Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(322)
- Faculty Publications (102)
- 2007
- Working Paper
Interpersonal Authority in a Theory of the Firm
This paper develops a theory of the firm in which a firm's centralized asset ownership and low-powered incentives give a manager 'interpersonal authority' over employees (in a world with differing priors). The paper derives such interpersonal authority as... View Details
- September 2006
- Supplement
Brainard, Bennis & Farrell (B)
By: Joseph L. Bower
Brainard, Bennis and Farrel is a short case designed to explore the challenge of establishing appropriate compensation from a general management/CEO perspective. Brainard (B) is a one-page handout that is designed to show how an already difficult problem is made more... View Details
- July 2005 (Revised August 2008)
- Background Note
Attorney-Client Privilege
By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher Bruner
Provides a brief summary of the requirements of the attorney-client privilege--an important mechanism for protecting client confidences under U.S. law. Discusses the application of the privilege in a corporate context. View Details
- 2005
- Article
Group Learning: A Multi-Level Model Integrating Interpersonal Congruence, Transactive Memory and Feedback Processes
By: Manuel London, Jeffrey T. Polzer and Heather Omoregie
- October 2003
- Case
Henry Tam and the MGI Team
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Ingrid Vargas and Hillary Anger Elfenbein
Within a short time frame, seven diverse team members assemble to write a business plan for a new company and struggle to define their roles, make decisions together, and resolve conflict. Henry Tam, a second-year Harvard MBA student, who joins an aspiring start-up... View Details
- February 2003
- Background Note
Leading Teams
This note which describes the architecture and processes that characterize effective teams, begins by detailing the steps involved in designing a team, from diagnosing the complexity, interdependence, and objectives of the task to harnessing the key resources teams... View Details
- February 2003
- Background Note
Identity Issues in Teams
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Hillary Anger Elfenbein
This note explains how identity dynamics underlie many of the observable interpersonal problems that team members encounter, ranging from lack of participation and low involvement to misunderstandings and dysfunctional emotional conflict. It provides a framework for... View Details
- July 2002 (Revised November 2002)
- Case
Crucial Conversations
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayraghavan
Todd McKenna, a third-year associate at an investment banking firm, confronts his boss. His boss had told him he would be the top paid associate at the firm, and McKenna finds out that this isn't true. He approaches his boss to find out why he was lied to. View Details
- June 2002
- Article
Capitalizing on Diversity: Interpersonal Congruence in Small Work Groups
By: J. Polzer, L. P. Milton and W. B. Swann Jr.
- January 2002 (Revised June 2003)
- Case
Abelli and Saviotti at Banca Commerciale Italiana (A)
By: Tiziana E. Casciaro, Kathleen L. McGinn and Massimiliano Belingheri
In 1999, a powerful struggle amidst complex corporate and interpersonal networks led to the failed merger between Banca Commerciale Italiana and Unicredito Italiano--two of Italy's largest banking groups. This case analyzes the actions of Abelli and Saviotti, co-CEOs... View Details
- 2000
- Chapter
Learning New Technical and Interpersonal Routines in Operating Room Teams: The Case of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Richard Bohmer and Gary Pisano
- December 2000 (Revised May 2002)
- Case
Reverend Jeffrey Brown: Cops, Kids and Ministers
By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Alexis Lefort
Introduces Reverend Jeffrey Brown, one of the cofounders of the Ten Point Coalition in Boston, Mass. The Ten Point Coalition, a group of ministers that worked to change the dynamics between the Boston Police Department and the kids on the street, was instrumental in... View Details
- December 1999
- Article
Changes in the Work Environment for Creativity during Downsizing
By: T. M. Amabile and Regina Conti
This study examined the work environment for creativity at a large high-technology firm before, during, and after a major downsizing. Creativity and most creativity-supporting aspects of the perceived work environment declined significantly during the downsizing but... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Culture; Situation or Environment; Creativity; Resignation and Termination; Employees; Business or Company Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Crisis Management; Groups and Teams; Communication; Announcements; Interpersonal Communication
- August 1999
- Case
Leaving
By: David A. Thomas
A company supervisor listens to an employee, an African American woman, announce she is leaving the company and tries to understand the situation. View Details
- July 1995
- Exercise
Workshop on Understanding and Communicating About Our Group Identities and Our Differences
By: Mary C. Gentile and James I. Cash Jr.
- February 1994 (Revised May 1994)
- Background Note
Exercising Influence
By: Linda A. Hill
Provides a framework for understanding the exercise of interpersonal influence in organizations. Describes some of the "myths and realities" of management that new managers discover--specifically, that managers are dependent on a complex network of relationships to get... View Details
Keywords: Power and Influence
- February 1992 (Revised March 1995)
- Case
Amelia Rogers at Tassani Communications (A)
By: Linda A. Hill
Describes a conflict that has arisen between an account manager and a creative director at Tassani Communications, a Chicago-based advertising agency which is making the transition from entrepreneurial to professional management. The client, the marketing director of a... View Details
- January 1992 (Revised August 1992)
- Case
Lexon Corp. (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine
A general manager at Lexon Computer Corp. must decide whether interception and surveillance of employees' e-mail is acceptable company practice, and whether to follow the advice of his computer operations manager who wants to fire the person who complained that the... View Details
- January 1992 (Revised August 1992)
- Case
Lexon Corp. (B)
By: Lynn S. Paine
Lexon Corp. lawyers must decide how to respond to two lawsuits challenging the company's interception of electronic mail on privacy grounds. They must also formulate a company policy on e-mail. One suit was filed by an employee dismissed from her job after asking that... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
It Takes Two to Untangle: Illuminating How and Why Some Workplace Relationships Adapt While Others Deteriorate After a Workplace Microaggression
By: Summer R. Jackson and Basima A. Tewfik
Although scholars largely assume that workplace microaggressions negatively impact the work relationship between the target and the perpetrator, relational deterioration is not the only observable relational outcome. Indeed, there are instances of relational... View Details