Publications

Educators

04 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

From Lone Star to Team Player

his or her job but does not help others. Or one asks for help and is sometimes even abrasive when asked to do something for the company that does not benefit him or her directly. The problem with these people is that they can poison the organization—they set a bad... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

2010
Book

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

By: Robert L. Simons

To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into day-to-day actions that will enable your company to win in the marketplace. This means channeling resources into the right efforts, striking a balance between innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Innovation and Management; Resource Allocation; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy

May 1990
Teaching Note

Xerox Corp.: Executive Support Systems, Teaching Note

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Keywords: Management Teams; System; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry

September–October 2016
Article

What Senior Executives Should Know About Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Business is more complex, data more abundant, and more specialists are needed to stay up-to-date with functional best practices. As a senior executive, you can worry all you want about disruption, but you need a salesforce aligned with strategy to do something about... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Management Teams

Register to Read

November 1993 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Rudi Gassner and the Executive Committee of BMG International (A)

By: Linda Hill and Katherine Seger Weber

Explores the roles of CEO Rudi Gassner and the 9-person executive committee in leading BMG International. BMG International is the international music subsidiary of Bertlesmann, a German company that is the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. Describes a... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Decision Making; Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Cost Management; Change Management; Music Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany

Educators

2011
Article

Top Executives Need Feedback: Here's How They Can Get It

By: Robert Steven Kaplan

As executives become more senior, they are less likely to receive constructive feedback on their performance or their strategy. To get it, they should call on their junior colleagues. The problem: subordinates don't want to offend the boss. Therefore, as executives... View Details

Keywords: Performance; Strategy; Networks; Decisions; Management Teams

21 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Free Isn’t Always Better: How Slack Holds Its Own Against Microsoft Teams

Teams app to Office 365 in 2017. Microsoft executives briefly considered buying Slack, but founder Bill Gates reportedly opposed the move. "New companies like Slack emerge with a great product, better than... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Information Technology; Technology

2013
Book

Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization

By: Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

By offering specific action steps, Beyond the Idea extends the elegant conceptual insights from How Stella Saved the Farm, Govindarajan and Trimble's parable. Beyond the Idea shows exactly how to: - Build a team with a very particular structure, one... View Details

1992
Book

Corporate Information Systems Management: Issues Facing Senior Executives

By: J. I. Cash Jr., F. W. McFarlan and J. L. McKenney

Keywords: Information Management; Management Teams

05 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

How New BofA Executives Learn its ’Deep Smarts’

thirty to sixty days of entry. The facilitator is a leadership development executive who has a deep understanding of the leader's business issues and is familiar with the specific leadership team's interpersonal dynamics. The facilitator... View Details

Keywords: Re: Dorothy A. Leonard; Banking

26 Apr 2024
HBS Case

Deion Sanders' Prime Lessons for Leading a Team to Victory

the water problem became so bad that the team was unable to live in the school’s housing or use its athletic facilities. Sanders moved the team to a hotel and leaned on his business ties—including View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Sports

2010 - 2010
Conference Presentation

Teams at the Top: Revisiting the Structure and Effects of Strategic Work in Top Management

By: James R. Dillon

This paper examines the usage and effects of small work groups by top management in the course of guiding an organization's strategy process. Reviewing evidence from research literatures on strategy process, strategic leadership, and small groups, I propose that a... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Strategy; Leadership; Practice; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

1988
Chapter

Executive Leadership and Organizational Outcomes: An Evolutionary Perspective

By: M. Tushman

Keywords: Management Teams; Leadership; Outcome or Result; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation

April 2012
Article

Teamwork on the Fly

By: Amy C. Edmondson

In a fast-paced and ever-changing business environment, traditional teams aren't always practical. Instead, companies increasingly employ teaming: gathering experts in temporary groups to solve problems they may be encountering for the first and only time. This... View Details

Keywords: Teaming; Cross-functional Integration; Organizational Learning; Groups and Teams; Experience and Expertise; Interpersonal Communication; Projects; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competency and Skills; Learning

Read Now

13 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The Unlikely Upside of Mergers: More Diverse Management Teams

create an opportunity for executives to reshape their management ranks by advancing women and people of color, allowing companies to address racial inequities and build more diverse workforces, Zhang says. Zhang’s study, Shaking Things... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

2025
Working Paper

The Political Polarization of Corporate America

By: Vyacheslav Fos, Elisabeth Kempf and Margarita Tsoutsoura

U.S. executives are increasingly segregating by political party. We establish this new fact using political affiliations from voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between 2008 and 2022. We identify key drivers of this trend, including... View Details

Keywords: Political Polarization; Partisanship; Executives; Government and Politics; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States

SSRN

Read Now

29 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Will Demand for Women Executives Finally Shrink the Gender Pay Gap?

Pressure to increase gender diversity in C-suites is so intense that companies are trying to draw women candidates with higher salary offers, a phenomenon that is closing the gender pay gap among senior executives, research shows. Female View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

1988
Chapter

Executive Leadership and Succession: The Process of Taking Charge

By: John J. Gabarro

Keywords: Management Teams; Leadership; Management Succession

December 2011
Article

Manager-Specific Effects on Earnings Guidance: An Analysis of Top Executive Turnovers

By: Francois Brochet, Lucile Faurel and Sarah McVay

We investigate how managers contribute to the provision of earnings guidance by examining the association between top executive turnovers and guidance. Although firm and industry characteristics are important determinants of guidance, we conclude that CEOs participate... View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Teams; Policy; Decisions; Change; Risk and Uncertainty; Leadership

SSRN