Publications

August 2008 (Revised October 2011)
Case

The Redgrove Axial Workshop

By: Michel Anteby and Mikell Hyman

Marc Fontaine, a new manager at a global manufacturing concern, is on a fast-track to a senior managerial position. One morning, in a storage room, he discovers some ornamental artifacts made with the same materials used for official production. He suspects workers... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Managerial Roles; Production; Groups and Teams; Behavior

01 Dec 2006
News

Orientation Teamwork

interactions among people from different backgrounds and different sections.” Teams play an important role in the educational experience by encouraging more in-depth case analysis and preparation, providing... View Details

Keywords: orientation; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

December 1995 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Maureen Frye at Quaker Steel and Alloy Corporation

By: John J. Gabarro

Maureen Frye, assistant product manager at Quaker Steel and Alloy Corp., is asked to implement an action plan for changing the call pattern of the salesforce. Currently the salesforce is spending too much time on small accounts. Earlier Frye attempted to change their... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Planning; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Steel Industry

July 1997 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Chattanooga Ice Cream Division,The

By: Carl S. Sloane

Senior functional officers (marketing, manufacturing, research & development, control, and human resources) clash over alternative ideas for turning around a business in decline. The general manager is faced not only with choosing between competing ideas, but also... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Management Teams; Groups and Teams; Managerial Roles; Conflict Management; Decisions; Performance

01 Jun 2025
News

Making Difficult Decisions: The General Manager’s Job

One of the most essential roles of the general manager is to be the person who can move an organization forward through the most tangled of circumstances, says Professor Amy Edmondson, “where there is uncertainty, different points of view, and high stakes, whether... View Details

Keywords: Jen Mcfarland Flint; Illustration by Peter Arkle; Educational Support Services; Educational Services

July 1996
Background Note

The GM's Organizational Challenge: Embedding and Leveraging Capability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Describes how general managers can build organizational capability in their firms. View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy

Find at Harvard

December 2008 (Revised February 2015)
Case

A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star

By: Andrew Wasynczuk and Nicole Shae Bennett

General Manager Luke Kolville, of the Los Angeles Spartans, struggles with the best approach to negotiate a long-term contract for his star quarterback. The agent for Washington is relatively new to the industry and has his sights set particularly high. Kolville needs... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Human Capital; Contracts; Managerial Roles; Negotiation; Groups and Teams; Sports Industry; Los Angeles

November 2010
Case

Children's Hospital Boston (A)

By: Scott A. Snook and Jeffrey C. Connor

Five year old Matty died at Children's Hospital Boston as a result of elective neurosurgery to "cure" his epilepsy. The organizational system, not the surgery, had failed. During post-operative recovery, he experienced a prolonged seizure that resulted in his death.... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Organizational Structure; Management Systems; Management Teams; Health Industry

10 Mar 2015
News

Women in Tech: Breaking the Digital Ceiling

with a successful entrepreneurial track record and a Boston address. “I am a tech CEO.” With so few women in leadership roles in the information technology sector and a dramatic gender imbalance throughout the field, Kraus’s title is more... View Details

Keywords: April White

18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’

As Harvard Business School Professor Linda A. Hill began to dig into the scholarship around leadership and innovation, she soon realized there was a lot of research on both. What she didn't find, however, was work linking the two. Specifically, what is the View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

01 Dec 2011
News

Reimagining the MBA

roles and responsibilities of business, and the limitations of models and markets. And they need leadership skills informed by self-awareness and self-reflection. “To remain relevant,” continues Garvin, the C. Roland Christensen Professor... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; FIELD program; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Article

From Counting Risk to Making Risk Count: Boundary-Work in Risk Management

By: Anette Mikes

For two decades, risk management has been gaining ground in banking. In light of the recent financial crisis, several commentators concluded that the continuing expansion of risk measurement is dysfunctional (Power, 2009; Taleb, 2007). This paper asks whether the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Banks and Banking; Financial Crisis; Expansion; Organizational Culture; Management Teams; Managerial Roles