Publications

August 1983 (Revised December 1987)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Challenging the Entrepreneurial Culture

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2024
Working Paper

The Impact of Culture Consistency on Subunit Outcomes

By: Jasmijn Bol, Robert Grasser, Serena Loftus and Tatiana Sandino

We examine the association between subunit culture consistency—defined as the congruence between the organizational values espoused by top management and those perceived and practiced by subunit employees—and subunit outcomes. Using data from 235 subunits of a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Creativity; Satisfaction

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13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

they tend to remain silent, fearful that speaking up could put their careers at risk. “A CEO might be trying to execute this corporate strategy and everybody in the organization knows it’s off the rails, but no one wants to be the bearer... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

June 2015
Article

The Organization of Enterprise in Japan

By: Tom Nicholas

Recent research reveals that the joint stock corporation was not a superior form of business organization in many countries historically. In Japan, however, it played a more fundamental role. Between 1896 and 1939 joint stock enterprises accounted for 44 percent of... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Legal Form; Enterprise; Modernization; Business Organization; Entrepreneurship; Japan

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Program

Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation

practice to encourage behaviors that drive creative thinking and a new level of collaborative learning across your team and organization Create a culture that promotes both incremental and breakthrough... View Details

January 2019
Case

AIME High: A Social Entrepreneur's Moon Shot

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Indigenous Australian university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Mission; Organization Culture; Non-profit; NGO; Social Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Global Strategy; Mission and Purpose; Secondary Education; Organizational Culture; Education Industry; Service Industry; Australia; United States

January 1998 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Globalization and Corporate Culture (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Karen Wruck

Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Policy; Leadership; United States; Europe; Asia

December 1993
Case

Ford Motor Coompany: Changing the Dealer Culture

Confronted by increasing market emphasis on customer satisfaction coupled with the success of General Motors' Saturn Division with "no haggle" pricing, Ford Motor Co. examines the sales culture within its own dealers and considers how to implement policies that will... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Salesforce Management; Customer Satisfaction; Auto Industry; United States

01 Jun 2016
What Do You Think?

When Business Performance Falters, is Culture Change the Fix?

Original Article A recent article in Harvard Business Review, “Culture Is Not the Culprit,” by Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague noted that “When organizations get into big trouble, fixing the culture is usually... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

25 Apr 2014
News

Serving as a cultural ambassador

With 12 HBS colleagues, Fumi Tamaki (MBA 2014) served as organizer and guide for more than 80 MBA students on the annual trek to Japan. A US resident since she was six, Tamaki says, "I have an appreciation for Japan from both an insider's... View Details

20 Dec 2022
News

Studying the cultures of companies

January–February 2014
Article

Can a Strong Culture Be Too Strong?

By: David A. Garvin

The article presents a case study of a business enterprise with high employee turnover that is considering adopting a personnel management innovation, referred to as People Support, involving a group of managers whose role is to listen to and help resolve employees'... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Organizational Culture

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January 1998 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Sealed Air Corporation: Globalization and Corporate Culture (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Karen Wruck

Sealed Air Corp.'s CEO and COO are considering what approach they should take to building a seamless corporate culture worldwide. Anticipating continuing growth and expansion, especially outside the United States, they are concerned with preserving and promoting the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Policy; Leadership; United States; Europe; Asia

2000-2005 Selected

Chiu, C-y, Morris, M.W., Hong, Y-y, & Menon, T. (2000). Motivated cultural cognition: The impact of implicit cultural theories on dispositional attribution varies as a function of Need for Closure.... View Details

July 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Banking on Change: Aligning Culture and Compensation at Morgan Stanley

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This case study was prepared as part of a research project on Culture, Conduct, and Governance in Financial Firms. The objective of this project is to compare and contrast the efforts of U.S. and European banks to induce changes in organization culture in the aftermath... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Corporate Governance; Banks and Banking; United States; Europe

07 Jan 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Culture Changers: Managing High-Impact Entrepreneurs

worried about students going into these culture industries only thinking in terms of traditional management styles and industry structures, bottom lines, and financial incentives, without thinking about what 'creative content' and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Food & Beverage; Entertainment & Recreation; Information; Publishing

23 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: Global Environment-Transformed Organization

According to two panel sessions, successful organizations must continually transform themselves in today's dynamic world. Panelists said globalization has played or will play a key role in the transformations of their organizations,... View Details

November 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Apple Computer (B): Managing Morale and Corporate Culture

Explores how the human resource function at Apple Computer can best support the company's strategy. Analyzes the culture and morale at Apple. Apple has a very unique culture. Moreover, morale within the company is at a low. The culture is powerful in aiding the company... View Details

Keywords: Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Employees; Business Strategy; Computer Industry; United States