Publications

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25 Feb 2016
News

What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team

12 Nov 2019
News

Hate your open office?

22 Jan 2019
News

Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace

February 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

GE's Growth Strategy: The Immelt Initiative

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Follows the actions of GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, as he implements a growth strategy for the $150 billion company in a tough business environment. In four years, he reinvigorates GE's technology, expands its services, develops a commercial focus, pushes developing countries,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Judgments; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure

05 Sep 2023
Book

Failing Well: How Your ‘Intelligent Failure’ Unlocks Your Full Potential

In the 1990s, after drugmaker Eli Lilly spent more than a decade and millions of dollars developing the new drug Alimta to treat lung cancer, the medication came up short in effectively treating cancer in expanded trials. While the failure was disappointing, it was... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Program

Senior Executive Leadership Program—Middle East

deliver value to customers Lead authentically and ethically at all levels and foster a culture of accountability across the organization Build confidence in yourself as a leader, decision-maker, and... View Details

27 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Manly Men, Oil Platforms, and Breaking Stereotypes

organizational scholars, we were interested in organizations as social and cultural contexts that shape how men make sense of themselves—the stories they tell themselves as men about what it means to be... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

2020
Book

Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Over a decade ago, renowned innovation expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter co-founded and then directed Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. Her breakthrough work with hundreds of successful professionals and executives, as well as aspiring young entrepreneurs, identifies... View Details

Keywords: Leaders; Advanced Leadership; Advanced Leadership Initiative; Community; Change Leadership; Innovation; Problem Solving; Cross-sector Collaboration; Institutional Change; Leadership; Change; Leading Change; Communication; Innovation Leadership; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Community Relations; Civil Society or Community

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October 2013
Supplement

Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (C)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Lisa Mazzanti and Aldo Sesia

When Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of Anglo American, ordered the shutdown of the company's Rustenburg, South Africa mines in the summer of 2007, it was just the first of many steps the company would take under her leadership to achieve zero harm. The case describes... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Organizational Culture; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Change; Mining Industry; South Africa

10 Jan 2019
News

Companies will perform better if employees are not cowed into silence

April 2008 (Revised July 2011)
Module Note

Strategic Renewal

By: David J. Collis and Jan W. Rivkin

While it is relatively easy to identify why strategies fail, it is much harder to explain how to fix a failing strategy or build an organization that can continuously renew its strategy. This note identifies some patterns that distinguish companies whose renewal... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Failure; Strategy

December 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

Transforming Verizon: A Platform for Change

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

A new CEO steps into the shoes of his long-time predecessor who had created the U.S. telecommunications giant via a series of acquisitions and, before departing, had initiated the company's strategic repositioning. The new CEO reflected on Verizon's recent successes,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Globalized Firms and Management; Groups and Teams; Telecommunications Industry

2011
Working Paper

The Importance of Work Context in Organizational Learning from Error

By: Lucy H. MacPhail and Amy C. Edmondson

This paper examines the implications of work context for learning from errors in organizations. Prior research has shown that attitudes and behaviors related to error vary between groups within organizations but has not investigated or theorized the ways in which... View Details

Keywords: Judgments; Learning; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Failure; Performance Improvement; Opportunities; Complexity

April 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (C): Integrating BGI (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Aldo Sesia

On June 11, 2009, BlackRock, Inc., the world’s fourth-largest asset manager announced it was acquiring Barclays Global Investors (BGI) for $13.5 billion in stock and cash. The deal would more than double BlackRock’s assets under management (AUM), making it the world’s... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Integration; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Asset Management; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 2021 (Revised February 2021)
Case

TCS: From Physical Offices to Borderless Work

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Malini Sen

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a multinational IT services company headquartered in Mumbai, is a subsidiary of one of India’s most reputed conglomerates, the Tata Group. In 2020, TCS was valued at $144.7 billion, the highest for any company in the IT sector,... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Organizational Structure; Change Management; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customer Satisfaction; Information Technology Industry; India; Asia; United States; Europe

September 2010
Case

Freddie Mac: Managing in Conservatorship

By: Robert Steven Kaplan, Nitin Nohria and Ben Creo

Ed Haldeman has recently become CEO of Freddie Mac, one of three major government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) charged with supporting U.S. residential mortgage finance. The company was placed into conservatorship by the U.S. treasury on September 7, 2008.... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Financial Crisis; Mortgages; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry; United States

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November 2008 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Differences at Work: Sameer (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Rachel Gordon

Sameer, an Indian Muslim, is a summer intern in a small firm. Prompted by a conflict in the Middle East, members of the organization make a number of anti-Muslim jokes. Sameer wonders whether he should surface discomfort; he otherwise enjoys the firm, and is hoping to... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Ethnicity; Behavior; Religion; Organizational Culture; Middle East; India

01 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Judgment Calls

Editor's note. Organizations are living, growing, learning things, but this depth of experience and knowledge can be difficult to tap into. The secret, according to the authors of Judgment Calls: Twelve Stories of Big Decisions and the... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas H. Davenport & Brook Manville; Consumer Products

May 2000 (Revised December 2018)
Case

SMA: Micro-Electronic Products Division (A)

By: Michael Beer and Michael Tushman

The Micro-Electronic Products Division of SMA has financial and organizational problems. Conflict and lack of coordination exist between functional groups. Employees do not have a sense of direction and morale is low. The cause of these problems is found in a change in... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Conflict and Resolution; Business Strategy