Publications

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

loss of control and precision of information). Before the 1920s at least, most German industrial firms did not have an extensive middle management staff. Large German firms remained much more diversified and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

May 2017 (Revised June 2017)
Case

ATH Technologies (A): Making the Numbers

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) refocusing process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

April 1993 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Safeway Manufacturing Division: The Manufacturing Control System (MCS) (A)

Describes a decision that SMD management made to implement an MRP II system in its 38 plants. Raises the issues that needed to be addressed to enable the implementation, and is positioned so the students can develop a detailed implementation plan. View Details

Keywords: Technology; Production; Planning; Manufacturing Industry

2017
Working Paper

Empowering Bureaucracy: Achieving Non-Hierarchical Control and Employee Autonomy Through Dynamic Formal Roles

By: Michael Lee

Hierarchy and formal structure are conventionally viewed as two tightly coupled dimensions of organization design. As organizations move from more hierarchical to less hierarchical authority structures, they also tend to reduce formal structure. However, organic... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Autonomy; Decentralization; Self-Managed Organizations; Formalization; Roles; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Management Systems

August 2023
Article

Impact of Social Needs Case Management on Use of Medical and Behavioral Health Services: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial

By: Mark D. Fleming, Crystal Guo, Margae Knox, Daniel M. Brown, Elizabeth A. Hernandez and Amanda L. Brewster

Social needs case management is an increasingly common strategy used by health care organizations to address integrated health and social needs. These programs connect patients to resources such as food assistance, housing, transportation, or income benefits, in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Programs; Human Needs; Welfare; Health Industry; California

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Research Summary

Overview

My research broadly examines design choices of management control systems, with a special focus on organizational culture as an informal control mechanism and how it interacts with other formal control system View Details

2017
Article

Making Transparency Transparent: The Evolution of Observation in Management Theory

By: Ethan Bernstein

Observation is key to management scholarship and practice. Yet a holistic view of its role in management has been elusive, in part due to shifting terminology. The current popularity of the term “transparency” provides the occasion for a thorough review, which finds... View Details

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December 2022
Article

Scarlet Letters: Rehabilitation Through Transgression Transparency and Personal Narrative Control

By: Erin L. Frey, Ethan Bernstein and Nick Rekenthaler

When employees commit transgressions, organizations often use tools of organizational control to prevent them from transgressing again. We investigate whether organizations can use transgression transparency to rehabilitate transgressors. Although making transgressions... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Workplace; Transgressions; Qualitative Research; Management Practices and Processes; Organizations; Employees; Reputation; Communication

September 1986 (Revised June 1989)
Background Note

Managing Rapid Growth

Describes the issues that entrepreneurs and their firms must deal with in attempting to make the transition from entrepreneurial to professional management. The note suggests that the delegation of responsibility and the implementation of formal controls are two key... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Governance Controls; Growth Management; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure

February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (A)

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details

Keywords: Aluminum; General Management; Cultural Change; Change Management; Crisis Management; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Safety; Leadership; Emerging Markets; Bahrain; Middle East

Winter 2011
Article

Developing Good Measures to Advance Management Accounting and Control Research: A Discussion of 'Corporate Frugality: Theory, Measurement and Practice'

By: Tatiana Sandino

February 2020
Case

Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Tonia Labruyere

The case discusses the strategy of DER SPIEGEL, the leading news magazine in Germany, in the aftermath of the discovery of a fake reporting scandal. It had come to light that one of DER SPIEGEL’s own reporters had falsified and made up entire articles for years,... View Details

Keywords: Scandal; Management Control Systems; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Communication Strategy; Journalism and News Industry; Germany

August 1994
Case

Higashimaru Shoyu Company, Ltd. (A): Price Control System

Illustrates how Japanese firms use profit pressures to increase efficiency. In particular, explores how pseudo profit centers create pressure on workers to increase revenues and reduce costs, and the use of semiautonomous teams in a traditional Japanese workforce. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Groups and Teams; Organizational Structure; Performance Efficiency; Management Systems; Japan

October 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

China Resources Corporation (A): 6S Management

By: Dennis Campbell and David Lane

In 2006, Jiang Wei, CFO of China Resources Corporation, was seeking to implement a variety of new management control systems in a complex diversified corporation during a period of rapid economic expansion in mainland China. Instilling efficiency, productivity,... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Conglomerates; Governance Controls; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; China

February 2020
Supplement

Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (B)

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details

Keywords: Aluminum Industry; General Management; Cultural Change; Change Management; Crisis Management; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Safety; Leadership; Emerging Markets; Bahrain; Middle East

August 2001 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Guinness PLC: Managing Negotiations

By: Michael A. Wheeler

Describes an initiative by Guinness, LLP to revise the process by which it centrally authorizes, supports, and reviews negotiations that are undertaken worldwide on its behalf. Senior managers wished to give regional officers enough discretion to respond to local... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Negotiation; Acquisition

July 2024
Module Note

Organization: Managing the Corporation

By: David J. Collis

Ongoing management of the corporate portfolio is critical to realizing value in diversified companies. This requires designing and administering structures, systems, and processes appropriate for the set of businesses and the resources that underpin value creation... View Details

Keywords: Organization; Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Business or Company Management; Diversification; Value Creation

March 2003
Background Note

Management and Creativity in Television Broadcasting

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Douglas A Raymond

Management and creativity are sometimes assumed to be unrelated or even conflicting concepts. In the best cases, management controls enable artistic success by gathering resources and providing discipline. However, if pushed too far, the same discipline can stifle... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Leadership Development; Management; Managerial Roles; Creativity