Publications

April 1997
Case

ABB Germany

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Describes Europe's most famous postwar multinational merger between Asea of Sweden and Brown Boveri of Switzerland. Gives background on both companies and focuses particularly on BBC's geographic organization, its corporate culture, and the relationship between its... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Multinational Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Geographic Location; Rank and Position; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sweden; Switzerland; Germany

Find at Harvard

20 Dec 2018
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories and Research Papers of 2018

moms are high achievers at work. Now it turns out they are happy, too. Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods seemed a Wall Street dream come true. But then Amazon's data-driven efficiency met... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

and other top executives representing fields as diverse as telecommunications, financial services, and pharmaceuticals, as well as government entities in the US and overseas-debated the pluses and minuses of Data.gov's decisions, its View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

13 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 13

software and IT service firms will likely have an inward focus over the next five years and will, therefore, only slowly emerge onto the global market. Working PapersThe Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

IBM in the 21st Century: The Coming of the Globally Integrated Enterprise

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Members of IBM's fifth Integration and Values Team (IVT5) were close to finishing their deliberations. Convened by Sam Palmisano, Chairman and CEO, and sponsored by Jon Iwata, Senior VP of Corporate Communications and Marketing, and John E. Kelly III, Senior VP and... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Teams; Organizational Culture; Integration

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Spirit at Work: The Search for Deeper Meaning in the Workplace

Beer, the School's Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration and an expert on organizational behavior. "Quite simply, without a sense of purpose, we become alienated from our work and find it harder to motivate... View Details

Keywords: by Marguerite Rigoglioso

29 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 29, 2008

practices, accounting firms, investment banks, and other professional service organizations, industry veterans DeLong, Gabarro, and Lees show how this model works to: align your firm's culture and key View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Mar 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Has the Glass Ceiling Been Broken (or at Least Cracked)?

because of social defenses at the organizational level, along with wider cultural beliefs that are resistant to change. Gender Stereotypes in Deliberation and Team DecisionsWomen are recognized less often... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

The Open Office Revolution Has Gone Too Far

(like employee satisfaction). Those are fine for understanding individual perceptions, but aren’t so good at quantifying real behavioral responses and organizational performance outcomes from open offices. The gap between perceptions and... View Details

Keywords: Re: Ethan S. Bernstein

07 Jan 2015
What Do You Think?

SUMMING UP: What Are the Limits On Workplace Transparency?

a way to do it," with some cautions and advice about how to make such information available to all. For example, Praveen pointed out that, "It is essential to have a culture of mutual trust but we also need to have mutual... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 1993 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Sears Auto Centers (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Michael Santoro

The CEO of Sears must decide how to respond to allegations that the company's auto repair division has been misleading consumers and charging them for unnecessary repairs. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Organizational Culture; Compensation and Benefits; Management Teams; Employees; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Improvement; Auto Industry

30 Aug 2006
Op-Ed

The Compensation Game

of board membership, combined with the small size of the overall director community, results in a closed culture among people who share many relationships: those with whom board members are economically involved are the same as those with... View Details

Keywords: by Lucian Bebchuk & Rakesh Khurana

01 Dec 2022
News

The Potential of Business to Improve Lives

address injustice, inequality, discrimination, and lack of diversity. You have to look at everything that happens in an organization, from hiring to development, promotion, retention, and leadership,” she says. Developing effective approaches to View Details

Keywords: April White

06 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Why Businesses Need a Language Strategy

employees who are experts in their various areas of work. They say they feel "childlike" when they have to switch to the working language. It affects how they contribute. Managers primarily tend to worry about things like View Details

Keywords: Re: Tsedal Neeley

03 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 3

Entrepreneurial Beacons: The Yale Endowment, Run-ups, and the Growth of Venture Capital By: McDonald, Rory, Y. Sekou Bermiss, Benjamin J. Hallen, and Emily Cox Pahnke Abstract—This paper investigates the social context of entrepreneurship in View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Aug 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 14, 2018

the startup struggles with various operational and cultural organizational tensions. These challenges are described from the perspective of the founders and through the eyes of Deepika Thakur, one of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 2010
Supplement

Global Expansion at Sanford C. Bernstein (B) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill and Dana Teppert

Sanford C. Bernstein, a premier sell-side research firm, is expanding globally, and has recently opened an office in Hong Kong. Global Director of Research Robert van Brugge must consider how best to organize the firm's research department to enhance cross-sector and... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Global Strategy; Perspective; Adaptation; Expansion; Organizational Culture; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Financial Services Industry; Hong Kong

October 2010
Case

Scollon Productions: Working with a Bunch of Characters

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Chad Carr

As the sole female employee in an 11 person production shop, Lisa Ocheltree complained about being subjected to crass sexual "jokes" and antics; after being discharged, she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her former employer, Scollon Productions, alleging... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Ethics; Employee Relationship Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Gender

October 2006 (Revised May 2007)
Case

King Arthur Flour

By: Thomas J. DeLong, James Holian and Joshua Weiss

Steve Voigt, the CEO of King Arthur Flour, must determine how the company can continue to grow, whilst preserving its unique culture. In 1996, the company was sold to employees in as ESOP transaction. The following decade saw significant growth, despite declining sales... View Details

Keywords: Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture; Employee Ownership