Hierarchies - Publications - Faculty & Research

2009
Working Paper

Assess, Don't Assume, Part I: Etiquette and National Culture in Negotiation

When facing a cross-border negotiation, the standard preparatory assessments -- of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc. -- should be... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Negotiation Process; Societal Protocols; Competitive Advantage; Cooperation

Citation

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12 May 2021
Book

The Hard Truth About Being a CEO

subordinates, just by virtue of the hierarchy of organizations,” says Fubini, who led McKinsey’s Boston office for 10 years and also co-founded a global unit within the firm that aided mergers of some of the world’s top companies. To help... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

a hierarchy that flows from the most enduring element, the corporate mission, through values, vision, strategy, and, ultimately, the implementation and monitoring of that strategy via tools such as balanced scorecards and key performance... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

01 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Dying to Lead: How Reaching the Top Can Kill You Sooner

employees. For individuals older than 30 in 1930, being in the upper levels of the hierarchy was associated with a 3.9-year shorter lifespan. For people over 40 years old in 1930, Nicholas estimates a 3.3-year “longevity penalty.”... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

20 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Five Discovery Skills that Distinguish Great Innovators

two-thirds of our innovation skills still come through learning—from first understanding the skill, then practicing it, and ultimately gaining confidence in our capacity to create. This is one reason that individuals who grow up in societies that promote community... View Details

Keywords: by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gergersen & Clayton M. Christensen

21 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

What's Missing from the Racial Equity Dialogue?

purchase a home than to rent one in 95 percent of America. This one racist policy has led to an affordable housing crisis that impacts most White home buyers today. “I often ask how racism harms those at the bottom of the imaginary View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

26 Apr 2022
Book

What Does Your Business Stand For? Why Building Trust Starts with Purpose

founders “had no hierarchy between themselves, committed to consensus-based decision-making and agreed that clear communication should be a core value of their start-up, going as far as to conduct regular 360-degree reviews of one... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

John Kotter’s Plan to Accelerate Your Business

very fast, agile. They attract people who play around with crazy ideas." The idea is to bring back that agile, experimental, silo-free network. Under his new system, everyone works within a traditional hierarchy, but that hierarchy... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

refreshes and opportunities to take part in new product work or the chance to work with an industry luminary. Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when it comes to your employees: They need the basics (a desk, computer, etc.), they need... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

14 Apr 2022
Op-Ed

Let’s Move Forward from COVID—Without Forgetting What We’ve Learned

inequities resulted in team members being unable to bring their whole selves to work, which meant that organizations were operating with sub-optimal contributions. Also, excessive hierarchy that sought to drive efficiencies actually... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

09 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Professional Networking Makes People Feel Dirty

researchers set up camp at a large North American law firm, where lawyers often garnered business via networking engagements. A law firm is an ideal setting for a field study, Gino explains, because it is designed around quantifiable measures of success: billable hours... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

21 Sep 2021
Office Hours

Readers Ask: How Can I Gain Power and Influence?

power is always relative. You may have great influence in one relationship and be completely dependent in another. Second, people confuse power with authority, but authority is no guarantee of power, and you do not need to be high in the View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

10 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

police, telling these kids what to do.” That observation led to another insight: Tutors, charged with pushing behavioral standards associated with a college-bound, middle-class, professional culture, were questioning their role in the View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

06 Feb 2013
What Do You Think?

Is ‘Conscious Capitalism’ an Antidote to Income Inequality?

foster income inequality That being said, the collective corporate hierarchy (needs to) make the long needed effort to voluntarily minimize the gross inequality that now exists." Desiree Halse, after quoting verses memorized as a child... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating in Three Dimensions

authority and hierarchy necessary but decreasingly sufficient, with looser organizational forms, with an increased pace of change, and with greater diversity and global reach, negotiation assumes greater importance. For effective... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense?

there’s always a binary right or wrong answer,” says De Freitas, who has been studying the interplay between moral judgment and attention to one’s surroundings for the past seven years. “It’s more like a hierarchy of preferences. For... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

becomes the smartest (and most strategic) thing you can do.” The inclusive managers we heard about in our survey made employees feel heard and respected. They solicited input from across the organizational hierarchy and focused on what... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Peeling Back the Global Brand

served no purpose at all beyond cosmetic appeal. Yet, silly as it seemed, the effect was real in terms of consumer preferences, he said. We talked about brand more and more as a hierarchy of persuasive elements.— Hans-Willi Schroiff... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

21 May 2018
HBS Case

How Would You Price One of the World's Great Watches?

follow a general roadmap. The product needs to fit into a company's price hierarchy and also the rough price hierarchy of competitors and the market in general. And in the watch's case, the fact that it was... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Fashion

30 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 30

provides insight into how the broader management of experience accumulation affects team performance. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-145.pdf Measuring and Understanding Hierarchy as an Architectural Element in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

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