Publications

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

Firms in the United States, Japan, and Germany tend to be managed especially well, while firms in Brazil, China, and India tend to be managed poorly. Those are among the initial findings of the World View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

Manager Visibility No Guarantee of Fixing Problems

rather than there being just a handful of highly significant problems," she says. "People get discouraged because they fix something and don't see the needle move in a big way. It's my belief that management and frontline... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 3: Expanding Diversity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the third module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Business Processes; Projects; Risk and Uncertainty; Product Development; Managerial Roles; Opportunities; Perspective; Expansion; Goals and Objectives

27 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Religion in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know

considered one of the last taboos,” says Senior Lecturer Derek van Bever. “Our students have been asking for it because they see very clearly that they will be in positions of global leadership where they will have to deal with it.” To fill that need, van Bever wrote... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage; Apparel & Accessories

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing a Public Image: Rob Thomas

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Rob Thomas describes some of the challenges he has faced as a white, middle-aged man who is managing director of a mid-size consulting firm where he is committed to increasing staff gender and racial diversity. Unwilling to risk the disapproval of any constituency,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Age; Race; Identity; Failure; Gender; Consulting Industry

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 4: Sensing Opportunity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the fourth module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Problems and Challenges; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects; Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Perspective; Value Creation; Networks; Alignment

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

managers about the gender biases that influence hiring decisions. Companies should also anonymize resumes, diversify interview panels, and evaluate candidates as a group against a set of defined criteria. Integration. Create opportunities... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Research Summary

Clinical Trials as a setting for Health Policy and Management Research

The clinical trial marketplace is in flux. A decade ago, pharmaceutical firms almost exclusively conducted the study of their novel drug compounds within major academic medical centers. But today, industry-sponsored clinical trials are increasingly using community... View Details

May 2017 (Revised November 2019)
Case

The Dubai International Film Festival

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Alpana Thapar

This case follows the conception and emergence of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). In an already crowded and highly competitive industry, Abdulhamid Juma was attempting to define and establish a unique brand positioning for DIFF. Committed to its vision,... View Details

Keywords: Brand Positioning; Underdog Brand Building; Business Models; Non-profit; Managing Multiple Stakeholders; Film Entertainment; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Growth and Development Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

2008
Other Unpublished Work

Accounting, Risk Management and the Aftermath of a Control Debacle

By: Anette Mikes

Despite the widespread adoption of risk management systems in the financial services industry, recent control debacles highlight the apparent lack of top managerial attention to risk controls. Yet in order to understand the workings and uses of risk controls (or any... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Accounting; Conflict and Resolution; Trends; Financial Services Industry

Research Summary

Overview

Prof. Altman's research interests include innovation, strategy, organizational change, platform-based businesses and their related ecosystems. Her work focuses on the impact to incumbent organizations as platform-based highly networked business models become more... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Multi-sided Platforms; Business Ecosystems; Organizational Change; Paradox; Organizational Identity

July 2025
Case

Greenwood Online: A Fin-Tech Service for Culture and Community (B)

By: James Riley and Bernal Cortés

This B case follows Greenwood’s development after launch, including its decision to partner with a White-owned bank for backend support and its rapid growth despite that controversial choice. It traces the company’s scaling efforts, major fundraising rounds,... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Identity; Cultural Branding; Impression Management; Organization Behavior; Strategic Alignment; Start-up; Mission and Purpose; Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Structure; Banking Industry; United States

19 Mar 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

8 Ways To Be An Environmentally Conscious Manager

entrepreneurs in this book broke with multiple conventions. Not surprisingly, they were often treated by contemporaries as crazy. It turns out that yesterday’s crazies are the historical origins of the sustainable world of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy

2024
Working Paper

Rapport in Organizations: Evidence from Fast Food

By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Parker Howell, Anant Nyshadham and Jorge Tamayo

Common identity often provides a foundation for workplace rapport. Using personnel and productivity data from a large fast food chain in Colombia, we study whether mismatched gender identity across managers and workers affects the team’s ability to deal with demand... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Workplace Relationships; Rapport; Managers; People Management; Labor Allocation; Staffing; Scheduling; Quick-serve Restaurants; Management; Relationships; Gender; Labor and Management Relations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employees; Food and Beverage Industry; Colombia

Read Now

2013
Book

Business and the Environment: Critical Perspectives in Business and Management

By: Susse Georg and Andrew J. Hoffman

Over the past four decades, the concept of corporate environmentalism has passed through multiple iterations. Prompted by landmark environmental events such the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), the Santa Barbara oil spill, the Cuyahoga River fire,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Management; Natural Environment

23 Aug 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Management Lessons from the Sinking of the SS El Faro

Keywords: Re: Joseph B. Fuller; Shipping

2015
Chapter

How Leaders Use Values-based Guidance Systems to Create Dynamic Capabilities

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Matthew Bird, Ethan Bernstein and Ryan Raffaelli

How do strategic leaders create change-adept organizations? Based on qualitative field research, this chapter argues that well-defined institutionalized purpose, values, and principles act as an organizational guidance system that integrates and strengthens the... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Capabilities; Field Research; Intrinsic Motivation; Organizational Identity; Ecosystem; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Research; Management Systems; Change

Find at Harvard

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Managing a Public Image: Kevin Knight

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Kevin Knight recounts an uncomfortable situation he faced as an African-American student at Harvard Business School. Concerned with maintaining an image as a calm and rational person, he is appalled when he finds himself in a heated classroom exchange in defense of an... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Ethnicity; Identity; Competency and Skills; Business Education