Publications

winter 2002
Article

Strategy As Improvisational Theater

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Keywords: Strategy

2000
Working Paper

It Takes Two: Improvisations in Negotiations

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Angela Keros

2013
Book

The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World

By: Michael Wheeler

A member of the world-renowned Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School introduces the powerful next-generation approach to negotiation. For many years, two approaches to negotiation have prevailed: the "win-win" method exemplified in Getting to Yes by Roger... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation

September 2002
Article

Improvisation and the Logic of Exchange in Embedded Negotiations

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Angela Keros

Keywords: Negotiation

Research Summary

Creativity

My second line of research focuses on creative improvisation in organizations. For instance, in a chapter of the Routledge Companion to Creativity (with Teresa Amabile), I explore how emerging research on improvisation in organizations... View Details

07 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘The Art of Negotiation’

book excerpt The Swing Of Things From Chapter 6, The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World By Michael Wheeler Paying heed is one aspect of improvising. Comping is another. Being provocative is a third. When... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael A. Wheeler

Research Summary

Negotiations

My third line of research, on negotiations, also focuses on the improvisational nature of group processes. In one paper (with Kathleen McGinn and Elizabeth Long Lingo), I test the relationships between communication media (face-to-face vs. electronically mediated),... View Details

2009
Chapter

Creativity, Improvisation, and Organizations

By: Colin M. Fisher and Teresa M. Amabile

Although the literatures on both organizational creativity and organizational improvisation have been expanding in recent years, the links between these literatures have not been deeply explored. This chapter explores those links to create a conceptualization of... View Details

Keywords: Body of Literature; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Research; Creativity; Theory

Research Summary

Negotiation Complexity

By: Michael A. Wheeler

Michael Wheeler's research focuses on negotiation as a dynamic process, one in which the capacity to learn and adapt is essential. Even in seemingly simple cases, people's interests, options, and relationships can change significantly. As a result, effective... View Details

January 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Second Harvest Heartland: Ending Hunger Together

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Courtney Han

In March 2020, Second Harvest Heartland, one of six Foodbanks serving Minnesota, was caught in the COVID-19 emergency with considerably more people exposed to hunger and food insecurity. Its management team led by CEO Allison O’Toole and COO Thierry Ibri alertly... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Food Insecurity; Social Enterprise; Food; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Strategy; Adaptation; Social Issues; Mission and Purpose; Decision Making; United States; Minnesota

Educators

June 2017
Teaching Note

IBM Transforming, 2012–2016: Ginni Rometty Steers Watson

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

Ginni Rometty, who became IBM CEO in 2012, led efforts to transform the company around cognitive computing and the AI platform Watson. This Teaching Note helps instructors understand and teach the Harvard Business School case “IBM Transforming, 2012–2016: Ginni Rometty... View Details

Keywords: Digital; Technological Change; Artificial Intelligence; Data; IBM; Watson; Internet Of Things; Innovation and Invention; Management; Sales; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Transformation; AI and Machine Learning

October 23, 2013
Article

Banyan Family Business Advisors On The Keys to Long-Term Resilience

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Family businesses have been found to excel in resilience during economic downturns compared to publicly-traded ones. This is attributed to their focus on resilience over performance. Key qualities of resilient family firms include managing low debt, practicing... View Details

Keywords: Performance Consistency; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Family Ownership; Family Business; Values and Beliefs; Business Strategy

April 2020
Case

Cockpit Dynamics in Air France 447 and United 232

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Joshua Raymond

This case compares leadership and team dynamics between the cockpit crews in two renowned passenger airline crashes, twenty years apart: Air France 447 in 2009 and United 232 in 1989. The key dimensions of difference across the cases include organization and task... View Details

Keywords: Teams; Team Launch; Crisis Management; Groups and Teams; Leadership; Communication; Air Transportation Industry

Educators

2014
Article

Why Was Boston Strong?: Law Enforcement Lessons from the Boston Marathon Bombing

By: Dutch Leonard, Christine M. Cole and Arnold M. Howitt

On April 15, 2013, at 2:49 pm, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people died, and more than 260 others needed hospital care, many having lost limbs or suffered horrific wounds. Those explosions began about... View Details

Keywords: Boston Marathon Bombing; Disaster Response; Emergency Management; Crisis Management; Law Enforcement

Article

Look 'Outside the Building' for the Future of Leadership

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

The author discusses what she terms “outside the building” issues, such as climate change, pandemics, and racial/gender justice. These complex issues are “beyond the boundaries of single organizations.” As she writes, “I call this new leadership for the future... View Details

Keywords: Change Leadership; Advanced Leadership; Innovation; Complex Systems; Impact; Leadership; Change; Leading Change; Innovation Leadership

Register to Read

January 2020
Case

A Tough Call: SEAL Team Leader in Kandahar (A)

By: George A. Riedel

The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 U.S. and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in... View Details

Keywords: War; Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Decision Choices and Conditions; Afghanistan

Educators