Publications

Article

Do Supervisors Thrive in Participative Work Systems?

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Richard E. Walton

This article presents the findings regarding the nature of the difficulties surrounding the supervisory role in participative work systems, a conceptualization of the supervisor/work group interface, and some action implications for the management of organizations.... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Innovation and Invention

May 2008
Article

When Winning Is Everything

By: Deepak Malhotra, Gillian Ku and J. Keith Murnighan

In the heat of competition, executives can easily become obsessed with beating their rivals. This adrenaline-fueled emotional state, which the authors call competitive arousal, often leads to bad decisions. Managers can minimize the potential for competitive arousal... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Behavior; Emotions; Personal Characteristics; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage

October 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Background Note

Running and Growing the Small Company: Course Overview

Addresses challenges facing managers, presidents, and owners in generating and sustaining superior performance, especially as a company broadens its mix of goods and services, increases the volume of its sales, and enlarges the size of its workforce. The critical... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Talent and Talent Management

06 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: Dec. 6

identity work, we reveal the gender dynamics involved in becoming a leader, offer a theoretical rationale for teaching leadership in women-only groups, and suggest design and delivery principles to increase the likelihood that women's... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Aug 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Competition and Social Identity in the Workplace: Evidence from a Chinese Textile Firm

Keywords: by Takao Kato & Pian Shu

24 Jun 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Don’t Just Survive—Thrive: Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate & J. Bruce Harreld

Article

Exploring the Duality Between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the 'Mirroring' Hypothesis

By: Alan MacCormack, Carliss Y. Baldwin and John Rusnak

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that the organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Organization Design; Architecture; Modularity; Open Source Software; Communication; Design; Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Performance; Problems and Challenges; Behavior; Software

2025
Working Paper

The Hidden Costs of Working Multiple Jobs: Implications for Spending Behavior and Wellbeing

By: Paige Tsai and Ryan W. Buell

Problem definition: Amidst inflation, rising costs of living, an explosion in remote and gig working opportunities, and an increase in the part-time labor mix in economies around the world, it is becoming evermore commonplace for people to earn labor income... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Operations; Employee Behavior; Job Design and Levels; Personal Finance; Well-being; Happiness; Satisfaction; Wages

SSRN

Read Now

December 2022
Article

I Don't 'Recall': The Decision to Delay Innovation Launch to Avoid Costly Product Failure

By: Byungyeon Kim, Oded Koenigsberg and Elie Ofek

Innovations embody novel features or cutting-edge components aimed at delivering desired customer benefits. Oftentimes, however, we observe the need to recall new products shortly after their introduction. Indeed, a firm may rush an innovation to market in an attempt... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Innovation And Strategy; Product Development Strategy; Product Introduction; Quality Control; Product Recalls; Game Theory; Market Timing; Innovation Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development

05 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

The Vanguard Corporation

Can we use our capabilities in the electronic sensor business to deal with these problems and issues? For example, one of the things they are working on is biosensors that can be attached to the food chain, so that the freshness of food... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: iPads, Kindles, and the Close of a Chapter in Book Publishing

additional features like a video interview with the author? An e-book can be a much richer and deeper experience than anything we've seen before." Students were also intrigued by the concept of dynamic pricing, or charging varying... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Information; Publishing; Entertainment & Recreation

February 2003
Background Note

Identity Issues in Teams

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Hillary Anger Elfenbein

This note explains how identity dynamics underlie many of the observable interpersonal problems that team members encounter, ranging from lack of participation and low involvement to misunderstandings and dysfunctional emotional conflict. It provides a framework for... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Managerial Roles; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Groups and Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Emotions; Identity

Educators

17 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 17

knowledge distribution are not deterministic but are strategic choices. If dynamic capabilities are associated with innovation streams, and if innovation types are rooted in contrasting innovation logics,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

2021. By contrast, job postings that included supervisory capabilities decreased by 23 percent. The use of collaborative phrases in newspaper job postings grew 15 percent between 1980 and 2000. Prior to 1980, references to collaboration... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

2008
Working Paper

Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the Mirroring Hypothesis

By: Alan D. MacCormack, John Rusnak and Carliss Y. Baldwin

A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to "mirror" the architectures of the organizations in which they are... View Details

Keywords: Open Source Distribution; Product Design; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Information Technology Industry

Read Now

19 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

Climbing the Great Wall of Trust

the firms' innovative capabilities and client relationships so that it was not obvious to the interviewees that the researchers were focusing on trust. The results were striking. Affective trust, that from the heart, in overseas partners... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

January 2004 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Lumen and Absorb Teams at Crutchfield Chemical Engineering, The

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Elizabeth Schatzel

Large discrepancies have developed between two elite technology development teams at Crutchfield Chemical Engineering in terms of motivation and creativity. To investigate, Paul Burke, director of corporate technology development, commissioned a study of the day-by-day... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Managerial Roles; Projects; Groups and Teams; Behavior; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives

Educators