Ambiguity - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Curiosity, Not Coding: 6 Skills Leaders Need in the Digital Age

important leadership quality in these times. Roundtable discussions with about 200 executives echoed those findings. Our survey respondents also ranked creativity, curiosity, and comfort with ambiguity as highly desirable traits. "It’s... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards; Technology

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

confidence to act decisively in the face of considerable ambiguity by seeking the advice of one or more "expert counselors," i.e. highly experienced executives who can serve as a confidante and a sounding board for various... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

24 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Passion at Work Is a Good Thing—But Only If Bosses Know How to Manage It

instance, if they are seeking to hire ‘passionate’ employees, to what end? To attract employees who are willing to work hard, commit to long hours, and endure a challenging, ambiguous work environment? If so, perhaps emphasizing passion... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2009
Working Paper

Assess, Don't Assume, Part II: Negotiating Implications of Cross-Border Differences in Decision Making, Governance, and Political Economy

By: James K. Sebenius

When facing a cross-border negotiation, the standard preparatory assessments—of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc.—should be... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Corporate Governance; Negotiation Process; Organizational Culture; Business and Government Relations

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2009
Working Paper

Assess, Don't Assume, Part I: Etiquette and National Culture in Negotiation

By: James K. Sebenius

When facing a cross-border negotiation, the standard preparatory assessments -- of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc. -- should be... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Negotiation Process; Societal Protocols; Competitive Advantage; Cooperation

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01 May 2013
What Do You Think?

Why Isn’t ‘Servant Leadership’ More Prevalent?

interesting take on this notion: " there is a great deal of ambiguity in defining what strong leadership means interestingly, the 'servant' concept is not considered 'weakness' when applied to a company's relationship with clients... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

execute a business vision and strategy. Comfort with Uncertainty. Measures skills and behaviors associated with being able to move a business agenda forward in the face of uncertain and ambiguous circumstances. Assembling and Motivating a... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

02 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

Salary Negotiations: A Catch-22 for Women

studies have found that situational ambiguity in a negotiation exacerbates the gender gap, and that decreasing that ambiguity helps to close it. “By allowing for negotiation, but putting some guardrails on... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

24 Oct 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Startup or Established Company? Which Is Best for You?

work they may have done at their companies to demonstrate they can handle ambiguity and take risks. I am also a huge (and very biased) fan of people who’ve joined companies early and scaled with them. They have learned a TON from those... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

01 Sep 2021
Op-Ed

How Women Can Learn from Even Biased Feedback

often when feedback recipients are female versus male, my research-in-progress shows, the third step is particularly challenging for women as they often receive more ambiguous feedback than men do. "Women tend to become more willing to... View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

05 Jul 2012
What Do You Think?

Why Is Trust So Hard to Achieve in Management?

effectiveness and of achievement at all costs" (Liam); (3) "excessive turnover and continuous change" (Marlis Krichewsky); (4) leaders who "use ambiguity and weasel words in their promises" (Jim Conlow); (5)... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

to thrive in ambiguous situations will be critical in a cofounding relationship. If you question whether you are up for sharing these experiences with one or more cofounders, you may need to do some introspective work before taking on a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

actual problem.” Thus, diagnosis of the situation is a prerequisite to crafting a response. They argue that volatility should be met with agility; uncertainty with information; complexity with restructuring (with internal operations reconfigured to address external... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

to scale simply because they did not have big-company DNA or because the company did not ensure they were in roles in which they could continue to thrive. Think about who on your team has real startup DNA–do they thrive with ambiguity and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?

will do. "While there has never been perfect alignment," he says, "this process enables us to rapidly identify and address the inconsistencies." 3. Assign Decision Rights Unequivocally Ambiguity about who has decision... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

30 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

big problem. “I think most of us have a self-image that we’re pretty ethical people, yet most of us have done bad things in the context of a negotiation,” Bazerman says. “People may avoid telling a direct lie, but they’re willing to say things that are View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

chain of changes that need to occur to achieve long-term results. We often talk about how a nonprofit organization should have a theory of change, yet many donors don't have one of their own." Internal Benchmarks Possible Despite the View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

14 Feb 2017
Research & Ideas

A Strategy For Steady Leadership in an Unsteady World

presaged a world that is “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous” —VUCA, for short. VUCA describes perfectly what is happening in the global business world today. Business is not running as usual. Leaders must deal with growing uncertainty, complexity, and View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Most Accountants Aren’t Crooks—Why Good Audits Go Bad

different ways. As we saw in the study involving the collision, people tend to reach self-serving conclusions whenever ambiguity surrounds a piece of evidence. While it's true that many accounting decisions are cut-and-dried—establishing... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, George Loewenstein & Don A. Moore; Accounting; Financial Services

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

they find most interesting and fulfilling: Do I like collaborative work? Do I tend to become the leader of groups in which I find myself? Have I ever volunteered to coach or tutor others? Do I find it intriguing to work on thorny, View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

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