016, and 117-017. View Details

Keywords: Balancing Innovation And Control; Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Management

December 2010
Article

Management and the Financial Crisis (We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Human Capital; Ethics; Policy; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis; Finance; Business and Shareholder Relations

2009
Working Paper

Management and the Financial Crisis (We have met the enemy and he is us...)

By: William A. Sahlman

The financial crisis of 2008-9 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Financial Crisis

Read Now

2002
Chapter

Research on Interactions among Management Decisions

By: Jan W. Rivkin

Keywords: Decisions; Management Systems; Research

10 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet

Why would a business school professor want to write a case study about a string quartet? The answer was easy for Robert Austin, a scholar with research expertise in the management of innovation. While attending an academic workshop near... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

month's question elicited responses across the spectrum of recommended ways of managing them. At one extreme was Sherpa, who said, "Any sort of 'brilliant jerk" is simply another form of psychopath. Psychopaths have no place in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

1991
Article

Job Satisfaction, Service Capability and Customer Satisfaction: An Examination of Linkages and Management Implications

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Jeffrey Zornitsky

Survey data from 1,277 employees and 4,269 customers of a personal lines insurance organization were analyzed with the following results: (a) employee perceptions of service quality are positively related to both job satisfaction and self-perceived service capability;... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Satisfaction; Jobs and Positions; Customer Satisfaction

11 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

The New International Style of Management

characterizes the U.S. model of management as focused on immediate outcomes and results and generally accustomed to having its way. But it has an added feature that enables it to remain powerful even as it is transformed. "When it's... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

April 2011
Module Note

Customer-Centric Information and Control Systems in B2B Settings: The Case for Customer-Supplier Partnerships

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Keywords: Customers; Information; Information Management; Partners and Partnerships

November 2016
Supplement

Irregular Operations

By: Ryan W. Buell, Willy C. Shih and Michael W. Toffel

This video shows a dispatcher responding to an irregular operations situation caused by weather at an East Coast airport. View Details

Keywords: Service; Service Excellence; Service Quality; Operating Systems; Operational Complexity; Operational Disruptions; Operational Efficiency; Operational Focus; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Air Transportation Industry

Research Summary

Managing the Advantages and Tradeoffs of Collaborative Structures

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

To solve complex problems, organizations must both collect facts and use them to solve problems. In one study, my coauthors and I show that increased connectivity—measured as network... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Human Behavior; Performance; Virtual Work; Hybrid Work; Office Space; Workplace Design; Communication; Social and Collaborative Networks; Behavior; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Leadership; Management

2002
Book

Production Systems: Handbook of Operations Management

By: L. Gaio, Francesca Gino and E. Zaninotto

Keywords: Production; System; Books; Operations; Management