Publications

08 Jul 2015
What Do You Think?

Do Americans Work Too Much and Think About Work Too Little?

that, "It's very hard to change one's habit and society's perception. You may be the only executive strolling in the park with young mothers and playing kids. You feel completely out of place, and feel like 'getting back to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

November 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Kwame Spearman at Tattered Cover: Reinventing Brick-and-Mortar Retail

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Kerry Herman

The case spotlights Kwame Spearman’s career-shifting decision to leave a NYC-based consulting job to return to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and take over an iconic independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. The case lays out ways Spearman envisions a new approach... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Leadership; Leading Change; Competitive Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Publishing Industry; Retail Industry; United States

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Spirit at Work: The Search for Deeper Meaning in the Workplace

the deeper meaning of work is part of a significant change occurring in the way work is being perceived and structured. As Peter Vaill notes, social and economic conditions in recent years have changed... View Details

Keywords: by Marguerite Rigoglioso

14 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Breaking the Smartphone Addiction

Rather, it is about incremental changes that promise to improve your work-life and your work in ways that make them notably better. Creating Change Where No One Could Even Imagine It I chose to conduct the... View Details

Keywords: by Leslie A. Perlow

01 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

Two Decades Later, is the 'New Economy' Finally Here?

kinwun Summing Up: What are the Earmarks of a “New Economy?” Responses to this month’s column rightly focused on the need for measures and standards before deciding whether we are entering an era of social and economic change as... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Mar 2011
What Do You Think?

To What Degree Does the Job Make the Person?

retired." This led Illysa to comment, "One more reason we must choose not only our careers but our work places carefully: who do we want to become?" Heidi Olson wondered "if the change in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2003 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Union Corrugating Company (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Julia Stevens

Lauri Union, president of Union Corrugating Co., has successfully transformed her family's corrugated steel roofing and siding manufacturer into a successful enterprise. Reviews how Union turned the struggling company around and also considers the management structure... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Competition; Work-Life Balance; Success; Change Management; Management Systems; Construction Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; Boston; North Carolina

19 Mar 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

8 Ways To Be An Environmentally Conscious Manager

chief sustainability officers in American companies, although their number has been growing rapidly. A new study by George Serafeim and Kathleen Millerexplains who they are, where they come from, and how to make them more effective. Think big More Than 900 Examples of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy

November 2003 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Ottawa Devices, Inc. (A)

By: Henry B. Reiling and Harry Clegg Midgley IV

A master plan accommodating two retiring brothers, the brother who will remain as president, third-generation family members, employees, philanthropic interests, and company imperatives must be developed by second-generation brothers who are controlling shareholders... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Change Management; Transition; Management Succession; Management Teams; Retirement; Conflict of Interests

08 Nov 2024
HBS Case

What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders

of biographical case studies for his MBA class, Changing the World, that includes several protagonists whose management chops are battle-tested. “There’s a discipline in the military that is sometimes lacking in commercial organizations,... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Entertainment & Recreation

January 2009 (Revised November 2009)
Background Note

Adult Life Stages

By: John A. Davis

This note describes basic concepts of adult life stage theory and summarizes Daniel Levinson's research findings on the adult development of men and women. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Gender

September 2007
Case

Still Leading (B4): Lee Iacocca—Driving Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Lance P. Pierce

Lee Iacocca, a successful CEO of an auto company, devoted himself after retirement to several social causes. Describes issues in the transition. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Transformation; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community; Auto Industry

Article

When Seeking Help, Women and Racial/Ethnic Minorities Benefit from Explicitly Stating Their Identity

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Aneesh Rai, Edward H. Chang and Katherine L. Milkman

Receiving help can make or break a career, but women and racial/ethnic minorities do not always receive the support they seek. Across two audit experiments—one with politicians and another with students—as well as an online experiment (total n = 5,145), we test whether... View Details

Keywords: Support; Marginalized Communities; Personal Development and Career; Equality and Inequality; Identity; Race; Gender; Communication Intention and Meaning

2010
Chapter

Identity-Based Leader Development

By: Scott Snook, Herminia Ibarra and Laura Ramo

Despite the wealth of managerial and scholarly attention paid to leadership development, only recently has a new perspective emerged that explicitly links leadership and identity. Research and theorizing on leadership development have yet to specify the processes that... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Identity; Transition; Transformation; Perspective; Managerial Roles; Business Processes; Personal Development and Career

July 2022
Article

What Do I Make of the Rest of My Life? Global and Quotidian Life Construal across the Retirement Transition

By: Jeff Steiner and Teresa M. Amabile

Retirement means relinquishing the daily structure that work provides and the career-dependent meanings that it offers life narratives. The retirement transition can therefore involve contemplating both how to spend newly-freed daily time and the implications of... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Transition; Life Narrative; Construal Level Theory; Global Construal; Quotidian Construal; Meanings Of Work And Retirement; Retirement; Transition; Perspective

Read Now

03 Oct 2018
What Do You Think?

How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace?

column about how best to foster a climate of inclusion in an organization. Dianne Jacobs made the case for inclusion succinctly when she said: “Those that manage diversity and inclusion well tend to manage change well.” MarufSalmon added,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Celebrating 'The Men and Women of the Corporation' 40 Years Later

and business? Kanter: The three career steps that matter, for scholars and practitioners alike, are inclusion, influence, and impact. Inclusion by getting in the door, influence at the table, and the impact you have in your own life and... View Details

Keywords: by Robin J. Ely

April 2007
Case

Alan Kendricks at Cardiology Associates

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Kaftan and Wilfred S. McCalla, Jr.

Alan Kendricks struggles to address many challenges facing him as a recently promoted medical director for Cardiology Associates at Southeastern Pennsylvania University Hospital. He must balance his time taking care of patients, running a practice, managing up, down,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business or Company Management; Strategy; Organizational Culture; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Structure; Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Pennsylvania