Publications

06 Jun 2008
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?

of the responses to this month's question about why managers don't think deeply. The list of causes was much longer than the list of proposed responses. But in the process, some other questions were posed. Ben Kirk kicked off the list of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

1992
Chapter

Managing Relationships with Superiors

By: J. J. Gabarro

Keywords: Rank and Position; Employee Relationship Management; Interpersonal Communication

October 1994
Case

Yokohama Corporation, Ltd. (B): Cost Management System

Illustrates the budget planning process at a Japanese firm. Also describes a highly traditional cost accounting system, and shows how variances are used for performance measurement. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Performance Evaluation; Budgets and Budgeting; Japan

October 2020
Article

Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Long-Term Performance

By: Diwas S. KC, Bradley R. Staats, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino

How individuals manage, organize, and complete their tasks is central to operations management. Recent research in operations focuses on how under conditions of increasing workload individuals can decrease their service time, up to a point, in order to complete work... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Knowledge Work; Discretion; Workload; Employees; Health Care and Treatment; Decision Making; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Productivity

Find at Harvard

2017
Working Paper

Empowering Bureaucracy: Achieving Non-Hierarchical Control and Employee Autonomy Through Dynamic Formal Roles

By: Michael Lee

Hierarchy and formal structure are conventionally viewed as two tightly coupled dimensions of organization design. As organizations move from more hierarchical to less hierarchical authority structures, they also tend to reduce formal structure. However, organic... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Autonomy; Decentralization; Self-Managed Organizations; Formalization; Roles; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Management Systems

2008
Book

Becoming a New Manager

By: Linda A. Hill

You've just been promoted to a managerial position for the first time—congratulations! But beware: the managerial role differs markedly from the individual contributor role. Go into the job with mistaken assumptions about what to expect, and you just may be blindsided... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Skills; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams

Find at Harvard

17 Dec 2015
News

Examining Global Workforce Management

particular circumstances,” says Sucher, MBA Class of 1966 Professor of Management Practice and Joseph L. Rice, III Faculty Fellow. “Both why and how they are done matter—to employees and to the company’s... View Details

29 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Harley-Davidson’s Management Do?

CasPhotography What Can the Harley-Davidson Case Teach Us About Managing in a Politicized Environment? The advice to Harley-Davidson’s management from respondents of this month’s column is to (1) ensure that... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto

September 1983 (Revised October 1984)
Case

Boston Whaler, Inc.: Managing the Dealer Network

Mr. Joseph Lawler, newly-appointed president of Boston Whaler, Inc. (BWI), believes that better dealer management is the key to his company's continued growth. BWI manufactured a high-price, high performance line of power and other boats for the recreational,... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry

08 Oct 2020
News

How to Manage a Hybrid Team

September 1987 (Revised October 1987)
Background Note

The Job of the General Manager

By: James L. Heskett

Describes elements of the job of the general manager that are addressed in the Management Policy and Practice course at the Harvard Business School. These include: 1) establishing strategic direction, 2) setting goals and managing standards of performance, 3)... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Policy; Recruitment; Working Conditions; Managerial Roles; Resource Allocation; Mission and Purpose; Performance Evaluation; Strategy; Value

02 Aug 2013
News

HBS Hosts Annual Summer Venture in Management Program

November 2005
Case

Playgrounds and Performance: Results Management at KaBOOM! (A)

By: Herman B. Leonard, Marc J. Epstein and Laura Winig

KaBOOM!, a successful playground-building social enterprise funded through corporate partnerships, wants to develop a performance measurement system that will enable the organization to expand its impact substantially. The board of directors and management are trying... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise; Performance Evaluation; Management Systems; Design; Construction Industry

Research Summary

The Effects of Firm Size and Sales Growth Rate on Inventory Turnover Performance in the U.S. Retail Sector

We review and extend recent academic literature on the inventory turnover performance of public-listed U.S. retailers using firm-level financial data. Past research has shown that there is a large variation in the inventory turnover performance of retailers across... View Details

Research Summary

Identity Work, Itinerant Careers, and Management Education

I investigate how and where individuals develop, revise and consolidate identity narratives that afford them some degree of self-esteem, a sense of direction and purpose, and social legitimacy, in the context of careers that feature discontinuities, mobility and... View Details

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

and incentives—whether organizations promoted and rewarded employees based on performance and tried to keep the best performers from quitting. To collect the data, the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

fall 1988
Article

Unobservable Outcomes and Multiattribute Preferences in the Evaluation of Managerial Performance

By: S. Datar, R. Banker and A. Maindiratta

Keywords: Outcome or Result; Management; Performance