Publications

April 2019
Article

Rituals and Nuptials: The Emotional and Relational Consequences of Relationship Rituals

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Ovul Sezer and Michael I. Norton

Four studies reveal the benefits of relationship rituals: couples with relationship rituals report more positive emotions and greater relationship satisfaction and commitment than those without them. We show that rituals are crucial for understanding consumption... View Details

Keywords: Rituals; Relationship Satisfaction; Relationships; Satisfaction; Spending; Behavior; Perception; Emotions

18 Dec 2019
Book

6 Skills That Wise Companies Harness for World-Changing Innovation

Unit. From practical wisdom to action The book expands on the authors’ original theory that companies build organizational knowledge by turning tacit knowledge, which people learn through personal... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

2010
Working Paper

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that the organizational patterns of a development project (e.g. communication links, geographic collocation, team and firm co-membership) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. Scholars... View Details

Keywords: Infrastructure; Product Design; Organizational Design; Practice; Groups and Teams; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology

2020
Working Paper

Novel Risks

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard and Anette Mikes

All organizations practice some form of risk management to identify and assess routine risks in their operations, supply chains, strategy, and external environment. These risk management policies, however, fail in the presence of novelty. Novel risks arise from... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Policy; Failure; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Article

What Do Private Equity Firms Say They Do?

By: Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan and Vladimir Mukharlyamov

We survey 79 private equity investors with combined assets under management (AUM) of over $750 billion about their practices in firm valuation, capital structure, governance, and value creation. Investors rely primarily on internal rate of return (IRR) and multiples to... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Valuation; Capital Structure; Value Creation

February 2015
Case

BlackRock: Diversity as a Driver for Success

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

In July 2014, the Global Executive Committee (GEC) for BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, held a two-day offsite to discuss the state of talent within the firm. A year prior, in 2013, Chairman and CEO Laurence (Larry) Fink had asked Global Head of HR Jeff... View Details

Keywords: Women And Leadership; Diversity; General Management; Leadership; Change Management; Human Capital; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; United States

Although much has been written about the rise and fall of Enron, the focus of most of this work has been more on “What Happened?” rather than on “Why it happened?” This research reports on four important questions relating to the social pathology of Enron’s... View Details

2021
Article

Reflections: Voice and Silence in Workplace Conversations

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Tijs Besieux

We highlight conversations at work as an arena of change. Drawing on and extending the psychological safety literature, we offer a new framework to distinguish between productive and unproductive forms of both voice and silence. The framework’s four... View Details

Keywords: Conversation; Silence; Voice; Psychological Safety; Interpersonal Communication; Quality; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Article

The Decreasing Value of Our Research to Management Education

By: Jone L. Pearce and Laura Huang

For centuries we have expected the best teachers also to be scholars. The practice of scholarship should do more than make scholars more humble teachers; scholarship is expected to be more than an activity done for its own sake. Here we present evidence that our... View Details

June 2013
Case

Ron Ventura at Mitchell Memorial Hospital

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Heide Abelli

Mitchell Memorial Hospital is a 750-bed regional academic medical center in Ohio. Andy Prescott, Chief of the Cardiovascular Center, is reviewing the performance evaluations of his star vascular surgeon Ron Ventura. The evaluations, the result of a 360-degree... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Conflict Management; Behavior; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Resignation and Termination; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Evaluation; Health Industry; Ohio

September 2013
Article

Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers

By: Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely and Deborah Kolb

Even when CEOs make gender diversity a priority—by setting aspirational goals for the proportion of women in leadership roles, insisting on diverse slates of candidates for senior positions, and developing mentoring and training programs—they are often frustrated by a... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Leadership Development; Working Conditions; Organizational Culture; Gender; Diversity

2010
Working Paper

A New Paradigm of Individual, Group and Organizational Performance

By: Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen and The Barbados Group

"The committee is therefore unable to draw conclusions, based on scientific evidence, on what does or does not work to enhance organizational performance" —Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance of the U.S. National Research Council Commission... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Performance Improvement; Research; Opportunities

SSRN

06 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Strategic Intelligence: Adapt or Die

Sometimes when John R. Wells, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, meets a senior manager from a successful company, he likes to ask the provocative question, "Is your company already dead?" In his more... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Sep 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Overlooked Forces Shielding the US from Severe Economic Downturns?

trade war continues (TonyO), leadership or lack thereof (Harry White), actions by the current US administration to encourage firms to bring jobs home and promulgate “America first” policies (Todd Z.), reduced dependency on foreign oil,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

10 Feb 2021
Blog Post

What You Can Do to Create an Anti-Racist Organization

dedicated to social justice, has dedicated her career to this work. She recently joined us at HBS to share her expertise, insights, and recommendations for action steps that will create anti-racist organizations. MEET DANIKA MANSO-BROWN... View Details

03 Jun 2020
Blog Post

How to Thrive as a Remote Manager and Employee

In the wake of COVID-19, companies around the world are quickly changing how they get work done, which includes a shift to primarily remote work. As you navigate a remote work environment, keep the following best practices in mind to set... View Details

May–June 2015
Other Article

HRM at a Crossroads: Comments on 'Evolution of Strategic HRM Through Two Founding Books: A 30th Anniversary Perspective on Development of the Field'

By: Michael Beer

I agree with Bruce Kaufman's evaluation of the HRM field and the danger to its relevance if change does not take place in the field's almost exclusive use of normal science, lack of focus on organizational change and development and indifference to the development of... View Details

Keywords: Management; Performance; Human Resources

February 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Case

CPP Investments—The Road to Zero

By: Vikram Gandhi and Radhika Kak

In February 2022, Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) Investments, the investment management organization that managed funds for the CPP, one of the biggest pension plans in the world, announced a net-zero commitment for its portfolio by 2050. Under its CEO, John Graham, it... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Asset Management; Investment Portfolio; Leading Change; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry; Canada; California

November 2009
Article

Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies

By: Erin Marie Reid and Michael W. Toffel

The challenges associated with climate change will require governments, citizens, and firms to work collaboratively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a task that requires information on companies' emissions levels, risks, and reduction opportunities. This paper... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Pollutants; Risk and Uncertainty; Business and Shareholder Relations; Management Practices and Processes; Social Issues; Corporate Disclosure; Values and Beliefs; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics