Moral Reasoning - Publications - Faculty & Research

05 Mar 2009
What Do You Think?

How Frank or Deceptive Should Leaders Be?

of mediocre performance. On the other hand, there may be reasons why good leaders have to have an optimistic bias. As one CEO put it in a meeting last week, "I can't lead from a position of pessimism." Even though CEOs may... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

24 Feb 2021
Lessons from the Classroom

What History's Biggest Wars Teach Us About Leading in Peace

aggressive, too quick to push back on others, that will lead to conflict,” Malhotra says. “So you should be more patient, more pliant, more forgiving when conflict has the potential to escalate. But even this seemingly reasonable... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

26 Apr 2022
Book

What Does Your Business Stand For? Why Building Trust Starts with Purpose

“A lot of team members have really similar experiences,” Sneath said. “They feel connected, engaged, and proud of what we’re building.” They come to trust the company, its leadership, and the moral community of which they are a part, for... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

13 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

When Gender Changes the Negotiation

The last few months have been trying for Maureen Park, the managing director of a small portfolio management firm. The firm's parent company, a large financial services concern, was performing below forecasts, and morale among Park's... View Details

Keywords: by Dina W. Pradel, Hannah Riley Bowles & Kathleen L. McGinn

02 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: May 2, 2017

moral of this story is not how to do crisis management faster and better in a lightning-fast digital world. It’s that even the nimblest and deftest crisis management response cannot contain the damage of going straight to “call security”... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

05 May 2011
What Do You Think?

How Ethical Can We Be?

how they act in ways that are inconsistent with their more reasoned ethical preferences? What can organizations do to increase the likelihood of employees acting ethically? And, what can society do to change the institutions that guide... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

30 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

hit to Lululemon’s bottom line was reasonably immediate and significant. It cost the CEO his job. There is a real pay-off from building pride among an organization’s employees. It can result in greater loyalty, higher productivity, and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Aug 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands?

storytelling devices and the range of storytelling features that brands use in this one moment and in this one platform. The second reason is that it's such a significant cultural, economic, social, commercial enterprise, the Super Bowl,... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Sports; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

to,” the CEO said. Managers are pushed to get to the bottom of the problem and identify reasons why people don’t comply—and come up with solutions. "A common theme emerging from our interviews is the attempt to deliver a highly... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

21 Feb 2005
Op-Ed

Is Business Management a Profession?

reason that the issue of trust arises is that these individuals are expected to exercise judgment—based on specialized knowledge and methods of analysis that they alone are thought to possess—in areas in which their decisions affect the... View Details

Keywords: by Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria & Daniel Penrice

17 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense?

applies road rules to extreme “driverless dilemmas,” and more on how it can make decisions in everyday cases that lie on the edge of hard-and-fast driving rules. “Human drivers take a test, and we then assume that they are going to use our shared human psychology to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

08 Feb 2010
HBS Case

Looking Behind Google’s Stand in China

working inside the country to create value for its Chinese users, employees, and business partners. To critics, Google was selling out its core principles to play in the world's second largest economy. “Google shot themselves in the foot without gaining the View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

22 Feb 2021
Book

Reaching Today's Omnichannel Customer Takes a New Sales Strategy

productivity and growth. And as the Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman has shown, growth has moral consequences in terms of a society’s tolerance for diversity, social mobility, correcting inequalities, and democratic values. CEOs who... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

Policy,” in which University of Michigan Professor Andrew J. Hoffman wrote, “One of the reasons (among many) that the public discourse on critical scientific issues of our day has become so confused is that too many academics, according... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

25 Aug 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: After Charlottesville, Where Does a CEO's Responsibility Lie?

particular action it takes is right for their business. Constructing those arguments, however, is precisely what they would be doing. Human beings are profoundly subject to confirmation bias. They look for reasons to affirm their own... View Details

Keywords: by Gautam Mukunda

12 Oct 2006
First Look

First Look: October 12, 2006

Note on Human Behavior: Character and Situation Harvard Business School Note 404-091 When we think of human behavior, especially from a moral perspective, we are often drawn to explanations that rest on character. In simple terms, we... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Can Religion and Business Learn From Each Other?

of moral problems that are very stressful to deal with. It needs mutual learning. It needs multiple perspectives. There's a third reason that popped up in the 90s: globalization. There now is an awareness... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

08 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Is That Really Your Best Offer?

behavior on an ongoing basis. Communication is a central part of that story. Negotiators can have good reasons for not saying everything they're thinking. Holding back information can be a simple matter of self-defense. If a seller... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Wheeler

06 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Women MBAs at Harvard Business School

Radcliffe College, indicating a personal commitment to educating women well before they were officially admitted into the full two-year MBA Program. In 1965, the School hired an administrative assistant to the Dean, whose main responsibility was to recruit women and... View Details