Publications

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

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June 2000
Supplement

SCORE! Educational Centers

Contains three segments. In the first segment, Alan Tripp, founder of SCORE!, discusses his experience creating and growing SCORE!. Designed to be used with the (A), (B), and (C) cases. In the second segment, Tripp and Rob Waldron, current president of SCORE! (now a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Service Industry; Education Industry

We propose a scalable, data-driven method for designing national policies for the allocation of deceased donor kidneys to patients on a waiting list, in a fair and efficient way. We focus on policies that have the same form as the one currently used in the United... View Details

October 2002 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Intermountain Health Care

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Amy C. Edmondson and Laura Feldman

Intermountain Health Care (IHC), an integrated delivery system based in Utah, has adopted a new strategy for managing health care delivery. The approach focuses management attention not only on the facilities where care takes place but also on physician decision making... View Details

Keywords: Ethnicity; Innovation Strategy; Cost Management; Information Technology; Organizational Structure; Technology Adoption; Performance Improvement; Problems and Challenges; Adoption; Change Management; Cost vs Benefits; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Utah

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro, Nick Bloom, Paola Conconi, Harald Fadinger, Patrick Legros, Andrew F. Newman, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

15 Dec 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation

Keywords: by Benjami Lockwood, Afras Y. Sial, and Matthew C. Weinzierl

08 Jan 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation

August 1977 (Revised February 1981)
Background Note

Introduction to Balance of Payments Analysis

By: Bruce R. Scott

Minimal background to permit interpretation of positive or negative balances in the key summary accounts of a balance of payments statement; also to permit relating these balances and relevant supporting detail to a possible national development strategy. Designed for... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Development Economics; Planning; Accounting Industry; Canada

October 1981 (Revised June 1985)
Case

Vicks Health Care Division: Project Scorpio (B)

Reveals that Vicks chose a multi-condition positioning for the product. Describes testing of name and concept, and extensively reports on a four-city test market. Students are expected to evaluate both the design and results of the test, and face options ranging from... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Health Care and Treatment; Product Launch; Health Industry

TeachingInterests

aMaze app

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

The aMaze app is designed to enable automated facilitation of the "Management Maze" or "Electric Maze" exercise by Amy Edmondson and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar (see View Details

January 1990 (Revised February 1990)
Case

MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line

By: Robert J. Dolan

MSA has commissioned a major market research study to assess demand potential for a computer software system designed for aerospace and defense contractors. Students must evaluate the results of the study (including a conjoint analysis) to assess whether MSA should... View Details

Keywords: Product; Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Software

December 2001
Case

Cisco China

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Guoqing Chen and David Kiron

Designed to show how Cisco has taken its U.S.-based infrastructure and applied it to China. It is stunning in its impact as one notes how so much of what is being done in the United States in terms of the intranet has been transferred to China. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; China; United States

May 2008 (Revised June 2008)
Case

Kenny Kahn at Muzak (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

Founded in 1934, Muzak pioneered the industry of background music. Equipped with propriety technology and a vast music library, over the ensuing decades the Muzak franchise organization expanded geographically. Despite a history of innovation, by the late 1990s Muzak... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Design; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Franchise Ownership; Music Industry

Find at Harvard

September 2019
Case

Sonia Millar: Negotiating for the C-Suite

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Anne Donnellon

This case addresses the nuances of gender dynamics and career progression at the top of the organization, where even women who have strong leadership expertise, experience, and alliances with powerful male colleagues still get stuck. Told from the point of view of... View Details

Keywords: Executives; CEO; Promotion; Gender Bias; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Diversity; Power and Influence

Professor Toffel is the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management. His research examines how companies are addressing climate change (especially decarbonization) and other environmental and working condition issues in their operations and supply... View Details

2021
Book

The Four Elements: Finding Right Livelihood in the 21st Century

By: Timothy Butler

This is a book for all who are facing career and life transitions. At such junctures, our decisions require the full self, and astute thinking alone will not carry us into the new place that our lives demand. The Four Elements shares the recent research of Dr.... View Details

Keywords: Meaningfulness; Career Satisfaction; Personal Development and Career; Transition; Decision Making

2022
Working Paper

The Effect of Employee Lateness and Absenteeism on Store Performance

By: Caleb Kwon and Ananth Raman

We empirically analyze the effects of employee lateness and absenteeism on store performance by examining 25.5 million employee shift timecards covering more than 100,000 employees across more than 500 U.S. retail grocery store locations over a four year time period.... View Details

Keywords: Absenteeism; Lateness; Scheduling; Performance Productivity; Employees; Retail Industry