Actionable Practice - Publications - Faculty & Research

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

At the end of 2020—seven months after COVID-19 had sent the airline industry into a tailspin and five months after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police provoked nationwide protests for racial justice—Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian was moved to take more View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

15 Feb 2022
Book

When Working Harder Doesn’t Work, Time to Reinvent Your Career

orchestra as a soloist just within reach. But suddenly, his performance started to worsen. No amount of practice or specialized training helped. In fact, the harder he raged against his decline, the faster it inevitably came. He took a... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

decisions. The Everest analysis suggests that leaders must pay close attention to how they balance competing pressures in their organizations, and how their words and actions shape the perceptions and beliefs of organization members. In... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

06 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 6, 2008

DVDs in one order and return them in the reverse order when should DVDs (e.g., documentaries) are rented before want DVDs (e.g., action films). This effect is sizeable in magnitude, with a 2% increase in the probability of a reversal in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

Beyond the 'Business Case' in DEI: 6 Steps Toward Meaningful Change

practices to reinforce inequalities, not only in society, but right here in our company? This is often a challenging step for leaders. If you’re not using scorecards, dashboards or some other measurement system to analyze how everyone’s... View Details

Keywords: by Katherine Hutt Scott and Barbara DeLollis

06 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 6

workers, the middle class, and the nonpolitical rich, jeopardizing the nation's security in the process. The authors contend that this usurpation is the source of America's economic decline and fading international power and provide an View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

31 Oct 2018
What Do You Think?

What is the Function of Fear in Leadership?

leader’s role should involve reducing fear among associates to a minimum. Beatriz commented that, “quite often, team members paralyze due to fear and start delegating upward New KPIs, action plans, and strategies that don’t decipher the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Value Maximization and Stakeholder Theory

recognizes that communication with and motivation of an organization's managers, employees, and partners is extremely difficult. What this means in practice is that if we tell all participants in an organization that its sole purpose is... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Activity-Based Costing

directly estimate the practical capacity of the resources supplied as a percentage of the theoretical capacity. There are various ways to do this. As a rule of thumb, you could simply assume that practical... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson

12 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 12, 2008

Working Papers Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency Authors: Paharia, Karim S. Kassam, Joshua D. Greene, and Max H. Bazerman Abstract When powerful people cause harm, they often do so indirectly through other people. Are harmful View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2021
Book

Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

because the goals conflict,” Sucher says. Means: A company’s means are not merely its business methods, but whether it takes “the fair path to get there,” Sucher says, in creating equitable practices for employees and communicating with... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?

best practices promise to lower them. Weighing The Costs There are two types of costs that must be considered in allocating decision rights. In their 1990 paper, "Specific and General Knowledge, and Organizational Structure"... View Details

Keywords: by Peter Jacobs

20 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

The Three Types of Leaders Who Create Radical Change

group of people around a mutual desire for change. “Effective agitators are able to draw attention to a problem and convince others that it requires both some corrective action and collective work to bring it about,” Battilana writes in... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

13 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Companies Actually Greener—or Are They All Talk?

Most companies now account for social good in their financial reports in some way, but with regulation scattershot and evolving, it’s complicated for investors to assess so-called ESG reports. The disclosures, known as Environmental, Social, and Governance reports,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

four-drive ecosystem Acquire/Achieve On the organizational level this drive is usually met through the compensation and rewards system. Best practices include: Pay as well as competitors. There can be exceptions; the need to acquire... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

companies recognize the need to restructure too late, when fewer options remain and saving the company may be more difficult. Scott Paper's new CEO was widely criticized in the news media for the magnitude of the layoffs he ordered. However, such drastic View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

27 Jul 2021
Op-Ed

What Pirates Can Teach Us About Leadership

With the blessing of the vessel’s owner, the captain treated crewmen as he saw fit, often harshly. Sailors were beaten, overworked, underpaid, and sometimes starved. Morale was low. Dissent was punished as mutiny. Pirates, by contrast, View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

10 May 2021
Research & Ideas

Who Has Potential? For Many White Men, It’s Often Other White Men

an average of two years longer than men. "Merely increasing the number of employees from underrepresented groups and trying to be inclusive isn’t enough." The firm may have welcomed traditionally underrepresented groups, but its workplace View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

04 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Scrap the Big New Year's Resolutions. Make 6 Simple Changes Instead.

been forced to accept uncertainty during the pandemic, Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, coauthors of the 2019 book The Wise Company, recently developed “six practices to make a better future” to help leaders focus on the most important... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

Publications