Publications

October 2009
Teaching Note

Medisys Corp.: The IntensCare Product Development Team (Brief Case)

By: Anne Donnellon and Joshua D. Margolis

Teaching Note for 094059 View Details

Keywords: Project Management; Conflict Management; Interdepartmental Relations; Organizational Change And Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management; Leadership; Organizational Structure; Projects; Conflict and Resolution; Product Development

2011
Working Paper

Top Executive Background and Financial Reporting Choice

By: Francois Brochet and Kyle Travis Welch

We study the role of executive functional background in explaining management discretion in financial reporting. Taking goodwill impairment as our reporting setting, we focus on top executives (CEOs and CFOs) whose employment history includes experience in investment... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Goodwill Accounting; Experience and Expertise; Decision Choices and Conditions; Managerial Roles; Agency Theory

November 2009
Teaching Note

RL Wolfe: Implementing Self-Directed Teams (Brief Case)

By: David A. Garvin and Elizabeth Collins

Teaching Note for 4063 View Details

Keywords: Work Force Management; Employee Empowerment; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Employee Relationship Management

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

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Business Plan; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Jobs and Positions; Leadership Style; Human Resources; Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Diversity

07 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

How Teams Work: Lessons from the Pandemic

interactions they needed to succeed. When managers understand the building blocks for team work, they can allocate time better and select the right communication tools, whether View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

10 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Top Scholars Say About Leadership

Q: The Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice grew out of a conference of top scholars held at Harvard Business School in 2008 as part of the School's Centennial celebration. How did you bring people together? A: Despite the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

2024
Working Paper

Corporate Culture Homogeneity and Top Executive Incentive Design: Evidence from CEO Compensation Contracts

By: Dennis Campbell, Ruidi Shang and Zhifang Zhang

We examine how corporate cultures characterized by high degrees of homogeneity in the underlying values and beliefs of organizational members are related to the design of CEO incentive compensation contracts. We argue that culture homogeneity within firms lowers... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Culture; Compensation Design; Accounting; Management Control; Incentive Systems; Organizational Culture; Job Design and Levels; Governance; Executive Compensation; Motivation and Incentives

Article

Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

In this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences... View Details

Keywords: Management; Groups and Teams; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Projects; Experience and Expertise; Change; Diversity; Information Technology Industry; India

Find at Harvard

2010
Working Paper

Performance Tradeoffs in Team Knowledge Sourcing

By: Bradley R. Staats, Melissa Valentine and Amy C. Edmondson

This research examines how teams organize knowledge sourcing (obtaining access to others' knowledge or expertise) and investigates the performance trade-offs involved in two approaches to knowledge sourcing in teams. One approach a team can take is to specialize, such... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Quality; Groups and Teams; Information Technology Industry; India

November 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Hala Madrid: Managing Real Madrid Club de Futbol, the Team of the Century

Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid, a leading European soccer team, is preparing for a press conference in which he will be asked about his plans for the coming season. Economic success and some sports mishaps during the prior season represent the scenario... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Strategic Planning; Value Creation; Risk Management; System; Budgets and Budgeting; Sports Industry; Spain

2009
Working Paper

Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

In this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes, by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences... View Details

Keywords: Familiarity; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Groups and Teams; Projects; Experience and Expertise; Diversity; India

June 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Becton Dickinson (B): Global Management

By: Michael Beer

The president of Becton Dickinson (BD) and his top management team struggle with issues of: 1) how to manage the top of the organization, focusing on leadership style, the committee structure, and the role of sector presidents, and 2) how to manage a multinational... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Multinational Firms and Management; Human Resources; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Corporate Strategy; Health Industry

June 2006
Teaching Note

Hala Madrid: Managing Real Madrid Club de Futbol, the Team of the Century (TN)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Keywords: Sports; Management; Sports Industry; Spain

27 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured

puzzling and frustrating when I had the sense that our team failed to make the most of everyone's input. As a project manager I had made sure we held a kickoff meeting in the beginning of each new assignment... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

18 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Pulpit Bullies: Why Dominating Leaders Kill Teams

functioning of the team. Together with Leigh Plunkett Tost of the University of Michigan and Richard P. Larrick of Duke University, Gino explores this question in When Power Makes Others Speechless: The Negative Impact of Leader Power on View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

Article

181 Top CEOs Have Realized Companies Need a Purpose Beyond Profit

By: Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim

On August 19, 2019, the Business Roundtable (BR) issued a memo entitled “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” The Business Roundtable, one of the most preeminent business lobbies in the United States, includes 192 CEOs of leading U.S. companies from Apple to... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Corporate Purpose; Stakeholder Management; CEO; Mission and Purpose; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Strategy

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April 2020
Case

Cockpit Dynamics in Air France 447 and United 232

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Joshua Raymond

This case compares leadership and team dynamics between the cockpit crews in two renowned passenger airline crashes, twenty years apart: Air France 447 in 2009 and United 232 in 1989. The key dimensions of difference across the cases include organization and task... View Details

Keywords: Teams; Team Launch; Crisis Management; Groups and Teams; Leadership; Communication; Air Transportation Industry

March 2024
Case

Funderbeam: Teaming Up or Going Alone?

By: Paul A. Gompers, Elena Corsi and Orna Dan

Funderbeam, a global platform founded in Estonia to enable start-ups to run private syndications and secondaries while offering liquidity for private equity investors, was at a crossroads. Over its ten-year run, the company had expanded its services and areas of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Business Exit or Shutdown; Transition; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Law; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financing and Loans; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Ownership Stake; Expansion; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; Estonia; Republic of Ireland; United Kingdom; Singapore