Publications

September–October 2022
Article

The Essential Link Between ESG Targets and Financial Performance

By: Mark R. Kramer and Marc W. Pfitzer

Despite heightened attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, surprisingly few companies are making meaningful progress in delivering on their commitments. Most firms are not integrating ESG factors into internal strategy and operational decisions... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Governance; Financial Strategy; Decision Making; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Organizational Structure

09 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Does Misery Love Companies? How Social Performance Pays Off

Corporations have responded to society's plea to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery. Organization and management scholarship can play an important role in understanding and guiding this corporate action.... View Details

Keywords: by Joshua D. Margolis & James P. Walsh

2012
Book

The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force That Transforms Performance

By: James Heskett

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is both substantial and quantifiable. This book presents the results of field research that demonstrates how an effective culture can account for up to half of the differential in performance between... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Learning; Framework; Policy; Retention; Books; Analytics and Data Science; Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Research

August 8, 2018
Article

Hospital-based ACOs Face Challenges in Tracking Performance Indicators

By: Christiana Beveridge, Sofia Warner, Greg Leya and Thomas W. Feeley

Given that accountable care organizations (ACOs) have not achieved the degree of cost reductions and quality improvements initially hoped for, we sought to better understand the underlying reasons for their limited success. Our analysis of American Hospital Association... View Details

Keywords: ACOs; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Management; Performance; Measurement and Metrics

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February 2012
Case

Henkel: Building a Winning Culture

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates a CEO-led organizational transformation driven by stretch goals, performance measurement, and accountability. When Kasper Rorsted became CEO of Henkel, a Germany-based producer of personal care, laundry, and adhesives products, in 2008, he was... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Performance Appraisals; Human Resource Management; Values; Organizational Transformations; Pay For Performance; Strategy Execution; Values and Beliefs; Work-Life Balance; Organizational Culture; Human Resources; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits

Educators

Fall 2023
Article

Identify Critical Roles to Improve Performance

By: Boris Groysberg, Eric Lin, Abhijit Naik and Sascha L Schmidt

Putting strategy into play requires knowing your organization’s crucial roles and making sure your best talent occupies them. View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Employees; Organizational Structure

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Teaching Interest

Advanced Management Program

By: Michael L. Tushman

Market volatility and disruptive innovation are changing the way companies compete in every industry—and increasing the demand for business leaders who can manage globally in the age of digital transformation. Whether you are looking to move up to the executive... View Details

Program

Advanced Management Program

responsibilities, the Advanced Management Program is designed to bring about a full-scale change that empowers executives to create and renew competitive advantage for their organizations. Three highly integrated modules are presented... View Details

January 2008
Article

Mastering the Management System

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Companies have always found it hard to balance pressing operational concerns with long-term strategic priorities. The tension is critical: World-class processes won't lead to success without the right strategic direction, and the best strategy in the world will get... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Operations; Performance Improvement; Strategy

May 2007
Article

Inner Work Life: Understanding the Subtext of Business Performance

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer

Anyone in management knows that employees have their good days and their bad days and that, for the most part, the reasons for their ups and downs are unknown. Most managers simply shrug their shoulders at this fact of work life. But does it matter, in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Performance; Motivation and Incentives; Perception; Practice

01 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Retail Execs Underplay Current Performance to Investors--but Why?

Business School finance professor Kenneth A. Froot in the April working paper What Do Measures of Real-Time Corporate Sales Tell Us about Earnings Surprises and Post-Announcement Returns? “It’s startling to find that managers are not even... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services

Service Productivity Management

Here is an in-depth guide to the most powerful available benchmarking technique for improving service organization performance — Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The book outlines DEA as a benchmarking technique, identifies high cost service units, isolates... View Details

Research Summary

What Really Works: Fundamental Drivers of Corporate Performance

By: Nitin Nohria

Based on a systematic examination of over 200 management practices that have been hypothesized to influence corporate performance, we identify eight management practices that appear to be the most robust drivers of long term corporate success. We are now trying to... View Details

December 2022
Article

The Task Bind: Explaining Gender Differences in Managerial Tasks and Performance

By: Alexandra C. Feldberg

This multi-method study of managers in a grocery chain identifies a novel mechanism by which threats of gender stereotypes undermine women’s ability to be effective managers. I find that women managers face a task bind, a dilemma that managers experience as they try to... View Details

Keywords: Gender Stereotypes; Gender; Managerial Roles; Performance Expectations

2011
Tool

Stepping Up to Management

By: Linda A. Hill

Enable new managers to learn their jobs—while performing their jobs—with content that's integrated into their day-to-day workflow. Stepping Up to Management puts new managers on the right track so they can hit the ground running while laying the foundation for a... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Managerial Roles; Personal Development and Career