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General Management

General Management

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  • Curriculum
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Overview Faculty Curriculum Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • Summer 2025
    • Article

    Does Marriage Have a Future?

    By: Debora L. Spar and Aryanna Garber

    • Summer 2025
    • Article

    Does Marriage Have a Future?

    By: Debora L. Spar and Aryanna Garber

    • June 19, 2025
    • Article

    How to Build a Life: The Strength You Gain by Not Taking Offense

    By: Arthur C. Brooks

    • June 19, 2025
    • Article

    How to Build a Life: The Strength You Gain by Not Taking Offense

    By: Arthur C. Brooks

    • 2025
    • Chapter

    Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview

    By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lynn S. Paine

    Board design is never one-size-fits-all. It’s a series of critical choices—each with trade-offs—that can define how a board functions, governs, and delivers strategic value. That’s the premise of "Critical Choices in Designing a Board," a chapter for the newly released Public Company Series: Board Structure and Composition, a manual of corporate governance published by the NYSE and J.P. Morgan. In our chapter, we outline six key decisions every board must address: What is the board’s purpose? Who should serve on it? How should the board be structured? How to clearly define roles and responsibilities? Which processes help the board function most effectively? What norms foster the right dynamics and culture? We draw on research, boardroom case studies, and our experience at teaching board governance programs at Harvard Business School to offer a practical framework for designing a board. The full volume brings together insights from legal advisors, investors, and governance experts and covers topics ranging from board refreshment and audit committees to shareholder activism, cybersecurity, and global governance trends.

    • 2025
    • Chapter

    Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview

    By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lynn S. Paine

    Board design is never one-size-fits-all. It’s a series of critical choices—each with trade-offs—that can define how a board functions, governs, and delivers strategic value. That’s the premise of "Critical Choices in Designing a Board," a chapter for the newly released Public Company Series: Board Structure and Composition, a manual of corporate...

About the Unit

The General Management Unit is concerned with the leadership and management of the enterprise as a whole. This concern encompasses:

  • the personal values and qualities of effective general managers and enterprise leaders;
  • the philosophies, values, and strategies that inform successful enterprises; and
  • the relation of enterprise to the broader community and other external constituencies.

The Unit's work is conceived and carried out principally in four interest groups, each of which has its own leadership, research agenda, and teaching programs:

  • Management Policy and Process
  • Management Information Systems
  • Society and Enterprise
  • Leadership, Values, and Corporate Responsibility

Recent Publications

Does Marriage Have a Future?

By: Debora L. Spar and Aryanna Garber
  • Summer 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The New Atlantis
Citation
Read Now
Purchase
Related
Spar, Debora L., and Aryanna Garber. "Does Marriage Have a Future?" The New Atlantis 81 (Summer 2025).

Market Dynamics and Moral Dilemmas: Novo Nordisk’s Weight Loss Drugs

By: Joseph L. Badaracco
  • June 2025 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Purchase
Related
Badaracco, Joseph L. "Market Dynamics and Moral Dilemmas: Novo Nordisk’s Weight Loss Drugs." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 325-136, June 2025.

How to Build a Life: The Strength You Gain by Not Taking Offense

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • June 19, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Purchase
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: The Strength You Gain by Not Taking Offense." The Atlantic (June 19, 2025).

How to Build a Life: Dare to Act Differently and Be Happier

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • June 12, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Register to Read
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: Dare to Act Differently and Be Happier." The Atlantic (June 12, 2025).

How to Build a Life: Why Wittgenstein Was Right About Silence

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • June 5, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Citation
Register to Read
Related
Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: Why Wittgenstein Was Right About Silence." The Atlantic (June 5, 2025).

Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context

By: Lynn S. Paine
  • 3 Jun 2025 |
  • Talk |
  • Faculty Research
Citation
Related
Paine, Lynn S. "Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context." In Closing Ceremony. SDG Ambition Accelerator, United Nations Global Compact, Boston, MA, USA, June 3, 2025.

Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Lynn S. Paine
  • 2025 |
  • Chapter |
  • Faculty Research
Board design is never one-size-fits-all. It’s a series of critical choices—each with trade-offs—that can define how a board functions, governs, and delivers strategic value. That’s the premise of "Critical Choices in Designing a Board," a chapter for the newly released Public Company Series: Board Structure and Composition, a manual of corporate governance published by the NYSE and J.P. Morgan. In our chapter, we outline six key decisions every board must address: What is the board’s purpose? Who should serve on it? How should the board be structured? How to clearly define roles and responsibilities? Which processes help the board function most effectively? What norms foster the right dynamics and culture? We draw on research, boardroom case studies, and our experience at teaching board governance programs at Harvard Business School to offer a practical framework for designing a board. The full volume brings together insights from legal advisors, investors, and governance experts and covers topics ranging from board refreshment and audit committees to shareholder activism, cybersecurity, and global governance trends.
Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards
Citation
Read Now
Related
Srinivasan, Suraj, and Lynn S. Paine. "Critical Choices in Designing a Board: An Overview." Chap. 3 in Board Structure and Composition, 17–23. Public Company Series. Caxton Business & Legal, Inc., 2025.

How Universities Die: It Has Happened Before in Centers of Learning Such as Berlin and Beijing. Is Boston Next?

By: William C. Kirby
  • June 1, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Boston Globe
Keywords: Business Admnistration; University; University Administration; Harvard University; Higher Education; History; Boston
Citation
Find at Harvard
Read Now
Related
Kirby, William C. "How Universities Die: It Has Happened Before in Centers of Learning Such as Berlin and Beijing. Is Boston Next?" Boston Globe (June 1, 2025), K1–K4.
More Publications

In the News

    • 20 Jun 2025
    • VoxEU

    When Supply Shocks to Essential Inputs Spur Innovation: Lessons from the Global Rare Earths Disruption

    By: Laura Alfaro
    • 11 Jun 2025
    • Institute for New Economic Thinking

    Can Universities Survive Politics?

    Re: William Kirby
    • 06 Jun 2025
    • CBS News

    Experts Offer Advice to New College Grads on Entering the Workforce in the Age of AI

    Re: Joseph Fuller
→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 05 Nov 2024

    Building the Road to 'Small Business Utopia' with AI and Fintech

    Re: Karen Mills
    • 01 Nov 2024

    Layoffs Surging in a Strong Economy? Advice for Navigating Uncertain Times

    by Rachel Layne
    • 24 Oct 2024

    With Millions of Workers Juggling Caregiving, Employers Need to Rethink Support

    Re: Joseph B. Fuller
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • May 14, 2024
    • Article

    One Way to Help Employees Build Emergency Savings

    By: Timothy Flacke and Peter Tufano
    • April 2025 (Revised June 2025)
    • Case

    Governing Sustainability in a Shifting Context (A)

    By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz
    • 2020
    • Book

    Capitalism at Risk: How Business Can Lead

    By: Joseph L. Bower, Dutch Leonard and Lynn S. Paine
→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

There are no upcoming events.

→More Seminars & Conferences

Faculty Positions

Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.
→Learn More

Contact Information

General Management Unit
Harvard Business School
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Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163

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