Organization Behavior - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

highly successful in their respective fields and at the peak of their careers. This makes their behavior especially perplexing, raising questions about what caused them to lose their way: Why do leaders known for integrity and leadership... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

18 Jun 2024
Research & Ideas

What Your Non-Binary Employees Need to Do Their Best Work

When Katherine Coffman presents her research findings about how gender stereotypes shape the behavior of men and women in the workplace, she is often asked: What about non-binary individuals? “People understandably keep asking, ‘What... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

27 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?

executives in the West? There are important differences. Are differences attributable to different cultures or to different stages of corporate development? But first, what are we talking about? Roles in organizations involve more than... View Details

Keywords: by D. Quinn Mills

05 Jul 2012
What Do You Think?

Why Is Trust So Hard to Achieve in Management?

Summing Up Do Managers Take Trust for Granted? Trust is a big issue these days judging from the volume of responses to this month's column. Its importance in management is agreed on. There is a long list of behaviors that can damage it.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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Leadership - Faculty & Research

Leadership Leadership 2015 Chapter Leave No Slice of Genius Behind: Selecting and Developing Tomorrow's Leaders of Innovation By: Linda A. Hill More than ever, leaders of nearly every kind of organization view their human resources teams... View Details

Summer 2023
Article

(Un)principled Agents: Monitoring Loyalty after the End of the Royal African Company Monopoly

By: Anne Ruderman and Marlous van Waijenburg

The revocation of the Royal African Company's monopoly in 1698 inaugurated a transformation of the transatlantic slave trade. While the RAC’s exit from the slave trade has received scholarly attention, little is known about the company’s response to the loss of its... View Details

Keywords: Slavery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business History; Monopoly; History; Business and Government Relations

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2018
Working Paper

Managing Through Organizational Change: Employee Alignment in the Presence of Unexpected Career Concerns

By: Ohchan Kwon and Jee-Eun Shin

This study examines performance consequences due to unexpected career concerns – layoff risks due to institutional reasons. Exploiting a company-wide announcement of a merger decision by management as a trigger event for unexpected career concerns, we examine employee... View Details

Keywords: Career Changes; Performance Measures; Incentives; M＆A; Employees; Personal Development and Career; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

Citation

15 Nov 2022
Book

Stop Ignoring Bad Behavior: 6 Tips for Better Ethics at Work

which publishes in November, can provide important lessons for business people in an era where consumers expects companies to behave responsibly more than ever. Enabling unethical behavior In the case of Purdue Pharma, McKinsey advised... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

04 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Want to Make Diversity Stick? Break the Cycle of Sameness

and people of color in leadership roles continue to remain scarce, perpetuating a pattern of sameness, with white men often replacing other white men in high-level positions, Chang says. However, the research results also reveal a bright spot: View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

In "You Can't Enlarge the Pie," the authors argue that barriers to effective government decision making result in poor decisions about critical issues like the environment, organ transplants, and energy policy. Why? Because... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

13 Apr 2011
Working Paper Summaries

The ‘IKEA Effect’: When Labor Leads to Love

Keywords: by Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon & Dan Ariely; Consumer Products

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Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

(19) Annual Reports (2) Annuities (1) Arts (2) Asset Management (3) Asset Pricing (4) Assets (11) Attitudes (18) Auctions (4) Balanced Scorecard (11) Banks and Banking (30) Behavioral Finance (7) Behavior... View Details

November 2009
Article

Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry

By: Dennis Campbell, Srikant M. Datar and Tatiana Sandino

Many companies operate units that are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarter's ability to control its local managers' behavior and satisfy... View Details

Keywords: Market Dispersion; Decentralization; Incentives; Business Headquarters; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Distribution; Organizational Design; Franchise Ownership; Retail Industry

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06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Cheese Moving: Effecting Change Rather Than Accepting It

Behavior best-seller list—thanks in part to corporate managers who distribute it to their employees as a lesson in accepting and anticipating change gracefully. But is that really the best message to send? Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Teaching Note

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-046. Nike’s selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the thirtieth anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Consumer Products Industry; Sports Industry; United States; North America

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2008
Working Paper

Organizational Design and Control across Multiple Markets: The Case of Franchising in the Convenience Store Industry

By: Dennis Campbell

Many companies operate units which are dispersed across different types of markets, and thus serve significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion is likely to compromise the headquarters' ability to control its local managers' behavior and... View Details

Keywords: Business Headquarters; Customer Focus and Relationships; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Organizational Design; Franchise Ownership; Retail Industry

Citation

07 Oct 2008
First Look

First Look: October 7, 2008

jurisdiction, and therefore protection, of the states involved. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), whose members are states, represent an important attempt to span this abyss. IGOs are mandated variously to smooth economic... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

Fighting Bias on the Front Lines

By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim

Most companies aim for exceptional customer service, but too few are attentive to the subtle discrimination by frontline employees that can alienate customers, lead to lawsuits, or even cause lasting brand damage by going viral.
This article presents research... View Details

Keywords: Customer Service; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Delivery; Diversity; Prejudice and Bias; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

units within an organization Cooperation—Alignment of goals, attitudes, and behaviors across units within an organization Clout—Assignment of power and decision rights to... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

August 2007 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Trouble with a Bubble

By: Tom Nicholas

Examines technology, firm performance, and the stock market during the 1929 Great Crash and the Great Depression of the 1930s. The 1920s was an extraordinary period of technological progress marked by a strong run-up in stock market prices. Firms invested heavily in... View Details