Publications

Research Summary

The Exercise and Development of Leadership

My research in this stream contributes to three recent trends in leadership scholarship. The first is the resurgence of a perspective less preoccupied with leaders' impact on organizational performance and more with their function as sources and symbols of the... View Details

October 2022
Article

A Structural Model of Organizational Buying for Business-to-Business Markets: Innovation Adoption with Share-of-Wallet Contracts

By: Navid Mojir and K. Sudhir

The paper develops the ﬁrst structural model of organizational buying to study innovation diﬀusion in a B2B market. Our model is particularly applicable for routinized exchange relationships, whereby centralized buyers periodically evaluate and choose contracts,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Buying Behavior; Healthcare Marketing; B2B Markets; B2B Innovation; New Product Diffusion; New Product Adoption; Organizations; Acquisition; Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Marketing; Innovation and Invention

Teaching Interest

Leading Change and Organizational Renewal (LCOR); HBS Executive Education; 2022

Coached executives on innovation and organizational change
Led a group of senior executives in applying course theories to develop solutions for their organizational change initiatives
Teaching Rating: 7 / 7 (8... View Details

01 Aug 2022
What Do You Think?

Does Religious Belief Affect Organizational Performance?

(iStockphoto/35007) Anyone who has tried to pick up a Chick-fil-A sandwich on Sunday knows how religious belief affects organizational policy in that company. Chick-fil-A honors Christian beliefs and closes on Sunday. Whether it affects... View Details

Keywords: Re: James L. Heskett

25 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Developing the Global Leader

What skills do today's executives need to develop to become effective global leaders of tomorrow? And how do corporations teach these skills to their own leaders? "The shift from a country-centric corporation to one that is more... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

September 1990 (Revised March 1991)
Case

Mod IV Product Development Team

By: Anne Donnellon and Joshua D. Margolis

Focuses sharply on a crossfunctional product development team at Honeywell's Building Controls Division. Traces the history of teams at the division, which introduced them as a response to intensifying competition and the need for faster development. Reveals the... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Management Teams; Product Development; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Competitive Strategy

September 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Supplement

Ganesh Natarajan: Leading Innovation and Organizational Change at Zensar (B)

By: Michael Tushman and David Kiron

After proposing a fourth business unit to help grow the market for Zensar's innovative technology, to be led by Dilip Ittyera, CEO Natarajan adopted a new organizational structure focused on industry verticals. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Innovation Leadership; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Information Technology Industry

2018
Chapter

The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Paul Verdin

Despite discussion in the management literature about agile organizations or learning organizations, many large organizations are top-down, slow to change, and fraught with obstacles to learning. We describe “strategy-as-learning” to contrast with the traditional... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Learning; Safety; Organizational Culture; Performance Consistency

Teaching Interest

MBA Required Curriculum Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD)

By: Rakesh Khurana

This course focuses on how managers become effective leaders by addressing the human side of enterprise.

The first modules examine teams, individuals, and networks in the context of:

The determinants of group... View Details

May 1997
Teaching Note

Product Development Process, Organization and Improvement, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

Explores how development projects fit (or do not fit) within a firm's development strategy and its wider competitive goals. Module materials, and this note, focus on two broad approaches to process design (sequential and flexible) that were originally introduced in the... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Competition

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders

leader development in the Army. We saw professional identity as having the same type of conceptual promise at the individual level as organizational culture has at the unit level. Q: The Army has a "Be,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Article

Making a Difference: Developing Actionable Knowledge for Practice and Theory

By: Michael Beer

There is a widely acknowledged gap between academic research and practice. While the field of organizational studies and development has had an impact on management practice in some organizations, it has had only a modest impact on widely accepted management practice... View Details

Keywords: Actionable Knowledge; Actionable Practice; Normal Science; Scholar-consultant; Management Practices and Processes; Theory; Innovation Leadership; Organizations; Performance Effectiveness

April 2012
Article

Change Agents, Networks, and Institutions: A Contingency Theory of Organizational Change

By: Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro

We develop a contingency theory for how structural closure in a network, defined as the extent to which an actor's network contacts are connected to one another, affects the initiation and adoption of change in organizations. Using longitudinal survey data supplemented... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Theory; Organizations; Change

Read Now

March 2005 (Revised April 2005)
Module Note

A Relational Approach to Self-Assessment and Career Development

By: Monica C. Higgins

Describes the main ideas in a module on relational self-assessment as part of a course on self-assessment and career development or as part of a course on leadership and organizational behavior for MBA students or executives. Reflects a "relational" approach to career... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Relationships; Leadership; Organizations; Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks

Summer 2014
Article

Taiwan's PC Industry, 1976–2010: The Evolution of Organizational Capabilities

By: Howard H. Yu and Willy C. Shih

The stellar growth of Taiwan's personal computer (PC) industry over the past three decades represents a paradox. Participating in the global production system, local firms in Taiwan grew in association with established firms in the West. Despite their technical... View Details

Keywords: Personal Computer; PC; PC Industry; Taiwan PC Industry; Taiwan PC Manufacturers; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Industry Clusters; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Mobile Technology; Information Technology Industry; Taiwan

January 1998 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Acer America: Development of the Aspire

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Anthony St. George

Follows the development, national launch, and global rollout of the Aspire, Acer's first new product developed outside of Taiwan. Implementing a very promising new PC concept proves challenging to Mike Culver and his U.S. team, who are plagued by coordination problems... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Supply Chain; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business Subsidiaries; Product Launch; Computer Industry; United States; Taiwan

March 1996 (Revised April 1996)
Case

State Street Bank and Trust Company: New Product Development

By: Gary P. Pisano and Maryam Golnaraghi

Portrays the dilemma faced by Marsh Carter, CEO and chairman of the board of State Street Bank, in May 1995. For the past decade, the bank earned continually expanding earnings through its rapidly growing custody business. Now, as that business matures and custodial... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Finance; Problems and Challenges; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Strategy; Banking Industry

15 Mar 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Initiating Divergent Organizational Change: The Enabling Role of Actors’ Social Position

Keywords: by Julie Battilana

March 2000 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Microsoft's Vega Project: Developing People and Products

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny

With a focus on Matt MacLellan and his careful development as a project manager under his boss and mentor, Jim Kaplan, the case describes the evolution of Microsoft's human-resource philosophies and policies and illustrates how they work in practice to provide the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Competitive Advantage; Retention; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Design; Information Technology; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership Development