Organizational Form - Publications - Faculty & Research

August 2014 (Revised August 2015)
Supplement

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (B)

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

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2012
Article

Organizing for Society: A Typology of Social Entrepreneuring Models

By: Johanna Mair, Julie Battilana and Julian Cardenas

In this article, we use content and cluster analysis on a global sample of 200 social entrepreneurial organizations to develop a typology of social entrepreneuring models. This typology is based on four possible forms of capital that can be leveraged: social, economic,... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Organizational Structure

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23 Jun 2023
HBS Case

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

back to our organizations?’ And as companies face employee reductions in this economic climate, perhaps they should consider doing so in a way that removes layers of organizational structure as well.” How Buurtzorg works Jos de Blok, one... View Details

Keywords: by Annelena Lobb; Health

2012
Book

Talk, Inc. : How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

How can leaders make their big or growing companies feel small again? How can they recapture the "magic"--the tight strategic alignment, the high level of employee engagement--that drove and animated their organization when it was a start-up? As more and more... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture; Social and Collaborative Networks; Spoken Communication

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June 1985 (Revised April 1989)
Case

Benetton (B)

By: James L. Heskett

The managing director of Benetton is faced with several issues concerning the adequacy of the company's organization to capitalize on the early success it has achieved in an important foreign market, the United States. Specifically, the case raises questions about... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Transition; Growth and Development Strategy; Success; Business Headquarters; Business Subsidiaries; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; United States; Italy

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26 Sep 2023
Book

Digital Strategy: A Handbook for Managing a Moving Target

and integrating it into other products that form an integral part of ecosystems or when it is delivered through platform marketplaces (Cusumano et al., 2019a), the product’s relevant market and the logic of competition themselves change... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Information Technology; Technology

April 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

OneTen: One Million Opportunities in Ten Years

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

In the wake of George Floyd's killing in May 2020, and widespread protests for social justice in the United States, OneTen was formed by a coalition of 40 large companies to provide one million jobs for African-Americans in 10 years. The case describes the background... View Details

Keywords: Labor Market; COVID-19 Pandemic; Diversity; Race; Jobs and Positions; Opportunities; Social Issues; Employment; Equality and Inequality; Equity; United States

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September 2019
Case

Sonia Millar: Negotiating for the C-Suite

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anne Donnellon

This case addresses the nuances of gender dynamics and career progression at the top of the organization, where even women who have strong leadership expertise, experience, and alliances with powerful male colleagues still get stuck. Told from the point of view of... View Details

Keywords: Executives; CEO; Promotion; Gender Bias; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Diversity; Power and Influence

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10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

John Kotter’s Plan to Accelerate Your Business

organizational design that has not one, but two "operating systems." One system conducts the everyday business of business, while the second system, more like an agile network, sits alongside to focus on the opportunities and demands of... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

2013
Working Paper

How the Zebra Got Its Stripes: Imprinting of Individuals and Hybrid Social Ventures

By: Matthew Lee and Julie Battilana

Hybrid organizations that combine multiple, existing organizational forms are frequently proposed as a source of organizational innovation, yet little is known about the origins of such organizations. We propose that individual founders of hybrid organizations acquire... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Organizations; Imprinting; Institutional Theory; Social Entrepreneurship; Organizations

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Reinvention and "Technology Reemergence"

By: Ryan L. Raffaelli

The prevailing view of industry and technology evolution has emphasized displacement, on the assumption that old technologies and organizational forms will disappear when newer ones arrive. Professor Raffaelli's research challenges this view by illuminating how and... View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Innovation And Management; Technology Evolution; Change Management; Disruption; Transformation; Transition

June 2010
Article

Star Power: Colleague Quality and Turnover

By: Boris Groysberg and Linda Eling-Lee

In this article, we argue that the existence of greater organizational resources, in the form of higher quality colleagues, acts as a retention mechanism. We test our hypotheses using a panel data set of securities analysts in 24 securities firms over a 9-year period.... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Human Resources

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How can leaders make their big or growing companies feel small again? How can they recapture the “magic”—the tight strategic alignment, the high level of employee engagement—that drove and animated their organization when it was a start-up? As more and more executives... View Details

2007
Article

Three Perspectives on Team Learning: Outcome Improvement, Task Mastery, and Group Process

By: Amy C. Edmondson, James R. Dillon and Kate Roloff

The emergence of a research literature on team learning has been driven by at least two factors. First, longstanding interest in what makes organizational work teams effective leads naturally to questions about how members of newly formed teams learn to work together... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Practice; Groups and Teams; Research; Adaptation; Cooperation

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This text offers a unique real-world perspective on laws related to business organization. Logical and flexible chapters can be taught in any order to accommodate alternative teaching approaches. Chapters One through Four cover the fundamentals of organizational law in... View Details

How Organizations Respond to Institutional Constraint

Corporate political activity is an increasingly important source of institutional change in the 21st century which has seen a decline of collective political action among the business elite and a rise in political action by individual firms. Rather... View Details

19 Feb 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Evolution of Science-Based Business: Innovating How We Innovate

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano

04 Sep 2013
What Do You Think?

How Relevant is Long-Range Strategic Planning?

another, it will be necessary to recentralize control over the resource allocation process, moving it out of strategic business units (SBUs). It raises questions about the relevancy of SBUs as opposed to transient teams as a form of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Research Summary

The Unexpected Effects of Workplace Connectivity

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

While investigating how workplace transparency and privacy shape organizational behavior and performance, I wondered about the related effects of workplace connectivity. As new digital tools and organizational forms make it far easier for employees to communicate... View Details

Keywords: Human Behavior; Performance; Virtual Work; Hybrid Work; Office Space; Workplace Design; Organizations; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Networks; Behavior; Social and Collaborative Networks; Communication

September 2011 (Revised October 2012)
Case

Sykué Bioenergya

By: Shon R. Hiatt

Sykué Bioenergya (Sykué) was formed in April 2006 with the goal of building four 30 megawatt (MW) bioelectricity power plants in Brazil's Bahia province, 1,500 kilometers north of Sao Paulo. Bahia's savannah-like conditions were perfect for growing elephant grass, a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Energy Industry; Brazil

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