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December 2, 2021
Article

Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly: Empowering Workers to Create ‘Magic’

By: Hubert Joly and Adi Ignatius

Hubert Joly was behind an amazing turnaround at Best Buy. While everybody was saying he should lay people off to solve the company’s problems, Joly instead listened to the people working for him and found solutions that didn’t involve people losing their jobs.... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Meaningful Work; Employee Empowerment; Mission and Purpose; Employees; Organizational Culture; Leadership

Article

Relational Reconciliation: Socializing Others Across Demographic Differences

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Erin M. Reid

In demographically diverse organizations, employees charged with socializing others— socialization agents—must navigate a deep tension between the organization’s needs to integrate individuals into a collective and individuals’ needs for recognition of their unique... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Organizational Culture; Identity; Employees

June 18, 2020
Article

What CEOs Still Haven't Said about Race and Policing

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

While many CEOs have spoken out to share their thoughts on race and police misconduct in America, they have yet to advocate for policy solutions for police reform, focusing instead on their own corporate and personal values. But lasting change must also involve ... View Details

Keywords: Activism; CEO; Political Issues; Political Leadership; Racial Tensions; Racism; Leadership; Race; Communication; Government and Politics; Law; Organizational Culture; United States

March 2012
Case

Schuberg Philis

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The Dutch professional service firm Schuberg Philis has within a few years grown into a well-known player in the Dutch IT outsourcing market and regularly wins high customer- satisfaction marks. The growing workload and 100% promise to customers have increased the... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Alignment; Information Technology Industry; Netherlands

Educators

May 1997
Supplement

Suzanne de Passe at Motown Productions

By: Linda A. Hill and Mara Willard

Suzanne de Passe talks to an MBA class in October 1996 and discusses her perspective on leadership, her experience making "Lonesome Dove," and her company: de Passe Entertainment. Designed for use with Suzanne de Passe at Motown Productions (A) (9-487-042), (A1)... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Perspective; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders

leader development in the Army. We saw professional identity as having the same type of conceptual promise at the individual level as organizational culture has at the unit level. Q: The Army has a "Be,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

14 Apr 2019
Interview

How to Build Psychological Safety, with Amy Edmondson

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Dave Stachowiak

Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. She has been recognized by the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers for many years and was honored with their Talent Award in 2017. Amy is the author of... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness

February 1980 (Revised June 1984)
Case

Quaker Steel and Alloy Corp.

By: John J. Gabarro

Lower middle-level manager is faced with the need to bring about a change in the call patterns of the sales force selling her product. Based on an earlier case by P.R. Lawrence. View Details

Keywords: Change; Managerial Roles; Organizational Culture; Salesforce Management; Steel Industry

Educators

01 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making

technology side, they also have to think about the organizational side," she says. "Traditionally, technology is thought of as a tool that enables empowerment, but that's not always the case." Sadun discusses the issue in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

08 Oct 2010
What Do You Think?

Will Transparency in CEO Compensation Have Unintended Consequences?

Often the CEO is portrayed as 'the only person in the world who could do this job' You can thank the financial press for this mystique." In pointing out the futility of the effort, Rebecca West commented that "the current exclusionary process of creating CEOs... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

December 1994 (Revised February 1995)
Case

Anne Livingston and Power Max Systems (A): Interviewing with the PowerPlayer Software Engineering Team

Follows the entry and early experiences of engineer Anne Livingston, an African American woman, as she joins Power Max Systems in 1991 as software engineering manager for the new product development group. Power Max is facing stiff competition and wants to be first to... View Details

Keywords: Race; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Gender; Information Technology Industry

May–June 2019
Article

Your Workforce Is More Adaptable Than You Think

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, Judith K. Wallenstein and Alice de Chalendar

In 2018 the Project on Managing the Future of Work at HBS teamed up with the BCG Henderson Institute to survey 6,500 business leaders and 11,000 workers about the various forces reshaping the nature of work. The responses revealed a surprising gap: While the executives... View Details

Keywords: Management; Employees; Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation

March 2017
Supplement

OXXO's Turf War Against Extra (B)

By: Tatiana Sandino, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Annelena Lobb

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Mexico

March 2018
Case

Zensar Technologies Ltd.

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Tanvi Deshpande

Zensar, an established mid-tier IT services company based in India, is known for its customer-centric approach and close-knit culture. Sandeep Kishore has recently stepped in as the MD and CEO, replacing the previous CEO of 15 years. Kishore is developing his strategy... View Details

Keywords: Digitalization; Business Processes; Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Information Technology Industry

Educators

01 Dec 2006
News

Stuart Wins Award

HBS professor Toby Stuart, an expert in the field of organizational psychology, has won the 2007 Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship. The medal, which includes a $50,000 cash award, is given... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

January 10, 2022
Article

The Secret Ingredient of Thriving Companies? Human Magic

By: Hubert Joly

The traditional corporate approach to motivating people has been a combination of carrots and sticks: a system of financial incentives designed to mobilize everyone around a plan designed by a few smart people at the top. Multiple studies have confirmed that, for any... View Details

Keywords: Meaning; Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employees; Motivation and Incentives; Performance

2001
Article

From Guilford to Creative Synergy: Opening the Black Box of Team Level Creativity

By: T. R. Kurtzberg and T. M. Amabile

Previous research, from Guilford's founding tradition to more modern research on individual creativity and general group processes, falls short of adequately describing team-level creativity. Alhough researchers have addressed brainstorming in groups with mixed... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Groups and Teams; Theory; Research; Organizational Culture

2013
Working Paper

Non-Standard Matches and Charitable Giving

By: Michael Sanders, Sarah Smith and Michael I. Norton

Many organisations, including corporations and governments, wish to encourage charitable giving, and offer incentives for their employees, customers and citizens to do so. The most common of these incentives is a match rate, where the organisation agrees to pay, for... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Organizational Culture; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving