Publications

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August 2006 (Revised May 2007)
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne Levesque

One of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a complete integrated... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Leadership; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Operations; Performance Effectiveness; Strategic Planning; Perspective; Retail Industry

2022
Book

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World

By: George Serafeim

The roadmap and best practices to reap the enormous value that can emerge when your business prioritizes social and environmental goals—such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability—right alongside the pursuit of profit.

We not only... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Profitability; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Value Creation; Organizational Change and Adaptation

11 Jun 2020
In Practice

Are Digital Organizations Better at Overcoming COVID?

advantage. With that in mind, we asked faculty associated with Harvard Business School’s Digital Initiative how technology is setting the most successful organizations apart during the coronavirus crisis.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

August 2021
Article

(Un)sustainability and Organization Studies: Towards a Radical Engagement

By: Seray Ergane, Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee and Andrew J. Hoffman

In this essay, we trace the evolution of the field of sustainability in management and organization studies and narrate its epistemological twists and turns. Concerned by the current trajectory that tends to diminish a focus on political concerns, we propose a new... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Perspective; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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December 2016
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 10: Using the Job Design Optimization Tool to Build Effective Organizations

By: Robert Simons

This module reading provides directions for using the online Job Design Optimization Tool (JDOT) which is available free of charge from Harvard Business School Publishing at https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/resources/marketing/multimedia/JDOT/index.html. This tool can... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Span Of Control; Span Of Accountability; Performance Measurement; Job Design; Organization Design; Strategy; Entrepreneurship

September 2013
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin

Abridged version of one of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Job Design and Levels; Business Processes; Consumer Products Industry; United States

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

Unless men embrace their role in eliminating gender bias and barriers, organizations and institutions will never leverage the value that women bring to the workplace. “Most positions of power are still held by men,” says Colleen Ammerman,... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

05 Oct 2010
Working Paper Summaries

A Positive Approach to Studying Diversity in Organizations

Keywords: by Lakshmi Ramarajan & David Thomas

December 1989
Background Note

Note on How Organizations Can be Structured

By: D. Q. Mills

Describes four basic organizational forms--hierarchy, division, matrix, and cluster. Diagrams of each are included. Their strengths and weaknesses under different business environment conditions are detailed. There is a table comparing the forms on several key... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure

August 2021
Case

Livongo: Scaling a Purpose-Driven Organization in Healthcare

By: Ranjay Gulati, Aseem Shukla and Reva Nohria

When seasoned entrepreneur Glen Tullman founded the chronic health care startup Livongo in 2014, it was personal. His son lived with diabetes, and Tullman knew firsthand how taxing it could be to manage such an unrelenting disease. Livongo set out to empower people... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare Industry; Scaling; Telehealth; Health Care and Treatment; Small Business; Internet and the Web; Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Opportunities; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Industry

2008
Working Paper

Communication (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization

By: Adam M. Kleinbaum, Toby E. Stuart and Michael L. Tushman

This is a descriptive study of the structure of communications in a modern organization. We analyze a dataset with millions of electronic mail messages, calendar meetings and teleconferences for many thousands of employees of a single, multidivisional firm during a... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Structure; Social Issues; Boundaries

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04 Jan 2021
What Do You Think?

How Do We Sustain Organization Diversity?

wavebreakmedia Last month, the venerable organization Coca-Cola publicly announced that a project to hire more Black employees that stemmed from the settlement of a 2000 discrimination lawsuit had failed to achieve its objectives. Along... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

19 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

How Charitable Organizations Can Thwart Excuses for Not Giving

(Photo source: Catherine Lane) Giving to charity is the ultimate act of selflessness. We offer our own hard-earned money to those in need, with no thought of return. The reality of altruism, however, is much more complicated, as Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

August 2014
Case

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

A Perfect Fit: Aligning Organization & Strategy

Monday morning. Eight managers, handpicked by their superiors, face one another in the middle of a room. Seated in a semicircle behind them is the company's top management team. As the members of the inner circle report what they have learned about their View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

Article

Corporate Headquarters in the Twenty-first Century: An Organization Design Perspective

By: Sven Kunisch, Markus Menz and David J. Collis

The corporate headquarters (CHQ) of the multi-business enterprise, which emerged as the dominant organizational form for the conduct of business in the twentieth century, has attracted considerable scholarly attention. As the business environment undergoes a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Business Headquarters

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2022
Chapter

Coordinating Marketing and Sales in B2B Organizations

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This chapter focuses on the topic of coordinating marketing and sales in Business-to-Business (B2B) organizations. It provides an historical overview, indicating that this is not a new issue facing firms, that the business press has outlined a recurring set of... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Practice; Research; Sales