Publications

January 2001 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Novartis Pharma: The Business Unit Model

By: Srikant M. Datar, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In June 2000, Novartis reorganized its pharmaceutical business to form global business units in oncology, transplantation, ophthalmology, and mature products. The remaining primary care products continued to be managed within global functions (e.g., R&D and marketing).... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Recruitment; Product Marketing; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

February 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Honda Innovations: Leveraging External Insights to Accelerate Creation

By: Antonio Davila

Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations—the open innovation organization of Honda, has to decide how to extend his organization’s approach to innovation across the world. Honda Innovations dates back to 2000 when Honda created Honda Research Institute in Silicon... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Radical Innovation; Corporate Venturing; Corporate Innovation; Organization Structure; Management Control; Business Units; Disruption; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Auto Industry; San Francisco; Japan

June 2012
Article

Meta-organization Design: Rethinking Design in Interorganizational and Community Contexts

By: Ranjay Gulati, P. Puranam and Michael Tushman

This article provides conceptual foundations for analyzing organizations comprising multiple legally autonomous entities, which we call meta-organizations. We assess the antecedents of the emergence of such collectives and the design choices they entail. The article... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design

Research Summary

The Transition to Retirement

By: Teresa M. Amabile

My current major research program is the Retirement Transitions Study: a broad study of retiring professionals' everyday experiences, including identification with work; identity stability, change, and development; meaningfulness of work; changes in life structure,... View Details

Keywords: Careers; Psychology; Creativity; Identity; Retirement; Meaning

March–April 2020
Article

What's Really Holding Women Back? It's Not What Most People Think

By: R. Ely and Irene Padavic

Ask people to explain why women remain so dramatically underrepresented in the senior ranks of most companies, and you will hear from the vast majority a lament that goes something like this: High-level jobs require extremely long hours, women's devotion to family... View Details

Keywords: Overwork; Employment; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture

2021
Article

Reflections: Voice and Silence in Workplace Conversations

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Tijs Besieux

We highlight conversations at work as an arena of change. Drawing on and extending the psychological safety literature, we offer a new framework to distinguish between productive and unproductive forms of both voice and silence. The framework’s four... View Details

Keywords: Conversation; Silence; Voice; Psychological Safety; Interpersonal Communication; Quality; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Read Now

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 nexus of major View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

14 Nov 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Accountability in Complex Organizations: World Bank Responses to Civil Society

Keywords: by Alnoor S. Ebrahim & Steve Herz

16 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

passion can quietly enable organizational biases against more introspective employees, Jachimowicz and his team say, as studies show that extroverts get more attention from managers in the form of resources,... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

May 2013 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Novartis: Leading a Global Enterprise

By: William W. George, Krishna G. Palepu and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Novartis, the world's leading healthcare company, was formed in 1996 out of a merger of two very different, mid-tier Switzerland-based pharma companies. The case traces the company's evolution over the past 17 years, as it transformed into a truly global enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Talent and Talent Management; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Success; Globalized Markets and Industries; Management Teams; Change Management; Business History; Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Switzerland

20 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 20, 2008

organizational contexts and provides practical strategies for changing your decision-making processes and improving these processes so that they become part of your permanent behavior. Throughout, you'll find numerous hands-on decision... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 1995
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (D)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Linda A. Hill, Andrew P. Burtis, Sylvie Ryckebusch and John Schiavone

Because of conflicts between the vapor coat and pack coat cells over the decision to purchase new grit blast equipment, Business Unit Manager Tom Hutton has decided to form a second capital purchase team that will represent the pack coat cell. Meanwhile, the first... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Capital; Employees; Organizational Culture

21 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

Searching for Better Practices in Social Investing

moderator Professor Herman "Dutch" Leonard, who serves as cochair of the Social Enterprise Initiative. "First, the focus is on impact. Second is taking that impact to scale. And the third element is that whatever is needed, that's what we'll do. View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

21 Feb 2007
Op-Ed

What a U.N. Partnership with Big Business Could Accomplish

and make it legitimate in the eyes of the world. Here's where Ban and the United Nations can play a part. To leverage the multinationals' power and reach, we propose establishing a World Development Corporation that would be formed and... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge & Craig Wilson

October 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Pete Carroll: Building a Winning Organization through Purpose, Caring, and Inclusion

By: Ranjay Gulati, Matthew Breitfelder and Monte Burke

Competing at the highest levels of the National Football League (NFL) requires tremendous skill, dedication and persistence. The most successful coaches in the NFL know how to draw out a higher level of performance and consistency from their players. This is typically... View Details

Keywords: National Football League; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Relationships; Performance; Success; Sports; Sports Industry

04 Dec 2006
Research & Ideas

The Money Connection—Understanding VC Networks

faculty, Toby Stuart studies networks and how they enable or impede certain organizational and entrepreneurial behaviors. In a working paper, "The Evolution of Venture Capital Investment Networks," he and coauthor Olav Sorenson... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

15 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 15, 2008

explore the role of assumptions underlying knowledge creation within the field of organizational studies, and investigate how incompatible assumptions across subgroups may inhibit the generation of multidisciplinary knowledge. While View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

July–August 2013
Article

The Network Secrets of Great Change Agents

By: Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro

Change is hard, especially in a large organization. Yet some leaders succeed—often spectacularly—at transforming their workplaces. What makes them able to exert this sort of influence when the vast majority can't? The authors tracked 68 change initiatives in the UK's... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Health Industry