Publications

October 2009 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Carolina for Kibera

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Cailin B. Hammer

A growing NGO based in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya, is facing a complete change in leadership as the founders step back. At the same time, a $1 million grant presents new opportunities and challenges. View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Negotiation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Non-Governmental Organizations; Power and Influence; Nairobi; North Carolina

March 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Strategic Review at Egon Zehnder International (A)

By: Ashish Nanda

The case describes the history of the executive search firm Egon Zehnder International (EZI) from its inception through 2000. Internal and environmental changes lead EZI leaders to question whether the firm might be at an inflection point in its history. The EZI... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Service Industry

Web

The “Hawthorne Effect” – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

Dickson published Counseling in an Organization , which revisited lessons gained from the experiments. Roethlisberger described “the Hawthorne effect” as the phenomenon in which subjects in behavioral studies change their performance in... View Details

03 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

organization long term, says Sucher, who collaborated with research associate Marilyn Morgan Westner on the case study and with both Westner and research associate Christopher Diak on the background note. Sucher outlines five strategies for companies that want to get... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Telecommunications; Technology; Financial Services; Manufacturing

September 2019
Article

The Effect of Enforcement Transparency: Evidence from SEC Comment-Letter Reviews

By: Miguel Duro, Jonas Heese and Gaizka Ormazabal

This paper studies the effect of the public disclosure of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) comment-letter reviews (CLs) on firms’ financial reporting. We exploit a major change in the SEC’s disclosure policy: in 2004, the SEC decided to make its CLs... View Details

Keywords: Disclosure; SEC Comment-Letter Reviews; Public Enforcement; Governance; Information Publishing; Policy; Financial Reporting; Capital Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation

SSRN

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Program

Designing and Executing Corporate Revitalization

transformation. If your company is at an inflection point, how do you proceed? Will your business be held back by old ways of thinking or is it willing to embrace new frontiers? Will your company be static and hesitant in the face of a View Details

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

we asked 600 global CEOs across a variety of industries what concerns were keeping them awake at night. Their topics ranged widely, but a handful of overarching mental tasks emerged: Comprehend complex, rapidly changing circumstances... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

July 2020
Case

Driving Transformation at the Majid Al Futtaim Group

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Esel Çekin

The case opens with Alain Bejjani, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, anticipating on the Group’s next phase in the multi-year transformation journey and reflecting on the initiatives he implemented to create the Group’s growth-oriented culture. Founded in 1995,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; United Arab Emirates; Middle East; Dubai

Research Summary

The Transition to Retirement

By: Teresa M. Amabile

My current major research program is the Retirement Transitions Study: a broad study of retiring professionals' everyday experiences, including identification with work; identity stability, change, and development; meaningfulness of work; changes in life structure,... View Details

Keywords: Careers; Psychology; Creativity; Identity; Retirement; Meaning

Program

Disruptive Innovation

success. This program is eligible for the Certificate of Management Excellence. Learn More Key Benefits Examining disruption and strategic decision-making through the lens of Christensen's transformative theory, you will gain a deeper understanding of the levers that... View Details

Alvin E. Roth

Al Roth is the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and in the Harvard Business School. His research, teaching, and consulting interests are in game theory, experimental economics, and... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce industry; education industry; health care; information; internet; legal services

February 2016
Article

Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate

By: Tsedal Neeley and Tracy Dumas

Theories of status rarely address unearned status gain—an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige, or worth, attained not through individual effort or achievement, but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory... View Details

Keywords: Status and Position; Equality and Inequality; Spoken Communication; Organizations; Japan; United States

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Program

Agribusiness Seminar

and manage risks arising from climate change and environmental pressures Assess strategies for entering and competing international markets Identify ways to build the resilience and flexibility needed to thrive in an evolving industry... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture; Agriculture

September 2021 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Harambe: Mobilizing Capital in Africa

By: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Francesco Tronci

Harambe was a non-profit organization whose mission was to build an ecosystem to identify promising young African entrepreneurs and provide them access to training, markets, capital, and support networks. From 2007 to 2021, Harambe had grown to a network of 367... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Business Model; Strategy; Organizational Structure; Business Startups; Capital; Venture Capital; Social and Collaborative Networks; Networks; Developing Countries and Economies; Emerging Markets; Africa; South Africa

December 2020
Supplement

Tokio Marine Group (B)

By: David J. Collis, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Updates the Tokio Marine (A) case by providing information on the organisation structure adopted by the Japanese insurance firm as it moved to integrate its global operations, along with changes in HR policies that sought to balance traditional Japanese practices with... View Details

Keywords: Organisational Design; Organization Structure; Culture; Global Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Human Resources; Insurance Industry; Japan

25 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

The Importance of Teaming

team's composition may change at any given moment. Teaming, she says, is essential to organizational learning. She elaborates on this concept in her new book, Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and... View Details

Keywords: Re: Amy C. Edmondson

June 1996 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Repositioning Ranbaxy

A leading Indian pharmaceutical company reacts to changes in its industry by trying to reposition along several dimensions from developing markets to developed ones, from bulk drugs toward pharmaceuticals in dosage forms, and from reverse-engineering products developed... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Expansion; Industry Structures; Pharmaceutical Industry; India

August 2000
Case

Manila Water Company (B)

By: Michael Beer and Elizabeth Weldon

On August 1, 1997 the Manila Water Co. took control of the east zone of the newly privatized Manila Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System (MWSS). At the time of privatization, MWSS was an inefficient, ineffective, and corrupt government agency. MWC must develop the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Horizontal Integration; Privatization; Problems and Challenges; Utilities Industry