Publications

August 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

The Gift Card Swap

By: David G. Fubini, William Fubini, Patrick Sanguineti and Amy Chambers

In this short vignette on ethics in consulting, Brenda Thompson, a new Associate at a prestigious consulting firm, learns that a fellow Associate is using the firm's meal expense benefits to pocket the difference between the maximum daily allowance and his actual... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decisions; Consulting Industry

Fall 2021
Article

Strategy as a Way of Life: Businesses Must Root Strategy in Moral Purpose to Thrive in a Complex, Rapidly Changing World

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

Doing the ordinary things in life a little bit better every day elevates individuals. All of us gained mother's wisdom by living with her, by watching her from behind her, by being scolded by her, and being told over and over again, to be honest, not to tell a lie or... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Moral Sensibility; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Teaching Interest

Data Science and Artificial Intelligence for Leaders

By: Chiara Farronato

With artificial intelligence (AI)... View Details

Keywords: Data Science; Data Science And Analytics Management; Data Analytics; Data Analysis; Artificial Intelligence; Generative Ai; Generative Models

Teaching Interest

Leadership and Corporate Accountability

By: Paul M. Healy

This course focuses on the responsibilities of companies, their leaders, and their boards. Its aim is to deepend students' understanding of the economic, legal, and ethical dimensions of these responsibilities and to provide practical guidance on driving performance... View Details

April 2000
Case

Professionals' Quandaries

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Scot H. Landry

Presents five situations in which professionals face ethical dilemmas. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Personal Development and Career; Human Resources; Management Practices and Processes; Situation or Environment

February 1999 (Revised April 1999)
Case

Guaranty Trust Bank PLC Nigeria (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan

Fola Adeola, the CEO of Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank and one of its founders in 1991, is considering what should be done to maintain the bank's original vision and vitality in the face of its rapid growth and success in the marketplace. Known for its high ethical... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Organizational Culture; Ethics; Planning; Expansion; Business Processes; Law; Banking Industry; Nigeria

May 2011
Article

The Wise Leader

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

In an era of increasing discontinuity, wise leadership has nearly vanished. Many leaders find it difficult to reinvent their corporations rapidly enough to cope with new technologies, demographic shifts, and consumption trends. They can't develop truly global... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Interpersonal Communication; Experience and Expertise; Values and Beliefs; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Leadership Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence

25 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

A Gentler Capitalism: Black Business Leadership in the New South Africa

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill & Maria Farkas; Communications; Telecommunications

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Sharing the Responsibility of Corporate Governance

Harvard Business School professor Constance Bagley studies the intersection of business and law, and is interested in how companies can use legal resources as a competitive asset. In this interview, Bagley discusses ways businesses can make View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

28 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

Earth Day Reflections

collection of data, engage more deeply and effectively with all their stakeholders, and lower reputational risk through a high level of transparency. Given the importance of sustainability, I think companies have an ethical obligation to... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

March 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

AMC: The Zero Revenue Case

By: C. Fritz Foley and Donal O'Cofaigh

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic put theatre company AMC’s already perilous financial situation under even further strain. The company’s high levels of debt resulted in a monthly cash-burn which left it facing an imminent Chapter-11 filing in the absence of... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Public Equity; Stock Shares; Health Pandemics; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

January 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

GLOBALGAP: Food Safety and Private Standards

By: David E. Bell and Mary Louise Shelman

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Food; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Safety; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe

2020
Book

Better, Not Perfect: A Realist's Guide to Maximum Sustainable Goodness

By: Max Bazerman

Every day, you make hundreds of decisions. They’re largely personal, but these choices have an ethical twinge as well; they value certain principles and ends over others. Bazerman argues that we can better balance both dimensions—and we needn’t seek perfection to make... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Moral Sensibility; Ethics; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

2014
Chapter

Corporate Social Responsibility and Multinational Corporations

By: Nien-he Hsieh and Florian Wettstein

A central question that arises from the perspective of global ethics is what standards ought to apply to the activities of multinational corporations (MNCs). This chapter surveys the contemporary theoretical literature on this question. The first section provides... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporation; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Standards

11 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 11, 2008

behavior as less ethical when it led to undesirable consequences, even if they saw that behavior as acceptable before they knew its consequences. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

07 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Need to Do To Restore Investor Confidence

corporate America ever win back people's confidence? Harvard Management Update recently discussed this issue with Thomas R. Piper, Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and coauthor of Can View Details

Keywords: by Harvard Management Update

January 2009
Supplement

KPMG (B): Risk and Reform

By: Robert G. Eccles and Eliot Sherman

Under the leadership of Tim Flynn, Chairman and CEO of KPMG, the firm made a number of changes in compensation, governance, and culture in order to address the underlying reasons for actions that occurred prior to him becoming CEO that led to the accounting giant... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Ethics; Corporate Governance; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation