Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior

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About the Unit

Through its research, teaching, and course development, the Organizational Behavior Unit creates and disseminates knowledge that advances the understanding of how to lead and manage with the aim of increasing personal and organizational effectiveness. Although specific research interests span a wide range of subjects, the faculty share a problem driven, interdisciplinary, multi method approach that has led to significant impact on theory and practice.

Our current intellectual agenda builds on the rich history of OB at HBS and focuses squarely on the organizational changes and challenges arising from today's increasingly global and more competitive economy. In the last decade, the faculty have been recognized for their work on leadership in an increasingly diverse and dynamic environment, the evolution of managerial careers in our society, managing diversity, and organizational design and change to meet evolving needs and expectations in a changing world.

Recent Publications

Division of Labor, Multiplication of Gratitude? Gratitude and Resentment Within Households

By: Allison Daminger, Amanda Nerenberg, Rachel Drapper, Alexandra C. Feldberg and Kathleen L. McGinn
  • October 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Marriage and Family
Objective: This paper investigates contemporary household economies of gratitude and resentment, assessing how discrepancies between partners' expectations relate to their emotions and household labor allocation. Background: Women shoulder greater shares of cognitive and physical housework than men. Prior research suggests expressions of gratitude reveal the underlying expectations that reproduce and/or challenge gender-traditional labor allocations. Methods: This article draws on qualitative analysis of 209 interviews with 37 men and 41 women in dual-income, mixed-gender couples with children, interviewed two or three times each. Results: Expressions of gratitude and resentment revealed considerable divergence between men's and women's expectations. Some women were grateful for men's participation in physical labor; others expected significant physical and cognitive contributions and resented their absence. Most men expected to contribute physical household labor and were grateful when women's unpaid housework left more time than expected for men's paid work. Men's resentment emerged when they felt their physical contributions were underappreciated or their partner had unreasonable expectations for their cognitive labor participation. Resentment eased in cases where men increased their attunement and women their use of delegation. Conclusion: Our longitudinal dataset enabled us to examine implicit gender ideologies as reflected in respondents' gratitude and resentment and to chart shifts in expectations and labor allocations in close to real time. These findings broaden our understanding of why household labor remains strongly gender-typed and reveal how quantitative measures of gender ideology may not capture nuanced perspectives—particularly vis-à-vis the division of cognitive labor.
Related

Performance or Principle: Resistance to Artificial Intelligence in the U.S. Labor Market

By: Simon Friis and James W. Riley
  • 2025 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
From genetically modified foods to autonomous vehicles, society often resists otherwise beneficial technologies. Resistance can arise from performance-based concerns, which fade as technology improves, or from principle-based objections, which persist regardless of capability. Using a large-scale U.S. survey quota-matched to census demographics and assessing 940 occupations (N = 23,570 occupation ratings), we disentangle these sources in the context of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite cultural anxiety about artificial intelligence displacing human workers, we find that Americans show surprising willingness to cede most occupations to machines. Given current AI capabilities, the public already supports automating 30% of occupations. When AI is described as outperforming humans at lower cost, support for automation nearly doubles to 58% of occupations. Yet a narrow subset (12%)—including caregiving, therapy, and spiritual leadership—remains categorically off-limits because such automation is seen as morally repugnant. This shift reveals that for most occupations, resistance to AI is rooted in performance concerns that fade as AI capabilities improve, rather than principled objections about what work must remain human. Occupations facing public resistance to the use of AI tend to provide higher wages and disproportionately employ White and female workers. Thus, public resistance to AI risks reinforcing economic and racial inequality even as it partially mitigates gender inequality. These findings clarify the “moral economy of work,” in which society shields certain roles not due to technical limits but to enduring beliefs about dignity, care, and meaning. By distinguishing performance- from principle-based objections, we provide a framework for anticipating and navigating resistance to technology adoption across domains.
Keywords: Public Opinion; Technology Adoption; AI and Machine Learning; Moral Sensibility; Labor
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OCP Group: Transforming for a Sustainable Future

By: Michael Tushman and Kerry Herman
  • October 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In 2025, Mostafa Terrab, Chairman of Morocco mining and fertilizer giant OCP, is assessing his senior leadership team’s progress on collaboration and synergies across his recently decentralized organization and his ambitious decarbonization goals. Terrab committed OCP to 100% carbon neutrality across scopes 1 and 2 by 2030, and scope 3 by 2040. One piece of this puzzle is cracking the code for producing green ammonia, a key input in OCP’s phosphate-based fertilizers. Terrab felt that synergies across OCP were at risk as was his green ammonia efforts. Terrab is concerned the managing directors continue to focus on their own SBU’s goals rather than working together across their units to unleash their (and OCP’s) full potential. Further, Terrab’s aspiration for decarbonization across OCP is expensive. His green ammonia effort, a way to potentially revolutionize agriculture, is being resisted because of cost issues and technology questions.
Keywords: Mining Industry; Morocco; Africa
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Subordinating Humanism: How Colliding Beliefs About a Living Wage Shape Personal Fulfillment and 'Professional-Class' Identities in Working-Class Jobs

By: Lumumba Seegars, Serenity S. Lee, Erin M. Reid and Lakshmi Ramarajan
  • October 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Academy of Management Journal
In a society dominated by market-based ideology and management practices that prioritize financial considerations, some organizations are shifting toward humanistic ideology and practices that emphasize human welfare. To examine this transformation in pay-setting, we studied a U.S. company that introduced a living wage for its low-wage workers. Interviews with 64 participants across two sites revealed both intended and unintended effects. Motivated by humanistic aims, the living wage was designed to reduce financial insecurity; indeed, workers felt more financially secure and fulfilled in their personal lives. However, its humanistic intent conflicted with the dominant market-based ideology linking wages to performance, raising concerns about whether these workers deserved higher pay. To resolve this tension, managers and workers altered expectations for workers to reflect two aspects of professional-class roles: autonomy and overwork. As workers internalized these expectations, they adopted elements of professional-class identities while remaining in working-class jobs. Simultaneously, managers reaffirmed their own role identities as shapers of performance despite their weakened control over wages. These findings inform a multilevel model conceptualizing how a transformative humanistic practice can be subordinated to market-based ideology through identity work. We contribute to research on humanistic management and the interconnections between wage, class, work roles, and identity.
Keywords: Organizational Culture; Moral Sensibility; Wages; Welfare; Performance Expectations; Identity; Employee Relationship Management; Management Practices and Processes
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Note on Higher Education in the United States

By: Rakesh Khurana and Matan Josephy
  • September 2025 |
  • Technical Note |
  • Faculty Research
Higher education in the United States has evolved over nearly four centuries from the founding of Harvard College in 1636 into a diverse system that balances private and public sector organizations with public benefit. Rooted in the liberal arts tradition and ideals of leadership, social mobility, and civic responsibility, American colleges and universities today encompass four main types: community colleges, private universities, public universities, and research (R1 and R2) universities. Each type reflects distinct missions, funding models, and roles in teaching, accessibility, and innovation. This note illustrates how U.S. higher education combines tradition with adaptability to serve both individual aspirations and national progress. It also highlights the divergence that has emerged among selective institutions and the rest of the higher education sector.
Keywords: Higher Education; United States
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How to Keep Your Team's Spirits Up in Anxious Times

By: Ranjay Gulati
  • September 8, 2025 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review (website)
During periods of turbulence and turmoil, leaders must be not just muscular strategists but also caring empaths, attuned to the emotional barometers of their teams and able to move the mood of the organization in a most positive direction. This requires communicating a clear purpose, embodying and modeling organizational values, and always projecting focused calm. When you adopt all three strategies, you move everyone toward a more courageous collective mindset that will help propel you through uncertainty toward a more successful future.
Keywords: Leadership; Emotions; Organizational Culture
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Cristina Ventura at White Star Capital

By: Linda A. Hill, Allison J. Wigen, Dave Habeeb and Ruth Page
  • September 2025 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
[pre-abstract] This multimedia case should be assigned to students in advance of class. [abstract] This multimedia case study focuses on General Partner and Chief Catalyst Officer Cristina Ventura at White Star Capital, as she builds an ecosystem for investors and startups in Southeast Asia. The case follows how Ventura worked to break down geographic siloes and build connections in the region, while setting up White Star Capital's office in Singapore, building a team both local and global. The case also charts Ventura's path as a leader, with particular focus on her ecosystem building, personal investment philosophy, and purpose-driven leadership. The case ends with White Star Capital looking to expand the firm's strength in Southeast Asia, while turning to new areas of growth and opportunity. Ventura is left wondering how she can apply the catalyst leadership lessons she has learned in the MENA region.
Keywords: Investing For Impact; Investment Strategy; Entrepreneurial Ecosystems; Teams; Purpose; Technology; Start-ups; Venture Investing; Investment; Investment Funds; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Venture Capital; Business Offices; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Singapore; Asia; Southeast Asia; Europe
Related

Raymond Jefferson: Trial by Fire

By: Anthony J. Mayo and Carin-Isabel Knoop
  • September 2025 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Related
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Organizational Behavior Unit
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
OB@hbs.edu