Publications

Keywords: Decision Making

January 1991 (Revised January 1992)
Supplement

IBM-Fujitsu Settlement

Describes the decision by the arbitrators chosen to resolve the intellectual property dispute between IBM and Fujitsu. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Intellectual Property; Business or Company Management; Conflict Management

October 1993 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Jack Welch: General Electric's Revolutionary

By: Joseph L. Bower and Jay Dial

Describes the work of Jack Welch as CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 1992, focusing particularly on his transformation of the company's portfolio through extensive dispositions and acquisitions and the company's culture through a mandated process called "work out."... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Transformation; Investment Portfolio; Leadership Style; Management; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career

Web

General Management Curriculum - Faculty & Research

Management and Entrepreneurship (also listed under Entrepreneurial Management) John Batter Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0 John Batter Spring 2026 Q3Q4 3.0 Leadership and Happiness Arthur Brooks Spring 2025 Q3 1.5 The Moral Leader Joseph View Details

Web

General Management - Faculty & Research

Re: Joseph Fuller More Faculty News HBS Working Knowledge 05 Nov 2024 Building the Road to 'Small Business Utopia' with AI and Fintech Re: Karen Mills 01 Nov 2024 Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times... View Details

Web

Faculty & Research - Entrepreneurship

Using financial account data linking small businesses to their owner households, we examine how business owners’ consumption responded to changes in business revenues during the COVID-19 crisis. In the first two months following the National Emergency, business... View Details

June 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Morality and Consequences

Consists mainly of excerpts from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. Mill explains what utilitarianism is and gives his rationale for accepting it as a moral philosophy. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Outcome or Result; Value

January 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Background Note

Personal Values and Professional Responsibilities

Describes some of the classic conflicts managers face in trying to live and work by their personal values and uses Hirschman's "exit, loyalty, and voice" framework to suggest ways for resolving these conflicts. View Details

Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Personal Development and Career; Conflict of Interests; Conflict and Resolution

2016
Book

Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

Part of a manager's job is making tough calls, and the hardest challenge can be resolving "gray area” problems—situations in which analysis of the numbers, facts, and data fails to provide a clear answer. Gray areas test not only managers’ skills but also their... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Decision Choices and Conditions

Web

HBS - The year in Review

Class Day speaker Robert L. Ryan (MBA 1970). Reunions and commencements were also held for those in the Classes of 2020 and 2021, whose celebrations were virtual during the pandemic. Saturday saw receptions and reunion activities,... View Details

Web

Faculty & Researchers - Managing the Future of Work

Manjari supports co-chairs William R. Kerr and Joseph B. Fuller on all project priorities. Her research efforts focus on location choices by global companies, the role of business in making cities and... View Details

Web

Health Care - Faculty & Research

Health Care Health Care February 2015 Supplement The Affordable Care Act (A): Legislative Strategy in the House of Representatives By: Joseph L. Bower and Michael Norris In early 2009, the Obama... View Details

2003
Chapter

Right versus Right: Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas in Business

Keywords: Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions

Web

Leadership - Faculty & Research

Tushman Anthony Mayo Joshua D. Margolis Joseph L. Bower Lynda M. Applegate Nancy F. Koehn See All HBS Working Knowlege 08 Nov 2024 What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders Re: Robert Simons 17 Sep... View Details

Web

Business & Environment - Faculty & Research

10, no. 4 (April 2025): 470–478. More Publications Faculty George Serafeim Michael W. Toffel Forest L. Reinhardt Richard H.K. Vietor Joseph B. Lassiter Robert S. Kaplan Geoffrey G. Jones James K. Sebenius... View Details

August 1988 (Revised April 1998)
Case

IBM 360: Giant as Entrepreneur

By: Joseph L. Bower

Presents the ingredients that went into a major entrepreneurial shift by IBM--investing $5 billion into a new product line that would obsolete any existing computer product line offered by the competition, or by IBM itself. The economic and technical challenges of this... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financial Management; Investment; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology Industry

May 1990 (Revised April 1991)
Background Note

Dirty Hands

A one-paragraph excerpt from a play by Jean-Paul Sartre. Describes in the words of one character, the ethical problem of "dirty hands": the problem that doing the morally superior thing in some circumstances inevitably involves doing some things that are morally wrong.... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Management; Problems and Challenges; Personal Characteristics; Value

Web

Accounting & Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Gerardo Pérez-Cavazos and Caspar David Peter. Jonas Heese : Runner-up for the 2022 International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS) Annual Conference Best Paper Award for “Does Information Technology Reduce Corporate Misconduct?” with View Details

October 1993 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Conflict on a Trading Floor (A)

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

A junior salesperson on FirstAmerica Bank's trading floor is assisting a top salesperson, Linda, on a deal to finance the construction of a new cruise ship for Poseidon Cruise Lines. While the terms of the deal are being worked out, he realizes Linda has taken... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage