Publications

February 1999 (Revised August 2006)
Background Note

What Is an Organization's Culture?

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Kristin Shu

A synopsis of the writings of Edgar Schein, Modesto Maidique, and B.J. Zirger on what organizational culture is, where it comes from, how it can be changed, and how it inhibits change. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture

Robert Huckman is the Albert J. Weatherhead III Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, the Howard Cox Faculty Chair of the HBS Healthcare Initiative, and the Senior Associate Dean for External... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; health care; manufacturing; pharmaceuticals

01 Apr 2001
News

New Ventures New Gains

company, Ventro, which provides services for online exchanges. While the gold rush days of the late 1990s may be over, there is still a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for entrepreneurship among HBS students, faculty, and alumni. “The... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna and Susan Young; Martin Dubilier (MBA 1952); Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

26 Sep 2023
Book

Digital Strategy: A Handbook for Managing a Moving Target

to the new digital context. ” Enthusiasts and advocates of the digital revolution would submit that digital transformation changes everything, from product design to how value... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Information Technology; Technology

11 May 2009
Research & Ideas

The IT Leader’s Hero Quest

thought would be short-lived. But when we looked at the turnover rates again a few years later, we discovered the rate was about the same, but the driving cause was more than just the rapid change in IT: It was also because IT was the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

August 1981 (Revised December 1995)
Background Note

Orientation for Viewing ""Twelve O'Clock High""

Orients the student to the film "Twelve O'Clock High." Contains a list of the characters and exhibits summarizing the evolution of the organization structure of the 918th bomber group during the film. Also provides for student note taking on various stages in the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure

January 2025
Article

Communication Within Firms: Evidence from CEO Turnovers

By: Stephen Michael Impink, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun

This paper uses novel, firm-level communication measures derived from communications metadata several months before and after a CEO transition for 102 firms to study whether and how this organizational event is reflected in employees’ communication flows. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Information; Communication; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Alignment

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2011
Other Unpublished Work

Height Taken but Worth Unknown: Valuation as an Institutional Process

By: R. Daniel Wadhwani and Mukti Khaire

Drawing on research from organizational studies, sociology, history, and anthropology, we develop a framework for understanding valuation as an institutional process in markets. We posit that three institutional elements—categories, criteria, and standards—are integral... View Details

Keywords: Interactive Communication; Markets; Standards; Situation or Environment; Perception; Valuation

October 2017 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Data Breach at Equifax

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Quinn Pitcher and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case discusses the events leading up to the massive data breach at Equifax, one of the three U.S. credit reporting companies, the organizational and governance issues that contributed to the breach, and the consequences of the breach. The case supplement provides... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Information Management; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; United States

1977
Chapter

The View from the 1990s: How the Global Economy is Reshaping Corporate Power and Careers

By: R. M. Kanter

Keywords: Globalized Economies and Regions; Personal Development and Career; Transformation; Power and Influence

04 Jun 2025
News

Shifting Perspectives: The MBA Class of 2025 Looks Back

January 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

ZBJ: Building a Global Outsourcing Platform for Knowledge Workers (A)

By: Feng Zhu, Weiru Chen and Shirley Sun

ZBJ.com (ZBJ), an online platform that connects knowledge workers to small- and medium-sized enterprises, is China’s largest outsourcing platform. Founded by Mingyue Zhu in 2006, ZBJ had grown into a unicorn with 4,000 employees and a daily transaction volume of RMB15... View Details

Keywords: Outsourcing; Disintermediation; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Global Strategy; Information Technology Industry; China

19 Feb 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Evolution of Science-Based Business: Innovating How We Innovate

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano

August 1993 (Revised January 1994)
Case

Prochnik: Privatization of a Polish Clothing Manufacturer

Prochnik was a large state-owned clothing manufacturer located in the textile-production-intensive region of Lodz, Poland. In the early months of economic reform, Prochnik was one of the first five state enterprises to be privatized through initial public offerings and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Privatization; State Ownership; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Poland

Career Coach

Troy Peterson

Troy (HBS’19, West Point ‘08) has 15+ years of experience in technical program management, organizational leadership, and product development & operations. Troy has worked in roles across the tech... View Details

Research Summary

Research overview

By: Julie Battilana

How can actors – be they individuals or organizations – diverge from deeply-seated norms and develop new ones, when their beliefs and actions are shaped by these very norms? This question lies at the heart of Professor Battilana’s research. To address it, she... View Details

Person Page

Course Development

General Management: Processes and Action (GMPA) focuses on implementation and the way that general managers get things done. Typically, they work through processes—sequences of tasks and activities that unfold over time, like strategic planning,... View Details

May 2009
Case

Tokyo Electron Ltd.

By: Willy C. Shih and Andrew A. King

Tokyo Electron Ltd. operates in a constrained innovation environment, defined by modular boundaries that are long standing in the industry that it serves, the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. While the original motivation for these boundaries was division... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Markets and Industries; Governance Controls; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Boundaries; Manufacturing Industry; Semiconductor Industry