Publications

November 2008 (Revised September 2014)
Background Note

Differences at Work: The Leadership Challenge

By: Sandra J. Sucher

This note reviews research findings on the leadership challenges of diversity, including the social psychology of similarity and difference, the value of multiple perspectives to problem-solving, the relationship between diversity and firm performance, and management... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Leadership; Behavior; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Diversity

Educators

2008
Book

Moral Gray Zones: Side Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant

By: Michel Anteby

Anyone who has been employed by an organization knows not every official workplace regulation must be followed. When management consistently overlooks such breaches, spaces emerge in which both workers and supervisors engage in officially prohibited, yet tolerated... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Moral Sensibility; Governance Controls; Production; Organizational Culture; Practice; France

21 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 21

compensation and incentives, performance reviews, and measuring sales effectiveness. Part 4 examines broader organizational requirements for effective selling and strategy implementation: developing sales managers who can manage and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Mar 2022
What Do You Think?

Is It Time for More Reverse Mentoring?

organization performance in his book Win From Within: Build Organizational Culture for Competitive Advantage. Your feedback to last month’s column: Is Concierge Management an Answer to the “Big Quit”? The... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March – April 2008
Article

Interorganizational Trust, Governance Choice, and Exchange Performance

By: Ranjay Gulati and Jackson Nickerson

This paper looks at when and how preexisting interorganizational trust influences the choice of governance and in turn the performance of exchange relationships. We theorize that preexisting interorganizational trust complements the choice of governance mode (make,... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Conflict and Resolution; Trust

February 2023
Case

Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)

By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago

In 2020, Alejandro Simón, CEO of Sancor Seguros Group, a nearly 75-year-old cooperative that had become Argentina’s insurance leader, had to decide about the Group’s digital transformation strategy. The Group’s values and history needed to be considered during the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Transformation; Organizational Culture; Cooperative Ownership; Strategy; Business Strategy; Adaptation; Technology Adoption; Insurance Industry; Latin America; South America; Argentina

Educators

April 2020
Teaching Plan

Malcolm Turner at Vanderbilt

By: David G. Fubini, Amy Klopfenstein and James Barnett

This teaching plan serves as a supplement to the case “Malcolm Turner at Vanderbilt,” HBS 420-024. The case examines the early decisions of Vanderbilt University’s new athletic director, Malcolm Turner. A newcomer to college athletics, Turner made a series of... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Sports; Planning; Strategic Planning; Education; Higher Education; Leadership; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Education Industry; Sports Industry; Tennessee

February 2023
Supplement

Astyanax Kanakakis at norbloc: A Founder's Experience with the DIFC Fintech Hive

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

norbloc was founded in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Astyanax Kanakakis and his co-founders, Vitalii Demianets and Sam Saatchi. Kanakakis and Demianets got to work to address a key gap in the industry: Know Your Customer (KYC) data sharing. As the first distributed KYC... View Details

March 2000 (Revised May 2000)
Case

U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc.

By: John A. Davis, Myra M. Hart and Sharon Peyus

Presents a career dilemma for a husband/wife owner-manager team. Nanci and Len Mackenzie have received an offer for their highly successful entrepreneurial business, U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc. The Mackenzies are concerned about what the sale might do to their... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Family Ownership; Family Business; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Employees; Business Exit or Shutdown; Planning; Transportation Industry

December 1996 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Midnight Networks, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

Midnight Networks, Inc., is a small computer network validation company. This case describes how the five founders built their business from operations earnings and how they established "best practices" operational processes to run their firm successfully. Operational... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Operations; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Information Technology Industry; Massachusetts

Educators

19 Dec 2016
Research & Ideas

The 10 Most Popular Stories of 2016

corporate HR function. Becoming a Cognitive Referent: Market Creation and Cultural Strategy Rory McDonald describes the making of a "cognitive referent," which is a firm that customers, the media, analysts, and employees... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

November 15, 2021
Article

Putting Your Corporate Purpose to Work

By: Hubert Joly

Making a company purpose come to life is an arduous journey that requires a multi-pronged and sustained approach. Yet as hard as it is, the journey is well worth it and will yield positive transformation not only for the company, but also for the people who work there.... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Corporate Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Business and Stakeholder Relations

Register to Read

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

March 1996 (Revised February 1997)
Case

Change Agent Program at Siemens Nixdorf, The

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, John F. McGuire and Afroze A Mohammed

To change its culture, the German computer giant Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems launched a program to train 21 "change agents" who would lead entrepreneurial projects designed to get results and to serve as models of a new style. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Organizational Culture; Training; Leadership Development; Programs; Human Resources; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Computer Industry; Germany