Cultural Organizations - Publications - Faculty & Research

Research Summary

Models of optimal experience (flow)

Flow is a state of profound task-absorption, involvement, and intrinsic enjoyment that makes the person feel one with the activity. Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory states that flow is more likely to occur in situations in which the person feels that the activity is very... View Details

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

4+2 = Sustained Business Success

that whatever technology you choose to implement you execute it flawlessly. Similarly, it matters little whether you centralize or decentralize your business as long as you pay attention to simplifying the way your organization is... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce & Bruce Roberson

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Teams; Quality; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Production; Manufacturing Industry

Citation

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January 2004
Article

Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test

By: Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft

The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Design; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Brands and Branding; Multinational Firms and Management; Product Development; Product Launch; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Great Britain

Citation

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Read Now

11 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 11

formulate recommendations going forward. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/710414-PDF-ENG Organization and Strategy at Millennium (A) Julie M. Wulf and Scott WaggonerHarvard Business School Case 710-415 This case... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Teaching Interest

General Management: Processes and Action

General Management: Processes and Action (GMPA) focuses on implementation and the way that general managers get things done. Typically, they work through processes—sequences of tasks and activities that unfold over time, like strategic planning,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Communication Strategy; Decision Making; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Management; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Resource Allocation; Business Processes; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Strategic Planning; Conflict and Resolution; Power and Influence; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Auto Industry; Computer Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Financial Services Industry; Health Industry; Information Industry; Legal Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Publishing Industry; Retail Industry; Video Game Industry; China; India; United States

22 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 22

culture, how culture persists despite turnover, and why the suggested link between culture and performance may be a case of inverse causality. It finally shows that, from an outsider's perspective, View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

Subcultures within organizations can differ as much as organizational cultures themselves. Most people have encountered a team that performs well above—or below—the organizational norm. While this has always... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Web

Curriculum - Business & Environment

context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The Role of ESG in Investment Strategy Marketing Aleph Farms: A New Culture of Meat Aleph Farms, an Israeli food-tech start-up, was... View Details

22 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 23

characteristics for investors that could act as stewards of the commons. Social pressure fueled by small socially responsible investment funds and nonprofit organizations and customer pressure from individual investors are critical in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Cirque du Soleil

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan

Retaining talent is an issue for any company whose success relies on the creativity and excellence of its employees. This is especially true for Cirque du Soleil, the spectacularly successful "circus without animals," whose 2,100 employees include 500 artists--mimes,... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Employee Relationship Management; Business Strategy; Talent and Talent Management; Organizational Culture; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Citation

Educators

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14 Jun 2016
First Look

June 14, 2016

roles are uncertain, goals are shifting, expertise and organizational cultures are varied, and participants have clashing or even antagonistic perspectives. I have studied more than a dozen cross-industry innovation projects, among them... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Oct 2021
What Do You Think?

How Do We Make Sure the Right People End Up with Power in Organizations?

question when he said: “There is a danger. The concept of trust itself is dynamic and culturally bound Strong cultures can reduce the need for a conversation about trust because the need for trust only... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 2016
Case

Turkasset: Bringing Customer-Centricity to Debt Collection

By: Dennis Campbell and Gamze Yucaoglu

In December 2014, in preparation for the year-end board presentation, Hilmi Guvenal (PMD 1993), shareholder and CEO of Turkasset, and Ilker Yoney, COO, sat down to discuss Turkasset’s five- and ten-year strategic plans. Since taking leadership of the company in 2009,... View Details

Citation

Educators

01 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces 2023 Goldsmith Fellows

nonprofit and public sector organizations and demonstrate a strong commitment to continued career paths in these areas. New recipients are invited to participate in events with current and former recipients as well as local social... View Details

04 Oct 2022
What Do You Think?

Have Managers Underestimated the Need for Face-to-Face Contact?

the supply-demand ratio for talent? Will the need for recognition and advancement on the job lure people back to the office? Or have the attractions of working at home changed the job satisfaction equation permanently? Just as important is how View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

Jones Lang LaSalle (2012): Integrated Services and the Architecture of Complexity (D)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

This case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) faced between 2008 and 2012. In 2008, in order to strengthen the firm's brokerage team, JLL merged with The Staubach Company, a real estate services provider with a first-rate... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Strategy; Integration; Real Estate Industry; North America; South America; Central America

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01 Mar 2024
News

The War Within

When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Nataliia Zhyliak’s world was upended in a matter of days. At the time, Zhyliak, a psychologist in the western Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, was working at an education and rehabilitation... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; illustration by Daniel Bejar

19 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Birth of the American Salesman

"The development of modern sales management is an uniquely American story." Why do you think this is? Walter Friedman: In the early nineteenth century, many nations, certainly all the European ones, had traveling peddlers and peddling networks. But no nation... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

January–February 2021
Article

Making Space for Emotions: Empathy, Contagion, and Legitimacy’s Double-Edged Sword

By: Andreea Gorbatai, Cyrus Dioun and Kisha Lashley

Legitimacy is critical to the formation and expansion of nascent fields because it lends credibility and recognizability to once overlooked actors and practices. At the same time, legitimacy can be a double-edged sword precisely because it facilitates field growth,... View Details