Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(691)
- Faculty Publications (89)
- Article
Values, Purpose, Meaning, and Expectations: Why Culture and Context Matter
The "rational person" standard, based on assumptions of economic self-interest, has long prevailed in legal reasoning. But understanding of decision making, behavioral choices, and possibilities for action must be enlarged to include a variety of factors that give... View Details
- February 2010 (Revised May 2010)
- Case
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes
The case, in a non-profit project-oriented setting, introduces fundamental risk management principles and processes that are easily applicable to private sector settings. Gentry Lee, senior systems engineer and de-facto chief risk officer, is applying a new... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms To Decentralize?
By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen
There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence,... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
International Differences in the Size and Roles of Corporate Headquarters: An Empirical Examination
By: David J. Collis, David Young and Michael Goold
This paper examines differences in the size and roles of corporate headquarters around the world. Based on a survey of over 600 multibusiness corporations in seven countries (France, Germany, Holland, UK, Japan, US, and Chile) the paper describes the differences among... View Details
Keywords: Business Headquarters; Size; Organizational Structure; Culture; Japan; France; Germany; Netherlands; United Kingdom; United States; Chile
- March 2009
- Case
Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit
By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria and Deborah Bell
Barbara Norris struggles to address the many problems facing her as a recently promoted nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She has inherited a unit with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and highest... View Details
- 2008
- Chapter
Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model
By: Rakesh Khurana and Herbert Gintis
Since the mid-1970s neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching in dealing with the nature of human motivation. However valuable in understanding competitive product and financial markets, neoclassical economic theory employs an... View Details
- Article
Strong Leadership and Teamwork Drive Culture and Performance Change: Ohio State University Medical Center 2000–2006
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Fred Sanfilippo, Neeli Bendapudi and Anthony Rucci
Several characteristics of academic health centers have the potential to create high levels of internal conflict and misalignment that can pose significant leadership challenges.
In September 2000, the positions of Ohio State University (OSU) senior vice... View Details
- 2008
- Working Paper
Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem
By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats
Prior work in organizational learning has failed to find a consistent effect of variation in experience on performance. While some studies find a positive relationship between these two variables, others find no effect or even a negative relationship. In this paper, we... View Details
- March 2008
- Case
Shangri-La Hotels
By: Dennis Campbell and Brent Kazan
In November 2006, Symon Bridle, the newly appointed chief operating officer of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, was thinking about a number of organizational issues that presented challenges to Shangri-La's rapid expansion strategy. There were three major issues at hand:... View Details
- February 2008
- Article
Blonde and Blue-eyed?: Globalizing Beauty, c.1945–c.1980
By: Geoffrey Jones
This article examines the globalization of the beauty industry between 1945 and 1980. The industry grew quickly. Firms employed marketing and marketing strategies to diffuse products and brands internationally, despite business, economic, and cultural obstacles to... View Details
- November 2007 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
Haier Hefei Electronics Co. (A)
By: Lynn Sharp Paine
The Haier Group, the first mainland Chinese company to make the Financial Times list of Asia's "most admired companies," attributes its success in large measure to the new value system it has sought to instill throughout the organization. However, when Haier takes over... View Details
- September 2006 (Revised October 2007)
- Case
Shinsei Bank: Developing an Integrated Firm
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Masako Egawa
Tom Pedersen, newly appointed chief learning officer (CLO) of Shinsei Bank in Japan, pondered how he could facilitate development of an integrated culture and transformation of the organization. Shinsei Bank had not developed longstanding tradition or a strong... View Details
- 2005
- Working Paper
Silent Saboteurs: How Implicit Theories of Voice Inhibit the Upward Flow of Knowledge in Organizations
By: James R. Detert and Amy C. Edmondson
This article examines, in a series of three studies, how people working in organizational hierarchies wrestle with the challenge of upward voice. We first undertook in-depth exploratory research in a knowledge-intensive multinational corporation in which employee input... View Details
- April 2002 (Revised September 2003)
- Case
Stephen Brown at John Hancock Financial Services
By: Robin J. Ely
Describes a major organizational transformation process at John Hancock Financial Services in which CEO Stephen Brown takes a series of measured steps to turn the old-line mutual insurance company into a competitive, performance-oriented financial services firm. At the... View Details
- May 2001 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
Jumpstart
Many in the nonprofit sector doubt whether organizational performance can be measured. Jumpstart, a 10-year-old nonprofit, developed performance measurement and management systems from its inception. The organization has experienced explosive growth and attributes a... View Details
- October 2000 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Rob Waldron at SCORE! Educational Centers (Abridged)
By: David A. Thomas and Stephanie L. Woerner
Describes Rob Waldron's actions upon assuming leadership of SCORE! Educational Centers, an after-school tutoring enterprise. Examines the issue of acquiring and growing a small, privately-owned company into a professional organization, especially regarding corporate... View Details
- June 2000 (Revised July 2000)
- Case
ORIX KK
By: Malcolm S. Salter and Andrew Eggers
Describes the challenges facing a Japanese financial services company as it attempts to maintain its ability to attract and retain talented employees. The CEO's ideas of corporate governance and evidence from the competitive labor environment suggest the need for more... View Details
- Article
Clogs to Clogs in Three Generations? Explaining Entrepreneurial Performance in Britain Since 1850
By: Tom Nicholas
Research into culture and entrepreneurship in Britain has been dominated by casual empiricism. This article shows the benefits of using a new method. Lifetime wealth accumulation is specified as a measure of entrepreneurial performance, and applied to data collected... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Performance Evaluation; Biography; Culture; Education; Wealth; Research; Great Britain
- June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
- Case
Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest
Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details
- January 1997 (Revised February 1998)
- Case
Elsie Y. Cross Associates, Inc. and CoreStates Financial Corp.
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Thomas Dretler
A consulting firm specializing in diversity and organizational change assists an 18,000-employee bank with a massive culture change effort. View Details