Publications

14 Oct 2021
In Practice

Reunited and It Feels (Not) So Good: Tips for Managing a Rocky Return

processes, not universal rules. Nor should they assume that workers’ preferences will remain static. As we move from one next normal to a subsequent one, their needs will change just as those of the company do. Joseph B. Fuller... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

11 Jul 2016
HBS Case

Neurodiversity: The Benefits of Recruiting Employees with Cognitive Disabilities

underemployed. It’s not a “charity thing,” Austin says. “There are possibilities here to do something that is socially good and yet is still being very responsible to the business,” Pisano says. “Whether this is the beginning of a bigger movement, I really don’t know,... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Technology

24 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 24, 2007

processes were already equipped for the challenge. Successful firms, by contrast, developed an explicit strategy for collaboration and made organizational changes to aid performance in these efforts.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

29 Mar 2016
First Look

March 29, 2016

answering one key question: How are leaders successfully managing competitive companies in the 21st century? Today's constantly changing business environment presents challenges and opportunities that are more dynamic and complex than... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2024
Case

Michelin in Motion: Putting Purpose to Work

By: Hubert Joly, Nitin Nohria and Emilie Billaud

When he became CEO, facing limited growth prospects, a low valuation, and therefore a stagnating share price, Menegaux and his team launched a set of initiatives to reposition Michelin. These included (1) articulating a clear purpose (“We care about giving people a... View Details

November 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Jeanette Clough at Mount Auburn Hospital

Jeanette Clough, the CEO of Mt. Auburn Hospital, successfully leads a turnaround for the struggling local hospital. When she assumed leadership of Mt. Auburn in 1998, the hospital had recently suffered a $10 million loss. During her first six months, several members of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Leading Change; Expansion; Health Care and Treatment; Business and Community Relations; Health Industry; Cambridge

18 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How Eliminating Non-Competes Could Reshape Tech

we now teach in several classes at HBS. Fortunately for the world, California does not enforce non-compete agreements. Senz: How might the end of non-compete agreements change the tech landscape? Wu: First, without non-compete agreements,... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

21 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Company?

of organizational and managerial processes from within, can be just as effective at torpedoing productivity both then and now, Thomke says. As workers toss time-consuming and frustrating curveballs in the air by making bad decisions and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

2007
Chapter

Disrupting Gender, Revising Leadership

By: D. E. Meyerson, R. Ely and Laura Wernick

In this chapter, we present a case study of men on two off-shore oil platforms—a workplace that has traditionally rewarded men for their masculine displays of bravado and their interactions centered on proving masculinity—in which such displays and interactions were... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Safety; Leadership; Interpersonal Communication; Practice; Gender; Business Processes; Energy Industry

Professor McFarlan earned his AB from Harvard University in 1959, and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School in 1961 and 1965 respectively. He has had a significant role in introducing materials on Management Information Systems to all major programs at... View Details

Keywords: communications; computer; e-commerce industry; health care; information; information technology industry; nonprofit industry

January 2025
Case

Davivienda Bank's Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy in Colombia (Abridged)

By: Jorge Tamayo, Raffaella Sadun and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

Set in 2022, this abridged case examines the digital transformation strategy of Davivienda—a leading player in Colombia’s commercial banking sector and one of the companies belonging to Grupo Bolívar, a major Colombian conglomerate—and the bank’s upskilling and... View Details

11 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Feeling Seen: What to Say When Your Employees Are Not OK

verbally recognizing how employees feel, particularly when they are sad, upset, or angry, helps coworkers form a much deeper connection. The team’s paper, Emotional Acknowledgement: How Verbalizing Others’ Emotions Fosters Interpersonal Trust, was recently published in... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

21 Sep 2021
Office Hours

Readers Ask: How Can I Gain Power and Influence?

people value in that setting and who controls access to what they value? This control may have little to do with authority, so even without a high organizational title or position, you can yield power in an organization by controlling... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

17 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 17

data with firm-level financial data, we find evidence that differs from prior literature. Instead of reducing expenditures to boost earnings, soup manufacturers roughly double the frequency and change the mix of marketing promotions... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2014
Article

The Dynamics of Firm Lobbying

By: William R. Kerr, William F. Lincoln and Prachi Mishra

We study the determinants of the dynamics of firm lobbying behavior using a panel data set covering 1998–2006. Our data exhibit three striking facts: (i) few firms lobby, (ii) lobbying status is strongly associated with firm size, and (iii) lobbying status is highly... View Details

Keywords: Lobbying; Political Economy; H-1B; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Policy; Immigration

Read Now

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

Series How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership The COVID... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

March 2020 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Performance Management at Afreximbank (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Siko Sikochi and Josh Steimle

Based in Cairo, Afreximbank was founded in October 1993 as a specialized continental financial institution designed to address the low level of intra-African trade, the decline in financial flows to Africa, the worsening external debt situation of many African... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Balanced Scorecard; Performance Expectations; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Banking Industry; Africa; Egypt

December 2017 (Revised April 2018)
Case

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Network Strategy 2016

By: Michael E. Porter, Thomas W. Feeley and Toyin J. Okanlawon

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) began as a stand-alone hospital in the heart of downtown Philadelphia in 1855. By 2016 the CHOP Care Network stretched across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New York metropolitan area, providing a wide range of services... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Networks; Integration; Strategy; Health Industry; Philadelphia

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Rosalind Fox at John Deere

By: Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and... View Details