Harvard Business Review Articles — Organizational Behavior
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Article Author(s): Nadler, David A. Publication Date: 05/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0405G Subjects: Accountability; Board of directors; Corporate governance; Corporate responsibility; Self evaluation; Shareholder relations; Teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Companies facing new requirements for governance are scrambling to buttress financial reporting systems, overhaul board structures — whatever it takes to comply. But there are limits to how much the outside can impose good governance. Boards know what they ought to be: seats of challenge and inquiry that add value without meddling and make CEOs more effective but not all-powerful. A board can reach that goal only by functioning as a high-performance team, one that is competent, coordinated, collegial, and focused on an unambiguous goal. Such entities don't just evolve; they must be constructed to an exacting blueprint — what the author calls “board building.” In this article, Nadler offers an agenda and a set of tools for boards to define and achieve their objectives. It's important for a board to conduct regular self-assessments and to pay attention to the results of those analyses. As a first step, the directors and the CEO should agree on which of the following common board models best fits the company: passive, certifying, engaged, intervening, or operating. The directors and the CEO should then analyze which business tasks are most important and allot sufficient time and resources to them. Next, the board should take inventory of each director's strengths to ensure that the group as a whole possesses the skills necessary to do its work. Directors must exert more influence over meeting agendas and make sure they have the right information at the right time and in the right format to perform their duties. Finally, the board needs to f
Article Author(s): Nadler, David A. Publication Date: 05/01/2004 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 693X Subjects: Board of directors; Corporate governance; Corporate responsibility; Shareholder relations; Teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0405G, originally published in May 2004. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. Companies facing new requirements for governance are scrambling to buttress financial reporting systems, overhaul board structures — whatever it takes to comply. But there are limits to how much the outside can impose good governance. Boards know what they ought to be: seats of challenge and inquiry that add value without meddling and make CEOs more effective but not all-powerful. A board can reach that goal only by functioning as a high-performance team, one that is competent, coordinated, collegial, and focused on an unambiguous goal. Such entities don't just evolve; they must be constructed to an exacting blueprint — what the author calls “board building.” In this article, Nadler offers an agenda and a set of tools for boards to define and achieve their objectives. It's important for a board to conduct regular self-assessments and to pay attention to the results of those analyses. As a first step, the directors and the CEO should agree on which of the following common board models best fits the company: passive, certifying, engaged, intervening, or operating. The directors and the CEO should then analyze which business tasks are most important and allot sufficient time and resources to them. Next, the board should take inventory of each director's strengths to ensure that the group as a whole possesses the skills necessary to do its work. Direc
Article Author(s): Kayes, D. Christopher; Stirling, David; Nielsen, Tjai M. Publication Date: 01/15/2007 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University HBS Number: BH222 Subjects: Compliance; Corporate governance; Employee relations; Ethics; Human resources management; Integrity; Organizational environment Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Ethical lapses by employees can put organizations at substantial risk. Although improved compliance procedures can help limit this risk, successful efforts must extend beyond compliance to build a culture of organizational integrity. Recent changes in regulatory requirements and more stringent sentencing guidelines demand an integrated approach to ethical awareness, one that encompasses the four organizational practices of controls, clearly defined principles and purpose, core values, and culture. Inevitably, the most difficult of these is building a culture of high ethical standards that are reflected in day-to-day practice. To overcome the barriers to building organizational integrity, leaders must question key organizational practices while constructing a culture based on ethical behaviors.
Article Vanessa Urch Druskat; Steven B. Wolff The management world knows by now that to be effective in the workplace, an individual needs high emotional intelligence. What isn't so well understood is that teams need it, too. Citing such companies as IDEO, Hewlett-Packard, and the Hay Group, the authors show that high emotional intelligence is at the heart of effective teams. These teams behave in ways that build relationships both inside and outside the team and that strengthen their ability to face challenges. High group emotional intelligence may seem like a simple matter of putting a group of emotionally intelligent individuals together. It's not. For a team to have high EI, it needs to create norms that establish mutual trust among members, a sense of group identity, and a sense of group efficacy. These three conditions are essential to a team's effectiveness because they are the foundation of true cooperation and collaboration. Group EI isn't a question of dealing with a necessary evil--catching emotions as they bubble up and promptly suppressing them. It's about bringing emotions deliberately to the surface and understanding how they affect the team's work. Group emotional intelligence is about exploring, embracing, and ultimately relying on the emotions that are at the core of teams. HBS Number: R0103E Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/01 Subjects: Employee morale; Group behavior; Group dynamics; Organizational behavior; Teams
Article Author(s): Druskat, Vanessa Urch; Wolff, Steven B. Publication Date: 03/01/2001 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. The management world knows by now that to be effective in the workplace, an individual needs high emotional intelligence. What isn't so well understood is that teams need it, too. Citing such companies as IDEO, Hewlett-Packard, and the Hay Group, the authors show that high emotional intelligence is at the heart of effective teams. These teams behave in ways that build relationships both inside and outside the team and that strengthen their ability to face challenges. High group emotional intelligence may seem like a simple matter of putting a group of emotionally intelligent individuals together. It's not. For a team to have high EI, it needs to create norms that establish mutual trust among members, a sense of group identity, and a sense of group efficacy. These three conditions are essential to a team's effectiveness because they are the foundation of true cooperation and collaboration. Group EI isn't a question of dealing with a necessary evil — catching emotions as they bubble up and promptly suppressing them. It's about bringing emotions deliberately to the surface and understanding how they affect the team's work. Group emotional intelligence is about exploring, embracing, and ultimately relying on the emotions that are at the core of teams. HBS Number: 620X Subjects: Employee morale; Group behavior; Group dynamics; Organizational behavior; Teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Collins, James C.; Porras, Jerry I. Companies that enjoy enduring success have a core purpose and core values that remain fixed while their strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. The rare ability to balance continuity and change--requiring a consciously practiced discipline--is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision. Vision provides guidance about what to preserve and what to change. A new prescriptive framework adds clarity and rigor to the vague and fuzzy vision concepts at large today. Managers who master a discovery process to identify core ideology can link their vision statements to the fundamental dynamic that motivates truly visionary companies--that is, the dynamic of preserving the core and stimulating progress. HBS Number: 96501 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1996 Subjects: Corporate culture; Creativity; Employee attitude; Human behavior; Organizational behavior; Political systems; Values; Vision
Article Collins, James C.; Porras, Jerry I. HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, a HBS Number: 410X Type: HBR OnPoint Article Publication Date: 2/1/2000 Subjects: Corporate culture; Creativity; Employee attitude; Human behavior; Organizational behavior; Political systems; Values; Vision
Article Author(s): Starbuck, William H. Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The tension between bureaucracy and innovation dates back to the reign of Louis XIV, says University of Oregon's William H. Starbuck. HBS Number: F0510B Geographic Setting: France Subjects: Business history; Innovation; Organizational behavior; Regulations Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 08/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Writer Richard Bierck examines the business world's adoption of the word "resonate." HBS Number: C0108E Subjects: Communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 10/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Writer Richard Bierck takes a stand against the abundant misuse of the term "value added." HBS Number: C9910D Subjects: EVA; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 06/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Writer Richard Bierck explores the growing influence of American business jargon over the global business community. HBS Number: C0106D Subjects: Communication; International relations; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 04/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Do you or does someone you know suffer from Infectious Consultant Syndrome, or the tendency to spout "the vague, sterile, redundant, and trendy utterances of consultants"? Writer Richard Bierck offers an amusing list of phrases to watch out for. HBS Number: C0004E Subjects: Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 03/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: In this installment of our occasional series on the verbal excesses of the business world, writer Richard Bierck takes on the new argot created when the dot-com bubble burst. HBS Number: C0103C Subjects: Communication; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 12/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Writer Richard Bierck takes on the business world's flagrant misuse of nouns as verbs. HBS Number: C9912C Subjects: Communication; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Bierck, Richard Publication Date: 03/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Now that the English language is in the hands of Web designers and computer engineers, should we be worried? Richard Bierck's quiz helps readers self-diagnose any incidents of "Webspeakitus." HBS Number: C0003C Subjects: Management communication; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Turner, Chris Publication Date: 03/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Ever wonder why most corporate communications programs fail? Has your corporate headquarters attempted to start a new program by simply sending photocopies of a presentation to each employee explaining the new program? Has anybody at HQ ever thought about how people outside senior management might view the new program? Creating engaging communications is easy if you think about the issues from the recipient's point of view and get rid of your poor communications habits. This article offers several ways to get started on a new corporate communications program that your employees will embrace. HBS Number: C9903E Subjects: Business plans; Communication in organizations; Communication strategy; Corporate culture; Innovation; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Abrahams, Marc Publication Date: 10/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0610B Subjects: Best practices; Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: The editor of the “Annals of Improbable Research ” observes that leeches have a thing or two to teach us about so-called best practices.
Article Author(s): Clayton, John Publication Date: 10/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Just as people like movies filled with action and sculptures that show movement, they like business documents that indicate the actions being performed. But most business writing is inert, motionless. That's why it fails to grab the reader. Writing teacher John Clayton offers some solid tips for "verbifying" your writing. If your passive verb habit is too ingrained to kick altogether, don't despair--Clayton also tells how to search out and fix weak, passive verbs during the editing process. HBS Number: C0110C Subjects: Management communication; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Hirschhorn, Larry Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0207G Subjects: Change management; Communication in organizations; Implementation; Leadership; Organizational change; Organizational development; Organizational structure; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Most organizations must change if they're to stay alive. Change is tough to accomplish, but it's not impossible and can be systematized. The author, who has been involved in change initiatives at scores of companies, believes that the success of such programs has more to do with execution than with conceptualization. The successful change programs he observed had one thing in common: They employed three distinct but linked campaigns — political, marketing, and military. A political campaign creates a coalition strong enough to support and guide the initiative. A marketing campaign must go beyond simply publicizing the initiative's benefits. It focuses on listening to ideas that bubble up from the field as well as on working with lead customers to design the initiative. A clearly articulated theme for the transformation program must also be developed. A military campaign deploys executives' scarce resources of attention and time. Successful executives launch all three campaigns simultaneously. The three always feed on one another, and if any one campaign is not properly implemented, the change initiative is bound to fail.
Article Author(s): Hirschhorn, Larry Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0207G, originally published in July 2002. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. Most organizations must change if they're to stay alive. Change is tough to accomplish, but it's not impossible and can be systematized. The author, who has been involved in change initiatives at scores of companies, believes that the success of such programs has more to do with execution than with conceptualization. The successful change programs he observed had one thing in common: They employed three distinct but linked campaigns -- political, marketing, and military. A political campaign creates a coalition strong enough to support and guide the initiative. A marketing campaign must go beyond simply publicizing the initiative's benefits. It focuses on listening to ideas that bubble up from the field as well as on working with lead customers to design the initiative. A clearly articulated theme for the transformation program must also be developed. A military campaign deploys executives' scarce resources of attention and time. Successful executives launch all three campaigns simultaneously. The three always feed on one another, and if any one campaign is not properly implemented, the change initiative is bound to fail. HBS Number: 1385 Subjects: Change management; Communication in organizations; Implementation; Leadership; Organizational change; Organizational development; Organizational structure; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Billington, Jim Publication Date: 09/01/1996 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: This case study considers a senior vice president in a financial institution who fears that his job may fall victim to changing business trends. Although he realizes that networking could help, he resists it. One expert says that a study shows that 88% of us identify ourselves as shy. So, how does one push through it? The experts advise paying attention to the three overlapping networks of contacts--the task network on the job, the career network in professional organizations, and the social network of friends and acquaintances. And remember, the true form of networking is not about getting a job, but about making--and maintaining--good human relationships that are held together by mutual interests. HBS Number: U9609C Geographic Setting:Industry Setting: Subjects: Career advancement; Interpersonal relations; Personal strategy & style Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Majchrzak, Ann; Malhotra, Arvind; Stamps, Jeffrey; Lipnack, Jessica Publication Date: 05/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0405J Subjects: Group behavior; Group dynamics; Organizational behavior; Teams; Telecommunications; Telecommuters; Virtual communities Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Some projects have such diverse requirements that they need a variety of specialists to work on them. But often the best-qualified specialists are scattered around the globe, perhaps at several companies. Remarkably, an extensive benchmarking study reveals, it isn't necessary to bring team members together to get their best work. In fact, they can be even more productive if they stay separated and do all their collaborating virtually. The scores of successful virtual teams the authors examined didn't have many of the psychological and practical obstacles that plagued their more traditional, face-to-face counterparts. Team members felt freer to contribute — especially outside their established areas of expertise. The fact that such groups could not assemble easily actually made their projects go faster, as people did not wait for meetings to make decisions, and individuals, in the comfort of their own offices, had full access to their files and the complementary knowledge of their local colleagues. Reaping those advantages, though, demanded shrewd management of a virtual team's work processes and social dynamics. Rather than depend on videoconferencing or e-mail, which could be unwieldy or exclusionary, successful virtual teams made extensive use of sophisticated online team rooms, where everyone could easily see the state of the work in progress, talk about the work in ongoing threaded discussions, and be reminded of decisions, rationales, and commitments. Differences were most effectively hashed out in teleconferences,
Article Author(s): Stauffer, David Publication Date: 11/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: With all the communications options that are available to us today, it's sometimes hard to choose the appropriate medium for delivering important, difficult, or sensitive messages. HMCL surveyed business communications experts and developed a set of guidelines for delivering difficult messages, whether in person, by written letter, or via telephone, e-mail, or fax. HBS Number: C9911B Subjects: Communication; Interpersonal relations; Management communication; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Ehrenfeld, Tom Publication Date: 12/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: What can you do when discussions become so adversarial that real communication becomes impossible? Try Dialogue. Dialogue is a structured form of communication that allows people to understand how they form assumptions and make decisions. It's a way of getting to the root of conflict without assigning blame. The key is learning to distinguish between one's self and one's views. Major companies are now using Dialogue in knowledge management programs and to deal with reorganization issues. Dialogue is also useful in large groups with diverse points of view. This article includes an annotated list of recent books on Dialogue. HBS Number: C9912A Subjects: Communication; Communication in organizations; Interpersonal relations Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Segil, Larraine Publication Date: 10/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: For most companies, an underperforming business relationship is a painful fact of life at one time or another. When alliances do not pay off, the working relationship between the organizations can become strained and communications acrimonious, which in turn makeS achieving business objectives even more difficult. Breaking out of this self-perpetuating "doom loop" and getting the relationship back on track becomes a real challenge. When faced with an underperforming key business relationship, companies commonly react in one of three ways: they terminate the relationship, throw additional resources at the relationship, or minimize the amount of time, energy, and money spent on it. Each approach produces significant problems. An alliance can be saved, however. Learn more about a "relationship relaunch," the process by which you examine how communication and collaboration between parties can be improved, allowing the relationship to deliver its true value. HBS Number: C0410B Subjects: Alliances; Communication; Communication in organizations; Communication strategy; Interpersonal relations; Partnerships Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Gary, Loren Publication Date: 08/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: What is your company doing to get ahead? Few managers appreciate the value of activities in units outside their own. A multiple-perspective model helps you see how other activities contribute to the success of your own unit and the company as a whole. Read about the competing values model, which can help give you a richer sense of the possibilities for creating value on both an organizational and personal level. HBS Number: U0408A Subjects: Competitive advantage; Management performance; Management styles; Managerial behavior; Values Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Pick, Katharina Publication Date: 07/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0807F Subjects: Board of directors; Communication strategy Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Because board meetings involve two groups — directors and managers — and because directors play a difficult dual role as both cops and advisers, boardroom communication can suffer. Executive sessions and active in-meeting leadership will help.
Article Author(s): Herrin, Angelia Publication Date: 11/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Stephen Dunn was a rising young star at Nabisco when he quit to write poetry. Now, this corporate dropout is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. In a question and answer session with HMCL, Dunn offers some tough-minded reflections on writing and business. The article also includes one of Dunn's poems, "The Last Hours." HBS Number: C0111C Subjects: Decision making; Interviews; Management communication; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Biolos, Jim Publication Date: 05/01/1997 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Five models are presented for professional success in the new economy that are appropriate to the new definition of a career--the pursuit of meaning in one's role at work. They are: 1) the experts whose primary career decision is to master a particular area or skill; 2) the traditionalist who thrives on being part of an organization and exerting influence within it; 3) the portfolio manager whose life voyages include a variety of work experiences, skills, and accomplishments; 4) the planful entrepreneur with an eye always toward applying skills developed in a large organization to start their own business; and 5) the spontaneous entrepreneur, who is passionate enough about an idea to sacrifice the comforts that other models afford. HBS Number: U9705C Subjects: Career advancement; Career changes; Careers & career planning; Entrepreneurship; Job analysis Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Wilson, H. James Publication Date: 10/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: At a time when organizations are struggling to find the right balance between the classic top-down hierarchy and the modern ideal of a leaner, flatter, and more participatory culture, leaders face a critical question: Is it possible to loosen my grip on power, while actually enhancing my ability to get things done through others? The answer is ``yes,'' provided you understand your organization's needs as well as the strategic challenges at hand. Read about three business leaders -- the first two facing a crisis, the third a less dire challenge -- who used a ``democratic style'' of leadership to deliver extraordinary execution and bottom-line results. HBS Number: U0410E Subjects: Communication strategy; Leadership; Management philosophy; Organizational learning Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Friedman, Raymond A. GenCorp, a Connecticut-based paper-goods manufacturer, has long supported employee-organized network groups. Its social support group for African-Americans, in fact, has been a particular success, having provided black employees with o HBS Number: 99405 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1999 Subjects: Diversity; Employee attitude; Employee morale; HBR Case Discussions; Human resources management; Organizational behavior; Personnel policies
Article Rothstein, Lawrence R. Tidewater Corp. CEO Bob Salinger faces a dilemma: his most valuable employee, boat designer Ken Vaughn, is also his most destructive. Because of his great talent, Vaughn is critical to the company's future growth and profitability. But his antagonism toward Tidewater's recent reorganization is causing disruptions all over the company, and Vaughn has become increasingly violent. If Salinger fires Vaughn, he risks losing him to a competitor, who would than be in position to grab Tidewater's market share. But if he keeps Vaughn, the company's necessary reorganization may be seriously damaged. Salinger is waffling in the decision and has made a tough situation even worse. HBS Number: 92608 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1992 Subjects: Conflict; Employee attitude; HBR Case Discussions; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Organizational behavior; Reorganization; Terminations
Article Author(s): Field, Anne Publication Date: 01/15/2006 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: A study in evolution: That's been the story of Serono International's office of strategic management. Initially chartered with a limited mandate, it assumed a dramatically expanded role after a new CEO took over. In the past 10 years, the office has played an integral part in the transformation of the Geneva-based biotechnology and pharmaceutical company from a relatively small, family-run, mainly national player to a $2.5 billion global giant with eight manufacturing plants and 4,900 employees in 45 countries — the largest biotechnology company in Europe and third-largest worldwide. HBS Number: B0601C Geographic Setting: Geneva Industry Setting: Biotechnology & pharmaceutical industries Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Business growth; Competitive strategy; Globalization; Growth strategy; Innovation; Leadership; Organizational transformations; Strategy implementation; Strategy management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Longenecker, Clinton O.; Neubert, Mitchell J.; Fink, Laurence S. Publication Date: 03/15/2007 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University HBS Number: BH228 Subjects: Managerial behavior; Managerial skills; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: To survive in today's ultra-competitive business environment, organizations must better understand the factors that cause managers to fail to achieve desired results. To that end, focus group data was collected from 1,040 managers from over 100 different U.S. manufacturing and service organizations experiencing large scale organizational change in order to help identify the primary causes of managerial failure. Discusses the 15 primary causes of managerial failure identified in the study, along with their perceived consequences to managerial and organizational performance. Ultimately, it is hoped that this will provide a guide for improving the effectiveness of both individual managers and the organizations they serve.
Article Bossidy, Lawrence A.; Tichy, Noel; Charan, Ram In July 1991, Lawrence A. Bossidy became chairman and CEO of AlliedSignal, the $13 billion industrial supplier of aerospace systems, automotive parts, and chemical products. The company's story since then appears to be the typical slas HBS Number: 95201 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1995 Subjects: Industrial goods; Leadership; Management of change; Management styles
Article Bossidy, Lawrence A.; Tichy, Noel; Charan, Ram HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, a HBS Number: 3642 Type: HBR OnPoint Article Publication Date: 6/1/2000 Subjects: Industrial goods; Leadership; Management of change; Management styles
Article Allaire, Paul Paul Allaire leads a company that is a microcosm of the changes transforming American business. With the introduction of the first plain-paper copier in 1959, Xerox invented a new industry and launched itself into a decade of spectacul HBS Number: 92501 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1992 Subjects: Competition; Leadership; Office equipment; Organizational development; Organizational structure
Article Author(s): Rosen, Richard M.; Adair, Fred Publication Date: 09/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0709H Subjects: CEO; Executives; Performance appraisals Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: CEOs tend to have a rosier view of senior management's performance than other top team members do, according to new research — and it looks like the former need a reality check. The authors offer three simple questions that can provide one.
Article Author(s): Nadler, David A. Publication Date: 01/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0701F Industry Setting: Internet & online services industries Subjects: Adaptability; Board of directors; CEO; Decision making; Executive ability; Executives; Leadership; Leadership styles; Managerial skills; Personal strategy & style Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: When a CEO leaves because of performance problems, the company typically recruits someone thought to be better equipped to fix what the departing executive couldn't —: or wouldn't. The board places its confidence in the new person because of the present dilemma's similarity to some previous challenge that he or she dealt with successfully. But familiar problems are inevitably succeeded by less familiar ones, for which the specially selected CEO is not quite so qualified. More often than not, the experiences, skills, and temperament that yielded triumph in Act I turn out to be unequal to Act II's difficulties. In fact, the approaches that worked so brilliantly in Act I may be the very opposite of what is needed in Act II. The CEO has four choices: refuse to change, in which case he or she will be replaced; realize that the next act requires new skills and learn them; downsize or circumscribe his or her role to compensate for deficiencies; or line up a successor who is qualified to fill a role to which the incumbent's skills and interests are no longer suited. Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina exemplifies the first alternative; Merrill Lynch's Stanley O'Neal the second; Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page the third; and Quest Diagnostics' Ken Freeman the fourth. All but the first option are reasonable responses to the challenges presented in the second acts of most CEOs' tenures. And all but the first require a power of observation, a propensity for introspection
Article Author(s): Koch, Janice Publication Date: 07/15/2004 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: Skillfully avoiding the decimation that struck the telecom market, quiet giant Crown Castle International -- a leading global provider of leased towers, antenna space, and broadcast transmission services -- recast its strategy in 2001 from acquisitions to operational excellence. Supported by the adoption of the Balanced Scorecard, the new strategy has carried the company through bumps in the recent economic downturn successfully enough to earn it a place in the BSC Hall of Fame. BSR spoke with CEO John Kelly, who led the company to its present success, about the challenges of becoming a strategy-focused organization. HBS Number: B0407B Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Organizational development; Strategy implementation; Telecommunications industry Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Koch, Janice Publication Date: 07/15/2007 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article HBS Number: B0707D Subjects: Goal setting; Motivation; Organizational behavior; Performance management; Risk; Strategic planning Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Setting appropriate targets — ones that motivate the right behavior without creating unintended consequences — is a delicate task. And ensuring that targets are fair across different units and functional areas is equally tricky. In the first of this occasional series on the challenges of target setting, we look at how two organizations in volatile industry environments set stretch targets.
Article Author(s): Norton, David P. Publication Date: 05/15/2002 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: Has your organization ever thought of having a vice president of change? In a recent review of the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame organizations, it appears that behind every successful CEO was a change agent. Here, we look at the evolving roles of these behind-the-scenes heroes--missionary, consultant, point person, chief of staff--as they successfully shepherded their scorecard initiatives from the earliest mobilization stage to sustainable execution. HBS Number: B0205A Subjects: Balanced scorecard; CEO; Communication in organizations; Corporate strategy; Executives; Management of change; Organizational change; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Booth, Lila Publication Date: 03/01/1998 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: As the pace of change accelerates in today's economy, it's no longer good enough to be responsive to current customer needs and competitive pressures. So how do you get your firm's culture to embrace change? One tool for successfully monitoring and maintaining momentum in the change process is the change audit. This article describes the crucial steps to be taken before and after to ensure that real change takes hold. HBS Number: U9803A Geographic Setting:Industry Setting: Subjects: Auditing; Corporate culture; Management of change; Organizational change; Uncertainty Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Ostroff, Frank Publication Date: 05/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0605J Subjects: Change management; Leadership; Organizational change; Performance effectiveness; Stakeholders; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation; Turnarounds Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Since the days of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, the American public's regard for the competence of public agencies and the value of the services they perform has steadily declined. During that time, innovations in management practice and thinking have mostly originated and been tested in the private sector. But recent events, such as the attacks on the World Trade Center and the engulfment of New Orleans, have demonstrated how essential it is for public agencies to be well run, too. Unfortunately, few public administrators have a background in change management, and a variety of factors — such as civil service rules, political considerations, and the limited tenures of agency heads — have combined to make true reform a rare event. These facts of public life may never go away. But some agency leaders have figured out how to court important stakeholders, rededicate staffers to an agency's true mission, undertake reform so comprehensively that resistant elements are unable to subvert it, and lay the groundwork for next steps clearly and systematically. Consultant Frank Ostroff has studied turnarounds at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Government Accountability Office, and Special Operations Forces — the fast-response, clandestine arm of the military. From these examples and others, he has distilled five principles that underlie successful change efforts: Improve performance against agency mission; win over external and internal stakeholders; establish a road map; recognize the connections among
Article Author(s): Krattenmaker, Tom Publication Date: 10/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Appreciative inquiry (AI) is an approach to organizational change that builds on a company's strength and potential. AI is based on the theory of social constructionism, which says that people and organizations create their realities through their interpretations of and conversations about the world. Instead of focusing on problems, AI focuses on what is working now and what will be possible to achieve in the future. In this article, AI experts discuss the five steps necessary for an effective AI process. HBS Number: C0110B Subjects: Management communication; Organizational behavior; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Garvin, David A.; Roberto, Michael A. Publication Date: 02/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0502F Geographic Setting: Boston, MA Industry Setting: Health care industry; Hospital administration Subjects: Change management; Communication in organizations; Health care; Leadership; Management styles; Mergers; Organizational change; Strategy implementation; Values Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Faced with the need for a massive change, most managers respond predictably. They revamp the organization's strategy, shift around staff, and root out inefficiencies. They then wait patiently for performance to improve — only to be bitterly disappointed because they've failed to prepare employees adequately for the change. In this article, the authors contend that to make change stick, leaders must conduct an effective persuasion campaign — one that begins weeks or months before the turnaround plan is set in concrete. Like a political campaign, a persuasion campaign is largely one of differentiation from the past. Turnaround leaders must convince people that the organization is truly on its deathbed — or, at the very least, that radical changes are required if the organization is to survive and thrive. (This is a particularly difficult challenge when years of persistent problems have been accompanied by few changes in the status quo.) And they must demonstrate through word and deed that they are the right leaders with the right plan. Accomplishing all this calls for a four-part communications strategy. Prior to announcing a turnaround plan, leaders need to set the stage for employees' acceptance of it. At the time of delivery, they must present a framework through which employees can interpret information and messages about the plan. As time passes, they must manage the mood so that employe
Article Author(s): Garvin, David A.; Roberto, Michael A. Publication Date: 01/18/2006 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 2866 Geographic Setting: Boston, MA Industry Setting: Health care industry; Hospital administration Subjects: Change management; Communication in organizations; Health care; Leadership; Management styles; Mergers; Organizational change; Strategy implementation; Values Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Faced with the need for a massive change, most managers respond predictably. They revamp the organization's strategy, shift around staff, and root out inefficiencies. They then wait patiently for performance to improve — only to be bitterly disappointed because they've failed to prepare employees adequately for the change. In this article, the authors contend that to make change stick, leaders must conduct an effective persuasion campaign — one that begins weeks or months before the turnaround plan is set in concrete. Like a political campaign, a persuasion campaign is largely one of differentiation from the past. Turnaround leaders must convince people that the organization is truly on its deathbed — or, at the very least, that radical changes are required if the organization is to survive and thrive. (This is a particularly difficult challenge when years of persistent problems have been accompanied by few changes in the status quo.) And they must demonstrate through word and deed that they are the right leaders with the right plan. Accomplishing all this calls for a four-part communications strategy. Prior to announcing a turnaround plan, leaders need to set the stage for employees' acceptance of it. At the time of delivery, they must present a framework through which employees can interpret information and messages about the plan. As time passes, they must manage the mood so that employees' emotional
Article Havens, Tim George Stanton helped build Sannas Pharmaceuticals in his six years there, and when he is promoted to vice president and director of risk management, he thinks he is set for life. But then a new president is appointed, and George can't HBS Number: 93504 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1993 Subjects: Careers & career planning; HBR Case Discussions; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Management of change; Managerial behavior
Article Author(s): Munck, Bill Publication Date: 11/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0110J Subjects: Attitudes; Corporate culture; Employee retention; Hotels & motels; Job satisfaction; Management of change; Organizational change; Work hours Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Marriott International for many years had a deeply ingrained culture of face time — if you weren't working long hours, you weren't earning your pay. That philosophy didn't seem totally off base in an industry that provides 24/7 service, 365 days a year. But it had a price: By the mid-1990s, Marriott was finding it tough to recruit talented people, and some of its best managers were leaving, often because they wanted to spend more time with their families. “Our emphasis on face time had to go,” recalls Bill Munck, a Marriott vice president for the New England region. In this article, Munck describes how Marriott transformed its “see and be seen” culture by implementing an initiative dubbed Management Flexibility at several of its hotels. This six-month pilot program was designed to help managers strike a better balance between their work lives and their home lives — all while maintaining Marriott's high-quality customer service and its bottom-line financial results. Munck explains how he and his leadership team took the first, relatively easy, step of eliminating redundant meetings and inefficient procedures that kept managers at the office late. The tougher task, he says, was overhauling the fundamental way managers thought about work. Under the pilot, Marriott's message to employees was: Put in long hours when it's needed, but take off early if the work is done — and don't be shy about doing so. As a result of the program, managers are working five fewer hours per week with no drop-off in customer service levels; th
Article Author(s): Ibarra, Herminia Publication Date: 04/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: A new book about career transitions argues that introspection should take a back seat to doing and experimenting. Read the HMU interview with Herminia Ibarra, a professor at INSEAD in France and the author of Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Harvard Business School Press, 2002), and Stephen A. Marini, a professor of religion at Wellesley College. Their recommendations of trial and error fly in the face of standard career advice. But, their ideas might just help you figure out what you were really meant to do with your career. HBS Number: U0304C Subjects: Behavior; Career advancement; Career changes; Careers & career planning; Decision making; Interviews; Personal strategy & style; Work environment Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Pascale, Richard Tanner; Millemann, Mark; Gioja, Linda Companies achieve real agility only when every function and process--when every person--is able and eager to rise to every challenge. This type and degree of fundamental change, commonly called revitalization or transformation, is what HBS Number: 97609 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1997 Subjects: Corporate culture; Employee attitude; Employee empowerment; Management of change; Organizational development
Article Author(s): Pascale, Richard Tanner; Millemann, Mark; Gioja, Linda Publication Date: 02/01/2000 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 97609, originally published in November/December 1997. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Companies achieve real agility only when every function and process — when every person — is able and eager to rise to every challenge. This type and degree of fundamental change, commonly called revitalization or transformation, is what many companies seek but rarely achieve because they have never before identified the factors that produce sustained transformational change. The authors identify three interventions that will restore companies to vital agility and then keep them in good health: incorporating employees fully into the principal business challenges facing the company; leading the organization in a different way in order to sharpen and maintain incorporation and constructive stress; and instilling mental disciplines that will make people behave differently and then help them sustain their new behavior. The authors discovered these basic sources of revitalization by tracking the change efforts of Sears, Roebuck and Co., Royal Dutch Shell, and the United States Army. This article is one of the first practical revitalization guides to appear anywhere, and it is based not on theory but on actual experience. HBS Number: 4037 Subjects: Change management; Corporate culture; Employee attitude; Employee empowerment; Organizational development Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Brown, Terry S.; Gill, Matthew R. Publication Date: 09/15/2006 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article HBS Number: B0609D Subjects: Balanced Scorecard; Business processes; Operations management; Organizational structure; Performance management; Strategic initiatives; Strategic planning; Strategy execution Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Initiatives. They're the heart of strategy execution, where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Yet, so many organizations stumble over organizing and managing them — from litmus-testing them for strategic alignment to streamlining and prioritizing them to tying them to a budget — and then managing the portfolio effectively. The authors' innovative, down-to-earth Horizon Planning format provides a comprehensive methodology that has helped diverse companies get control over this most crucial area of strategy management.
Article Author(s): Hattersley, Michael Publication Date: 07/01/1996 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Most executives spend a tremendous amount of time--often too much--managing meetings. Certain rules for running a successful meeting apply in any situation. The author details the steps to take before, during, and after a meeting to ensure success. HBS Number: U9607D Subjects: Management communication; Managerial skills; Meetings Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Hattersley, Michael Publication Date: 02/01/1997 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Individuals who decide to write a memo should plan strategically, execute carefully, and then follow up. The memo's purpose should be clear by the end of the first sentence. Absolute accuracy must govern every detail. Clarity of thinking and expression are of utmost importance as well. Brevity in a memo is a cardinal virtue--every word must count. Use vigorous language: active verbs, concrete nouns, and a minimum of well-chosen modifiers. You should follow up on any memo, whether by contacting recipients, or following through on promised actions or support materials. Do not overlook any detail of this most common communications tool, for an effective memo will affect your success and reputation. HBS Number: U9702C Subjects: Communication; Communication in organizations; Communication strategy; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Breene, R. Timothy S.; Nunes, Paul F.; Shill, Walter E. Publication Date: 10/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0710D Subjects: Corporate strategy; Executives; Strategy & execution; Strategy alignment; Strategy implementation; Upper management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: They're nominally and ultimately responsible for strategy, but today's CEOs have less and less time to devote to it. As a result, CEOs are appointing “chief strategy officers” (CSOs) — executives specifically tasked with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining a company's strategic initiatives. In this article, three authors from Accenture share the results of their research on this emerging organizational role. The typical CSO or top strategy executive is not a pure strategist, conducting long-range planning in relative isolation. Most CSOs consider themselves doers first, with the mandate, credentials, and desire to act as well as advise. They are seasoned executives with a strong strategy orientation who have usually worn many operations hats before taking on the role. Strategy executives are charged with three critical jobs that together form the very definition of strategy execution. First, they must clarify the company's strategy for themselves and for every business unit and function, ensuring that all employees understand the details of the strategic plan and how their work connects to corporate goals. Second, CSOs must drive immediate change. The focus of the job almost always quickly evolves from creating shared alignment around a vision to riding herd on the ensuing change effort. Finally, a CSO must drive decision making that sustains organizational change. He or she must be that person who, in the CEO's stead, can walk into any office and test whether the decisions being made are aligned with the strat
Article Author(s): Kotter, John P.; Schlesinger, Leonard A. Publication Date: 07/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0807M Subjects: Organizational change; Resistance Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: The rapid rate of change in the world of management continues to escalate. New government regulations, new products, growth, increased competition, technological developments, and an evolving workforce compel organizations to undertake at least moderate change on a regular basis. Yet few major changes are greeted with open arms by employers and employees; they often result in protracted transitions, deadened morale, emotional upheaval, and the costly dedication of managerial time. Kotter and Schlesinger help calm the chaos by identifying four basic reasons why people resist change and offering various methods for overcoming resistance. Managers, the authors say, should recognize the most common reasons for resistance: a desire not to lose something of value, a misunderstanding of the change and its complications, a belief that the change does not make sense for the organization, and a low tolerance for change in general. Once they have diagnosed which form of resistance they are facing, managers can choose from an array of techniques for overcoming it: education and communication, participation and involvement, facilitation and support, negotiation and agreement, manipulation and co-optation, and both explicit and implicit coercion. According to the authors, successful organizational change efforts are characterized by the skillful application of a number of these approaches, with a sensitivity to their strengths and limitations and a realistic appraisal of the situation at hand. In addition, the authors found that successful strategic choices for change are both internally consistent and fit at least some key situational varia
Article Author(s): Chatman, Jennifer; O'Reilly , Charles A., III; Chang, Victoria Publication Date: 02/01/2005 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Like many technology organizations in the late 1990s, Cisco was booming. It grew so quickly, in fact, that it was bringing in up to 1,000 new employees each month. Cisco's solution was to acquire talent by buying small firms, topping out in one year with 24 separate acquisitions. However, in 2000, the dot-com bubble burst and Cisco quickly realized that it had another human capital challenge on its hands: how to develop, rather than hire, the strategic thinkers and leaders needed for the future. Explores the challenges facing Mary Eckenrod, Cisco's vice-president of worldwide talent, in developing a new human capital strategy to identify and develop leaders from within the company -- and to do this in a company with no tradition of developing people internally. How can Cisco move from a ``buy'' to a ``make'' human capital strategy? HBS Number: CMR307 Subjects: Acquisitions; Buy or make decisions; Case method; Employee development; Human resources management; Leadership Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Buchanan, Leigh Publication Date: 10/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0410A Subjects: Brief case; HBR Case Discussions; Human resources management; Interpersonal behavior; Organizational behavior; Politics; Productivity; Work environment Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: The Denver office of Clarion Co., a $30 million, full-service marketing firm, has always been a politics-free zone. Nonwork conversations revolve around families, romances, and the state of the powder at Aspen. If the office sometimes seems detached from the wider world, no one cares. But that all changes with the arrival of Marcus Lippman. A senior project manager hired away from a rival firm in Chicago, Marcus is both charming and aggressive about meeting his new colleagues. During morning encounters in the mail room or kitchenette, he often alludes to the day's headlines. In particular, Marcus follows the presidential campaign with an avidity his colleagues reserve for the fate of contestants on American Idol. Those informed enough to respond, generally do so. Over time, others join in. Politics soon enters the office bloodstream. Employees sense a new energy, a feeling of engagement that intensifies as the campaign season progresses. Many employees make contacts in the business community as they pursue extracurricular political activities. But there are downsides as well. Out-of-control e-mail debates sap productivity. Feelings get hurt. And general manager Joan Mungo discovers that political views play an important part in determining who rises to power in the company. As tensions mount, Joan wonders: Should she do something to stanch political debate and, if so, what? Commenting on this fictional case study are Brian Flynn, the CEO of Schlossberg: Flynn, a business development consulting firm; Frank Furedi, a professor of sociolog
Article Author(s): Swift, Marvin H. Publication Date: 01/01/1973 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The general manager of a corporation circulates a memo advising his employees on company policy about copier use. He carefully revises his original memo and in the process crystallizes his own thinking on the issue. Writing well and thinking well are interrelated. Because rewriting demands objectivity, an ability to separate essential from nonessential ideas, and a willingness to locate and correct contradictions, it provides the key to improved thinking. HBS Number: 73111 Subjects: Management communication; Managerial skills; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Ludeman, Kate; Erlandson, Eddie Publication Date: 05/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0405C Subjects: Coaching; Executive ability; Human behavior; Human resources management; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Leadership; Management of change; Performance appraisal; Performance effectiveness; Personal strategy & style; Psychology; Teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Highly intelligent, confident, and successful, alpha males represent about 70% of all senior executives. Natural leaders, they willingly take on levels of responsibility most rational people would find overwhelming. But many of their quintessential strengths can also make alphas difficult to work with. Their self-confidence can appear domineering. Their high expectations can make them excessively critical. Their unemotional style can keep them from inspiring their teams. That's why alphas need coaching to broaden their interpersonal tool kits while preserving their strengths. Drawing from their experience coaching more than 1,000 senior executives, the authors outline an approach tailored specifically for the alpha. Coaches get the alpha's attention by inundating him with data from 360-degree feedback presented in ways he will find compelling. Such an assessment is a wake-up call for most alphas, providing undeniable proof that their behavior doesn't work nearly as well as they think it does. That paves the way for a genuine commitment to change. To change, the alpha must admit vulnerability, accept accountability not just for his own work but for others', connect with his underlying emotions, learn to motivate through a balance of criticism and validation, and become aware of unproductive behavior patterns. The goal of executive coaching is not simply to treat the alpha as an individual problem, but to improve the entire team dyna
Article Author(s): Field, Anne Publication Date: 11/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article HBS Number: U0711C Subjects: Coaching; Group dynamics; Interpersonal communications; Performance management; Productivity; Teams; Teamwork Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Teams are the workhorses of today's businesses, but they're workhorses prone to any of several ailments, from open bickering and sabotage on one end of the spectrum to resolute conflict avoidance on the other. An increasing number of managers today are turning to team coaching to move their teams' performance to the next level. This article looks at three companies where team coaching ramped up performance and offers expert advice on using team coaching to help squabbling groups manage conflict constructively.
Article Author(s): Gilkey, Roderick; Kilts, Clint Publication Date: 11/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0711B Subjects: Conceptual skills; Creativity; Employee development Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Recent neuroscientific research shows that the health of your brain isn't, as experts once thought, just the product of childhood experiences and genetics; it reflects your adult choices and experiences as well. Professors Gilkey and Kilts of Emory University's medical and business schools explain how you can strengthen your brain's anatomy, neural networks, and cognitive abilities, and prevent functions such as memory from deteriorating as you age. The brain's alertness is the result of what the authors call cognitive fitness — a state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt. Certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises enhance cognitive fitness. Mental workouts are the key. Brain-imaging studies indicate that acquiring expertise in areas as diverse as playing a cello, juggling, speaking a foreign language, and driving a taxicab expands your neural systems and makes them more communicative. In other words, you can alter the physical makeup of your brain by learning new skills. The more cognitively fit you are, the better equipped you are to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change. Cognitive fitness will help you be more open to new ideas and alternative perspectives. It will give you the capacity to change your behavior and realize your goals. You can delay senescence for years and even enjoy a second career. Drawing from the rapidly expanding body of neuroscientific research as well as from well-established research in psychology and other mental health fields, the authors have identified four steps you can take to become cognitively fit: understand how experi
Article Author(s): Sally, David Publication Date: 07/01/2002 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: The Roman Republic embraced a system of co-leadership that thrived for over four centuries before dissolving into the dictatorship of the Empire. Many modern firms are evolving in the opposite direction, as sole leadership structures are replaced or augmented by shared leadership. This modern evolution has been prompted by the increasing prevalence of job sharing and teams in the workplace, joint leadership in the family, and complex technology and massive mergers in the marketplace. This article identifies ten key lessons that the republicans of Rome understood and that are extremely relevant for the modern organization attempting to institute or sustain co-leadership. These ten lessons find parallels in the successes and failures of co-leadership at such firms as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Unilever, and DaimlerChrysler. HBS Number: CMR236 Subjects: Business history; Leadership; Management styles; Management teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Evans, Philip; Wolf, Bob Publication Date: 07/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0507H Geographic Setting: Japan Industry Setting: Automotive industry; Automotive supplies; Software industry Subjects: Autonomy; Collaboration; Constructive conflict; Information sharing; Intellectual property; Modularity; Motivation; Networks; Open-source software; Organizational behavior; Reputations; Software developers; Trust Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Corporate leaders seeking to boost growth, learning, and innovation may find the answer in a surprising place: the Linux open-source software community. Linux is developed by an essentially volunteer, self-organizing community of thousands of programmers. Most leaders would sell their grandmothers for workforces that collaborate as efficiently, frictionlessly, and creatively as the self-styled Linux hackers. But Linux is software, and software is hardly a model for mainstream business. The authors have, nonetheless, found surprising parallels between the anarchistic, caffeinated, hirsute world of Linux hackers and the disciplined, tea-sipping, clean-cut world of Toyota engineering. Specifically, Toyota and Linux operate by rules that blend the self-organizing advantages of markets with the low transaction costs of hierarchies. In place of markets' cash and contracts and hierarchies' authority are rules about how individuals and groups work together (with rigorous discipline); how they communicate (widely and with granularity); and how leaders guide them toward a common goal (by example). Those rules, augmented by simple communication technologies and a lack of legal barriers to sharing information, create rich common knowledge, the ability to organize teams modularly, extraordinary motivation, and high levels of trust, which radically lowers transactio
Article Eisner, Michael; Wetlaufer, Suzy Once upon a time, the Walt Disney Company was famous for a quaint little mouse, a collection of vintage animated films for children, and two enjoyable--but aging--theme parks. It was, in other words, a great American company in eclipse HBS Number: R00111 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/2000 Subjects: CEO; Creativity; Entertainment industry; Innovation; Interviews; Leadership
Article Author(s): Eisner, Michael; Wetlaufer, Suzy Publication Date: 06/01/2000 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 3626 Subjects: CEO; Creativity; Entertainment industry; Innovation; Interviews; Leadership Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R00111, originally published in January/February 2000. HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview and an annotated bibliography. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights. Once upon a time, the Walt Disney Company was famous for a quaint little mouse, a collection of vintage animated films for children, and two enjoyable — but aging — theme parks. It was, in other words, a great American company in eclipse. Today, Disney may be going through some tough times, but it's a vast $23 billion empire. Along with animation blockbusters like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, Disney now owns three motion picture studios, as well as the ABC and ESPN television networks. The company is now poised to build new theme parks in Japan and China to go along with its EuroDisney attractions. Two Disney cruise ships sail the Bahamas. A Disney symphony to mark the millennium opened at the New York Philharmonic last fall. And an integrated network of Web sites stretches out over the Internet. The driving force behind all that growth was undoubtedly Michael Eisner, who became chairman and CEO in 1984. In this interview with senior editor Suzy Wetlaufer, Eisner vividly and colorfully describes the challenges he confronted as he built Disney. In a series of revealing anecdotes, he illustrates the workings of a culture that fosters creativity — an environment fraught with both carefully institutionalized conflict and good old-fashioned common sense. Eisner describes in detail the four pill
Article Author(s): Keller Johnson, Lauren Publication Date: 05/15/2007 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article HBS Number: B0705B Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Communication in organizations; Communication strategy; Corporate strategy Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: At Canon USA, strategic awareness is serious business. Executives advocate top-down, bottom-up, and lateral communications and feedback. The commitment to communicating strategy and aligning employees with this commitment has served the company, a subsidiary of Canon Inc., well. It has played a pivotal role in the success of the company's customer intimacy strategy — a strategy that has propelled Canon to new heights of profitability and won it a place in the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame. In this article, BSR talks with Chuck Biczak, director of strategic planning for Canon USA, about four commonsense lessons that will help any strategy executive meet the communications challenge.
Article Author(s): Gelfand, Louis I. Publication Date: 11/01/1970 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The results of interviews with 600 Pillsbury employees, to determine the effectiveness of internal communications, reveal that good communication and favorable employee attitudes are related. Providing employees with information that they want quickly, and through the channels they prefer, characterizes good communication. The principle organizational procedures of an in-plant communications program are: setting aside 15 minutes of the workweek for supervisors to meet with employees, reporting verbally on matters of interest, and learning from question-and-answer sessions. HBS Number: 70604 Subjects: Management communication; Management styles; Personnel management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Obuchowski, Janice Publication Date: 02/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: It's all too easy to fall into the trap of using the important-sounding but vague expressions that constitute so much business communication today. But jargon is bad news -- not because it irritates English teachers and editors but because it will bore, confuse, and alienate your audience. Read this article to learn how to break free of the tedium, obscurity, and anonymity traps of business language to become a more informative, interesting, and persuasive communicator. HBS Number: C0602B Subjects: Business writing; Communication; Communication in organizations; Influence; Interpersonal communications; Persuasion; Presentations; Writing Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Saunders, Rebecca Publication Date: 08/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: All too often, change processes meant to strengthen an organization actually weaken it by leaving employees confused and resentful--when management really needs their commitment most. Managers need to take pains to communicate effectively throughout a proposed change for their company. By following these 12 tips from the experts--including explaining the reason for the change, supporting the change with new learning, and modeling the change yourself--you can prevent employee morale problems and make a change initiative work in your company. HBS Number: C9908A Subjects: Communication; Communication in organizations; Employee morale; Management communication; Management of change; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Marshall, Jeffrey Publication Date: 04/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Traveling to Eastern Europe on business? This article offers some thoughts from consultants and other experts about communications challenges and how to overcome them when doing business in Eastern Europe. Learn how to avoid certain miscues that would surely hurt your business dealings in these former Soviet-bloc countries. HBS Number: C9904C Subjects: Business etiquette; Communication; Cross cultural relations; Eastern Europe; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Publication Date: 11/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: There are signs and portents of a new age in employee-boss relations in the workplace. Hierarchies are out. Participation is in. Dee Hock, founder of VISA and proselytizer for new ways to manage workers more democratically, calls this new era the "Chaordic age," his made-up word combining chaos and order. He believes that companies need to learn to operate at the edge of chaos and order to be able to respond with the necessary speed and adaptability that the new age demands. This article offers seven rules for successful communication in the Chaordic age. HBS Number: C0011D Subjects: Interpersonal relations; Management communication; Participatory management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Sinickas, Angela Publication Date: 06/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Opening communication channels and making sure that communication flows in the right directions can be critical to performance. What's more, holding back information may prove destructive, giving employees and even customers the wrong signals. Drawing on a number of real-world examples, this article reveals how to establish--and enforce--a set of norms for all directions of communication within organizations: top down, upward, horizontal, and outward. HBS Number: C0106A Subjects: Communication in organizations; Communication strategy; Leadership; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Robbins, Stever Publication Date: 09/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: How can management communications be screwed up? Let us count the ways. Some, of course, can be traced to the idiosyncrasies of leaders. But then there are the common foul-ups that every company falls prey to at one time or another. They include communication without groundwork, lying, believing that words can overcome actions, underestimating your audience's intelligence, and others. HBS Number: C0009A Subjects: Communication in organizations; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Wenger, Etienne C.; Snyder, William M. A new organizational form is emerging in companies that run on knowledge: the community of practice. And for this expanding universe of companies, communities of practice promise to radically galvanize knowledge sharing, learning, and HBS Number: R00110 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/2000 Subjects: Organizational design; Organizational development; Organizational learning; Organizational structure; Teams; Virtual communities
Article Author(s): Tichy, Noel; Brown, Tom Publication Date: 10/01/1997 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Noel Tichy, professor of organizational behavior at the University of Michigan and author of Control Your Own Destiny, discusses the importance of the CEO's role in leadership development. Tichy asserts that the best people in the company to educate and develop future leaders are those who have a record of success that others can learn from. Tichy promotes "the teachable point of view": These leaders possess a base of knowledge about business and the dynamics of business. And these leaders can pass on their knowledge to less experienced managers around them, which prepares new managers to lead in the future. This type of leadership can energize a company and help build a winning organization. HBS Number: U9710B Geographic Setting:Industry Setting: Subjects: Interviews; Leadership; Management development; Organizational development Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Casciaro, Tiziana; Lobo, Miguel Sousa Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0506E Subjects: Archetypes; Conflict; Cross functional teams; Employee problems; New hires; Partners; Peer assist; Personal strategy & style; Psychology; Relationships; Reputations; Skills; Social networks; Work-related interactions Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: When looking for help with a task at work, people turn to those best able to do the job. Right? Wrong. New research shows that work partners tend to be chosen not for ability but for likeability. Drawing from their study encompassing 10,000 work relationships in five organizations, the authors have classified work partners into four archetypes: the competent jerk, who knows a lot but is unpleasant; the lovable fool, who doesn't know much but is a delight; the lovable star, who's both smart and likeable; and the incompetent jerk, who...well, that's self-explanatory. Of course, everybody wants to work with the lovable star, and nobody wants to work with the incompetent jerk. More interesting is that people prefer the lovable fool over the competent jerk. That has big implications for every organization, as both of these types often represent missed opportunities. Lovable fools can bridge gaps between diverse groups that might not otherwise interact. But their networking skills are often developed at the expense of job performance, which can make these employees underappreciated and vulnerable to downsizing. To get the most out of them, managers need to protect them and put them in positions that don't waste their bridge-building talents. As for the competent jerks, many can be socialized through coaching or by being made accountable for bad behavior. May be used with: (9-497-055) Building Coalitions; (9-400-036) Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (
Article Author(s): Casciaro, Tiziana; Lobo, Miguel Sousa Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0506E, originally published in June 2005. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. When looking for help with a task at work, people turn to those best able to do the job. Right? Wrong. New research shows that work partners tend to be chosen not for ability but for likability. Drawing from their study encompassing 10,000 work relationships in five organizations, the authors have classified work partners into four archetypes: the competent jerk, who knows a lot but is unpleasant; the lovable fool, who doesn't know much but is a delight; the lovable star, who's both smart and likable; and the incompetent jerk, who...well, that's self-explanatory. Of course, everybody wants to work with the lovable star, and nobody wants to work with the incompetent jerk. More interesting is that people prefer the lovable fool over the competent jerk. That has big implications for every organization, as both of these types often represent missed opportunities. Lovable fools can bridge gaps between diverse groups that might not otherwise interact. But their networking skills are often developed at the expense of job performance, which can make these employees underappreciated and vulnerable to downsizing. To get the most out of them, managers need to protect them and put them in positions that don't waste their bridge-building talents. As for the competent jerks, many can be socialized through coaching or by being made accountable for bad behavior. HBS Number: 1118 Subjects: Innovation; Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Hobbs, Caswell O. Publication Date: 09/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The penalties for antitrust offenses are more severe than most executives think. But companies that violate antitrust laws can win amnesty by fessing up before someone blows the whistle on them. HBS Number: F0409B Subjects: Antitrust laws; Corporate governance; Corporate responsibility; Legal aspects of business Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Nadler, David A. Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0509C Industry Setting: Consulting Subjects: CEO; Coaching; Communication; Corporate governance; Executive ability; Executives; Leadership; Loyalty; Performance; Personal strategy & style Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Advising CEOs sounds like a dream job, but doing so can be perplexing and perilous. At times, the questions you must ask yourself — about your own motivations and loyalty — can be thornier than the organizational problems that clients face. David Nadler knows, because he has been asking himself such questions for a quarter century while advising the chiefs of more than two dozen corporations. If you're an adviser to CEOs, recognizing the pitfalls of your role may help you sidestep them. And understanding a problem's nuances and implications may help you uncover a solution. The challenges facing consultants include: The loyalty dilemma: Is my ultimate responsibility to the CEO, who pays for my services, or to the institution, which pays for his? Today's shorter CEO tenures and greater board oversight have diminished the top leader's power and autonomy; it's now routine for a CEO adviser to have conversations with directors about the CEO's performance. To defuse loyalty issues, the adviser should raise them with the executive at the outset of the relationship. The overidentification dilemma: How do I immerse myself in the CEO's worldview without making it my own? CEOs can be enormously persuasive, but if you don't push back, you're not doing your job. The trick is to ask probing questions without shaking the CEO's confidence that you fully comprehend the forces that shape her views. The friendship dilemma: If the CEO and I like each other, can we — should we — become friends? A s
Article Author(s): Nadler, David A. Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 1770 Industry Setting: Consulting Subjects: CEO; Coaching; Executive ability; Executives; Leadership Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Advising CEOs sounds like a dream job, but doing so can be perplexing and perilous. At times, the questions you must ask yourself — about your own motivations and loyalty — can be thornier than the organizational problems that clients face. David Nadler knows, because he has been asking himself such questions for a quarter century while advising the chiefs of more than two dozen corporations. If you're an adviser to CEOs, recognizing the pitfalls of your role may help you sidestep them. And understanding a problem's nuances and implications may help you uncover a solution. The challenges facing consultants include: The loyalty dilemma: Is my ultimate responsibility to the CEO, who pays for my services, or to the institution, which pays for his? Today's shorter CEO tenures and greater board oversight have diminished the top leader's power and autonomy; it's now routine for a CEO adviser to have conversations with directors about the CEO's performance. To defuse loyalty issues, the adviser should raise them with the executive at the outset of the relationship. The overidentification dilemma: How do I immerse myself in the CEO's worldview without making it my own? CEOs can be enormously persuasive, but if you don't push back, you're not doing your job. The trick is to ask probing questions without shaking the CEO's confidence that you fully comprehend the forces that shape her views. The friendship dilemma: If the CEO and I like each other, can we — should we — become friends? A successful, long-term advisory relationship with a CEO requires a strong personal connection; in some
Article Levinson, Harry The fundamental psychological conflict that plagues family businesses is rivalry, compounded by feelings of guilt. Company founders feel rivalry when they unconsciously sense that subordinates threaten to remove them from their center of power. For the founders the business is an extension of themselves which they have great difficulty giving up. By confronting and discussing their feelings of hostility and rivalry, possibly in the presence of a neutral third party, family members begin to resolve their problems. HBS Number: 71206 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1971 Subjects: Conflict; Family owned businesses; Interpersonal relations
Article Author(s): Jonash, Ronald; Donlon, Barnaby S. Publication Date: 03/15/2007 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article HBS Number: B0703A Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Customer & client analysis; Financial analysis; Global business; Innovation; Strategy execution Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Innovation-it's crucial for sustaining success in today's ruthlessly competitive global marketplace. Yet for most organizations, successful innovation-defined in terms of a financial premium (superior, sustainable profitable growth) and a customer premium (superior customer preference and sustainable brand equity)-is elusive. In this article, Ronald Jonash, author of The Innovation Premium, and Barnaby Donlon, a senior consultant at Palladium Group, explain how the Balanced Scorecard framework can be used to connect the critical, often disparate, components of the innovation process that drive innovation success.
Article Author(s): Morgan, Nick Publication Date: 05/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: This article takes a look at presentations from three different angles. Drawing on recent books and interviews with their authors, we present advice on establishing relationships with your audience--and what to do when you're not connecting; the power of telling stories; and how to deal with public speaking anxiety. HBS Number: C0105C Subjects: Management communication; Presentations Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Publication Date: 05/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Research shows there are three different methods of communicating with your customers--Courteous, Manipulative, and Personalized. Which method is best for your business? Not surprisingly, the research indicates that the more personalized selling methods are the most effective. The tradeoffs, however, include a greater investment in time and expense. HBS Number: C0005D Subjects: Communication in organizations; Customer relations; Management communication Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Charan, Ram Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The single greatest cause of corporate underperformance is the failure to execute. Author Ram Charan, drawing on a quarter century of observing organizational behavior, perceives that such failures of execution share a family resemblance: a misfire in the personal interactions that are supposed to produce results. Faulty interactions rarely occur in isolation, Charan says. Far more often, they're typical of the way large and small decisions are made or not made throughout the organization. The inability to take decisive action is rooted in a company's culture. But, Charan notes, leaders create a culture of indecisiveness, and leaders can break it. Breaking it requires them to take three actions. First, they must engender intellectual honesty in the connections between people. Second, they must see to it that the organization's "social operating mechanisms"--the meetings, reviews, and other situations through which people in the corporation do business--have honest dialogue at their cores. And third, leaders must ensure that feedback and follow-through are used to reward high achievers, coach those who are struggling, and discourage those whose behaviors are blocking the organization's progress. By taking these three approaches and using every encounter as an opportunity to model open and honest dialogue, a leader can set the tone for an organization, moving it from paralysis to action. HBS Number: R0104D Subjects: Corporate culture; Decision making; Leadership; Management of change; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Charan, Ram Publication Date: 01/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The single greatest cause of corporate underperformance is the failure to execute. According to author Ram Charan, such failures usually result from misfires in personal interactions. And these faulty interactions rarely occur in isolation, Charan says in this article originally published in 2001. More often than not, they're typical of the way large and small decisions are made (or not made) throughout an organization. The inability to take decisive action is rooted in a company's culture. Leaders create this culture of indecisiveness, Charan says — and they can break it by doing three things: First, they must engender intellectual honesty in the connections between people. Second, they must see to it that the organization's social operating mechanisms — the meetings, reviews, and other situations through which people in the corporation transact business — have honest dialogue at their cores. And third, leaders must ensure that feedback and follow-through are used to reward high achievers, coach those who are struggling, and discourage those whose behaviors are blocking the organization's progress. By taking these three approaches and using every encounter as an opportunity to model open and honest dialogue, leaders can set the tone for an organization, moving it from paralysis to action. HBS Number: R0601J Subjects: Change management; Communication in organizations; Corporate culture; Decision making; HBR Classics; Interpersonal relations; Leadership; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Charan, Ram Publication Date: 03/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of the HBR reprint R0104D, originally published in April 2001. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. The single greatest cause of corporate underperformance is the failure to execute. Author Ram Charan, drawing on a quarter century of observing organizational behavior, perceives that such failures of execution share a family resemblance: a misfire in the personal interactions that are supposed to produce results. Faulty interactions rarely occur in isolation, Charan says. Far more often, they're typical of the way large and small decisions are made or not made throughout the organization. The inability to take decisive action is rooted in a company's culture. But, Charan notes, leaders create a culture of indecisiveness, and leaders can break it. Breaking it requires them to take three actions. First, they must engender intellectual honesty in the connections between people. Second, they must see to it that the organization's “social operating mechanisms” — the meetings, reviews, and other situations through which people in the corporation do business — have honest dialogue at their cores. And third, leaders must ensure that feedback and follow-through are used to reward high achievers, coach those who are struggling, and discourage those whose behaviors are blocking the organization's progress. HBS Number: 9373 Subjects: Corporate culture; Decision making; Leadership; Management of change; Organizational change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Publication Date: 11/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Conflict in meetings is often unavoidable. In the worst case, it can derail the meeting and stop progress in its tracks. But when conflict is managed well, it can actually improve the process. The key is knowing both how and when to intervene. Includes a sidebar entitled "Landmines," which describes different types of destructive individual and group behaviors and how to address each. HBS Number: C0011A Subjects: Conflict; Constructive conflict; Group behavior; Meetings Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Daly, John; Engleberg, Isa Publication Date: 06/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Almost every businessperson has experienced some form of stagefright when called upon to deliver a speech or presentation. Luckily, researchers in communication and psychology have identified several strategies that can help you overcome your nervousness. Among them: prepare yourself adequately, focus on your audience, avoid rigid rules, and think before you speak. HBS Number: C9906A Subjects: Presentations Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Hattersley, Michael Publication Date: 07/01/1996 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: This case study analyzes how to stop e-mail and voice mail from taking over your business and personal life. What do you do when you arrive at work to find close to a hundred messages that demand immediate action or response? The solutions to reduce overload include instituting proper standards company-wide concerning the length and urgency of both types of mail. Assistants can be trained to triage the messages. And, one should be selective in responding to both kinds of messages, since responses provoke messages. Another possible solution would be to arrange for a second e-mail address and voice mailbox with restricted access, using the other one for general correspondence. HBS Number: U9607B Geographic Setting:Industry Setting: Subjects: Communication; Communication in organizations; Managerial skills Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Brown, Tom Publication Date: 10/01/1998 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: In the past, most people in the work world haven't thought much about ideas such as spirit and soul. But recently there has been a groundswell of interest in such non-material matters. A record number of books on corporate soul have been published in the last few years. A growing number of senior executives in major corporations are speaking out on the need for managers to cultivate "soul thinking" and "leading with soul." Management trend or New Age bunk? HMU consulted leading experts and practitioners to find out what's behind this new movement. HBS Number: U9810D Geographic Setting:Industry Setting: Subjects: Corporate culture; Corporate image; Management styles; Organizational behavior Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): O'Reilly, Charles A., III Publication Date: 07/01/1989 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR021 Subjects: Corporate culture; Motivation Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: The notion of “corporate culture ” has received widespread attention in the past several years. But what is meant by the term and why should managers be concerned with it? Culture can be thought of as a mechanism for social control. As such, culture is important for both the implementation of strategy and as a mechanism for generating commitment among organizational members. Based on a comparison of strong culture organizations, ranging from cults and religious organizations to strong culture firms, this article argues that culture and commitment result from: systems of participation that rely on processes of incremental commitment; management as symbolic action that helps employees interpret their reasons for working; strong and consistent cues from fellow workers that focus attention and shape attitudes and behavior; and comprehensive reward systems that use recognition and approval. These techniques characterize “strong culture ” organizations.
Article Author(s): Jacobson, Al; Prusak, Laurence Publication Date: 11/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0611H Subjects: Employee training; Knowledge management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Future investments in knowledge management should focus less on enhancing systems that track down information and more on helping employees use what they've found.
Article Author(s): Mizik, Natalie; Jacobson, Robert Publication Date: 07/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0707E Subjects: Corporate actions; Financial planning; Performance measurement Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: A study of 2,859 firms shows that companies unwisely cutting costs to artificially improve performance are fooling no one for long. Their stock rises sharply right afterward but falls precipitously in the next few years, as poor management comes home to roost.
Article Author(s): Reardon, Kathleen K. Publication Date: 01/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0701E Subjects: Communication skills; Contingency planning; Ethics; Leadership; Managerial skills; Managing superiors; Political risk; Risk Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: A division vice president blows the whistle on corruption at the highest levels of his company. A young manager refuses to work on her boss's pet project because she fears it will discredit the organization. A CEO urges his board, despite push back from powerful, hostile members, to invest in environmentally sustainable technology. What is behind such high-risk, often courageous acts? Courage in business, the author has found, seldom resembles the heroic impulsiveness that sometimes surfaces in life-or-death situations. Rather, it is a special kind of calculated risk taking, learned and refined over time. Taking an intelligent gamble requires an understanding of what she calls the “courage calculation”: six discrete decision-making processes that make success more likely while averting rash or unproductive behavior. These include setting attainable goals, tipping the power balance in your favor, weighing risks against benefits, and developing contingency plans. Goals may be organizational or personal. Tania Modic had both types in mind when, as a young bank manager, she overstepped her role by traveling to New York — on vacation time and on her own money — to revitalize some accounts that her senior colleagues had allowed to languish. Her high-risk maneuver benefited the bank and gained her a promotion. Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy weighed the risks and benefits before deciding to report a fellow officer who had plagiarized a research paper at a professional army school. In her difficult courage calculation, loyalty to army standards
Article Author(s): Reardon, Kathleen K. Publication Date: 01/01/2007 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 1726 Subjects: Communication skills; Ethics; Leadership; Managerial skills; Managing superiors; Political risk Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: A division vice president blows the whistle on corruption at the highest levels of his company. A young manager refuses to work on her boss's pet project because she fears it will discredit the organization. A CEO urges his board, despite push back from powerful, hostile members, to invest in environmentally sustainable technology. What is behind such high-risk, often courageous acts? Courage in business, the author has found, seldom resembles the heroic impulsiveness that sometimes surfaces in life-or-death situations. Rather, it is a special kind of calculated risk taking, learned and refined over time. Taking an intelligent gamble requires an understanding of what she calls the “courage calculation”: six discrete decision-making processes that make success more likely while averting rash or unproductive behavior. These include setting attainable goals, tipping the power balance in your favor, weighing risks against benefits, and developing contingency plans. Goals may be organizational or personal. Tania Modic had both types in mind when, as a young bank manager, she overstepped her role by traveling to New York —: on vacation time and on her own money —: to revitalize some accounts that her senior colleagues had allowed to languish. Her high-risk maneuver benefited the bank and gained her a promotion. Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy weighed the risks and benefits before deciding to report a fellow officer who had plagiarized a research paper at a professional army school. In her difficult courage calculation, loyalty to army standards proved stronger than the potential discomf
Article Mintzberg, Henry The orchestra conductor is a popular metaphor for managers today--up there on the podium in complete control. But that image may be misleading, says McGill University and INSEAD Professor Henry Mintzberg, who recently spent a day with HBS Number: 98608 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1998 Subjects: Knowledge workers; Leadership; Management of professionals; Management styles
Article Author(s): Beer, Michael; Nohria, Nitin Publication Date: 05/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Today's fast-paced economy demands that businesses change or die. But few companies manage corporate transformations as well as they would like. The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail. In this article, authors Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria describe two archetypes — or theories — of corporate transformation that may help executives crack the code of change. Theory E is change based on economic value: shareholder value is the only legitimate measure of success, and change often involves heavy use of economic incentives, layoffs, downsizing, and restructuring. Theory O is change based on organizational capability: the goal is to build and strengthen corporate culture. Most companies focus purely on one theory or the other, or haphazardly use a mix of both, the authors say. Combining E and O is directionally correct, they contend, but it requires a careful, conscious integration plan. Beer and Nohria present the examples of two companies, Scott Paper and Champion International, that used a purely E or purely O strategy to create change — and met with limited levels of success. They contrast those corporate transformations with that of UK-based retailer ASDA, which has successfully embraced the paradox between the opposing theories of change and integrated E and O. The lesson from ASDA? To thrive and adapt in the new economy, companies must make sure the E and O theories of business change are in sync at their own organizations. HBS Number: R00301 Subjects: Corporate culture; Corporate governance; Employee compensation; Employee empowerment; Human behavior; Human resources management; Leadership; Management of change; Management philosophy; Management styles Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Beer, Michael; Nohria, Nitin Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 651X Subjects: Corporate culture; Corporate governance; Employee compensation; Employee empowerment; Human behavior; Human resources management; Leadership; Management of change; Management philosophy; Management styles Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R00301, originally published in May/June 2000. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Today's fast-paced economy demands that businesses change or die. But few companies manage corporate transformations as well as they would like. The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail. In this article, authors Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria describe two archetypes — or theories — of corporate transformation that may help executives crack the code of change. Theory E is change based on economic value: shareholder value is the only legitimate measure of success, and change often involves heavy use of economic incentives, layoffs, downsizing, and restructuring. Theory O is change based on organizational capability: the goal is to build and strengthen corporate culture. Most companies focus purely on one theory or the other, or haphazardly use a mix of both, the authors say. Combining E and O is directionally correct, they contend, but it requires a careful, conscious integration plan. Beer and Nohria present the examples of two companies, Scott Paper and Champion International, that used a purely E or purely O strategy to create change — and met with limited levels of success.
Article Author(s): Frangos, Cassandra A.; Johnson, Lauren Keller Publication Date: 09/15/2005 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: You've cascaded the Balanced Scorecard down to every employee in your organization through the creation of personal scorecards. Now align your HR practices to help employees achieve the objectives on their scorecards. HBS Number: B0509C Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Human resources management; Process innovation; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Frangos, Cassandra A. Publication Date: 11/15/2004 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: Employee performance management has been at best a mix of disjointed, periodic activities--the performance review, rewards programs, training, development--that frequently don't get the attention they deserve. So loathed is the performance review that at some organizations barely 50% of the employees actually complete theirs. Best-practice organizations know that to execute strategy, employees must be strategy focused. Here's how to get your employees aligned. HBS Number: B0411E Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Employee development; Performance appraisal; Strategy formulation Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Meehan, Paul; Rigby, Darrell; Rogers, Paul Publication Date: 01/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article HBS Number: U0801C Subjects: Corporate culture; Employee development; Group dynamics; Management communication; Motivation; Organizational management; Organizational structure; Organizational transformations Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Strategy matters, no doubt. But without a winning culture to drive it forward, your strategy's taking you nowhere. So argue Paul Meehan, Darrell Rigby, and Paul Rogers, all partners at Bain & Company, in this article in which they identify the characteristics of a winning culture and note the steps companies take to create and sustain a winning culture.
Article Author(s): Greenberg, Penelope S.; Greenberg, Ralph H.; Lederer Antonucci, Yvonne Publication Date: 07/01/2007 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University HBS Number: BH242 Industry Setting: IT industry Subjects: Communication; Human resources management; Life cycles; Team building; Trust; Virtual teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Conventional wisdom assumes that trust develops from a history of interpersonal interactions and communication, through which people come to 'know and trust' one another. In virtual teams, however, establishing trust can be complicated: members may have no past on which to build, no future to reference, and may never even actually meet face-to-face. Swift but fragile trust can develop early in a team's life cycle. Yet, if swift trust doesn't develop or even dissipates, members need to find ways of building trust in each other. To this end, an understanding of how trust impacts a virtual team's development will help managers and team leaders to facilitate and improve team success. Describes the three components of trust (ability, integrity, and benevolence) and identifies which of these are critical to each life cycle stage (establishing the team, inception, organizing, transition, and accomplishing the task) of the virtual team. Proposed action steps for each stage show managers and team leaders how to help members develop trust and sustain it through the project's successful completion.
Article Author(s): Pateman, Andrew J. Publication Date: 09/15/2004 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: Organizational change is a tall order for most government organizations. Bureaucracies move slowly, often foster competition instead of cooperation, and generally lack a tradition of strategic mindedness at all but the highest echelons. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada's all-encompassing law enforcement and intelligence service, overcame these occupation obstacles through a new policing model, new processes, and a creative approach to management by mandate--enabled by the Balanced Scorecard. It's an inspiring tale of alignment. HBS Number: B0409B Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Canada; Organizational development; Performance measurement Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Publication Date: 12/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: In many ways, the world of work is entirely different than it was just a decade ago. You work with people you never see--and may have never even met. Your colleagues come and go at all hours and in all manner of dress, and they may not even be actual employees of the same company. This complexity adds up to one thing: good communication is more difficult--and more necessary--than ever. In this article, we turn to the experts for some ground rules on communication in the virtual age. HBS Number: C0012F Subjects: Internet; Management communication; Teams; Virtual communities Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Neal, Douglas Publication Date: 08/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: Connectivity through the Web doesn't just change your relationship to coworkers, it also redefines your relationship to the rest of the world. What do you want others to know about you, and under what conditions? What do you want to keep restricted? What are you willing to have known, but only for a price? New technology has created not only a host of new problems, but also an innovative way of dealing with them: own your information and sell it back to marketers. HBS Number: C0008B Subjects: Electronic commerce; Internet; Right of privacy; Technological change Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Prince, George M. Most managerial styles are characterized by an emphasis on the power and the right of the manager to pass judgment on the actions of his or her subordinates. Judicious managers facilitate the expression of ideas by sharing their power and acting as collaborators with their subordinates. By creating a climate in which it is appropriate to voice imperfect thoughts and ideas, judicious managers encourage more frequent individual and group accomplishment and increased satisfaction and motivation. HBS Number: 72410 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1972 Subjects: Creativity; Interpersonal behavior; Management communication; Management styles; Power & influence
Article Author(s): Amabile, Teresa; Hadley, Constance N.; Kra Publication Date: 08/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: If you're like most managers, you've worked with people who swear they do their most creative work under tight deadlines. You may use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur people on to great leaps of insight. You may even manage yourself this way. If so, are you right? Not necessarily, these researchers say. When creativity is under the gun, it usually ends up getting killed, the authors say. They recently took a close look at how people experience time pressure, collecting and analyzing more than 9,000 daily diary entries from individuals who were working on projects that required high levels of creativity and measuring their ability to innovate under varying levels of time pressure. The authors describe common characteristics of time pressure and outline four working environments under which creativity may or may not flourish. High-pressure days that still yield creativity are full of focus and meaningful urgency--people feel they are on a mission. High-pressure days that yield no creativity lack such focus--people feel they are on a treadmill, forced to switch gears often. On low-pressure days that yield creativity, people feel as though they are on an expedition--exploring ideas rather than just identifying problems. And on low-pressure days that yield no creative thinking, people work on autopilot--doing their jobs without engaging too deeply. Managers should avoid extreme time pressure when possible. HBS Number: R0208C Subjects: Creativity; Human behavior; Innovation; Motivation; Organizational development; Psychology; Teams; Values Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Amabile, Teresa; Hadley, Constance N.; Kra Publication Date: 08/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 1571 Subjects: Creativity; Human behavior; Innovation; Motivation; Organizational development; Psychology; Teams; Values Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0208C, originally published in August 2002. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. If you're like most managers, you've worked with people who swear they do their most creative work under tight deadlines. You may use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur people on to great leaps of insight. You may even manage yourself this way. If so, are you right? Not necessarily, these researchers say. When creativity is under the gun, it usually ends up getting killed, the authors say. They recently took a close look at how people experience time pressure, collecting and analyzing more than 9,000 daily diary entries from individuals who were working on projects that required high levels of creativity and measuring their ability to innovate under varying levels of time pressure. The authors describe common characteristics of time pressure and outline four working environments under which creativity may or may not flourish. High-pressure days that still yield creativity are full of focus and meaningful urgency — people feel they are on a mission. High-pressure days that yield no creativity lack such focus — people feel they are on a treadmill, forced to switch gears often. On low-pressure days that yield creativity, people feel as though they are on an expedition — exploring ideas rather than just identifying problems. And on low-pressure days that yield no creative thinking, people work on autopilot — doing their jobs without engaging too deeply.
Article Author(s): Parsons, George D.; Pascale, Richard Tanner Publication Date: 03/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0703E Subjects: Behavior; Burnout; Careers & career planning; Executive ability; Executives; Job satisfaction; Leadership; Leadership development; Motivation; Performance; Psychology; Self-assessment; Talent Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: An unrecognized affliction is striking certain gifted performers at the top of their game. Its cause, paradoxically, is success itself. These stars, who thrive on conquering new challenges, can lose their bearings and question their purpose once a job has been mastered. A vague dissatisfaction gives way to confusion and then to inner turmoil. Left unattended, this summit syndrome can derail promising careers. The syndrome has three phases. In the approach phase, when most of the challenges of a current job have been met, sufferers tend to push harder in a vain attempt to recapture the adrenaline rush of the climb. Then, in the plateauing phase, when virtually all the challenges have been conquered, these individuals, who are incapable of coasting, bear down to try to produce ever more stellar results, but to less effect and greater dissatisfaction. This leads to the terminal descending phase, when performance slips noticeably. As their superstar status fades, they jump ship, accept demotions, or take lateral transfers. It's a terrible waste, for if the syndrome is recognized, steps can be taken before performance slips to dispel the confusion and set the stage for productive growth to the next assignment. There are four parts to this process: First, understand your “winning formula” — the characteristic way you approach a situation — and the vital part it plays in feeling stale or losing your edge. Second, reconnect with your core purpose in life. Third,
Article Author(s): Argenti, Paul Publication Date: 12/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The sheer enormity of last year's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon gave new meaning to the term “crisis management.” Suddenly, companies near Ground Zero, as well as those more than a thousand miles away, needed a plan. Because the disasters disrupted established channels not only between businesses and customers but between businesses and employees, internal crisis-communications strategies that could be quickly implemented became a key responsibility of top management. In this article, executives from a range of industries talk about how their companies, including Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer Funds, American Airlines, Verizon, the New York Times, Dell, and Starbucks, went about restoring operations and morale. From his interviews with these individuals, author and management professor Paul Argenti was able to distill a number of lessons, each of which, he says, may “serve as guideposts for any company facing a crisis that undermines its employees' composure, confidence, or concentration.” His advice to senior executives includes: Maintain high levels of visibility so that employees are certain of top management's command of the situation and concern; establish contingency communication channels and work sites; strive to keep employees focused on the business itself, because a sense of usefulness enhances morale and good morale enhances usefulness; and ensure that employees have absorbed the firm's values, which will guide them as they cope with the unpredictable. HBS Number: R0212H Subjects: Communication; Communication strategy; Employee morale; Leadership; Management of crises; Motivation; Uncertainty; Values Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Salmon, Walter J. The two crucial responsibilities of corporate boards--oversight of long-term company strategy and the selection, evaluation, and compensation of top management--were not well met during the 1980s. There should not be government reform HBS Number: 93106 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1993 Subjects: Board of directors; Corporate governance; Financial management; Leadership; Outside directors; Stockholders
Article Levinson, Harry Those responsible for selecting leaders may use these 20 dimensions of personality to evaluate candidate's behavior. A psychologist's experience offers a list of personality dimensions and a scale of characteristics with which to measure behavior. The 20 dimensions are classified into three groups according to psychological themes: thinking; feelings and interrelationships; and outward behavior and characteristics. HBS Number: 80410 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1980 Subjects: Executives; Leadership; Managerial selection
Article Author(s): Bennis, Warren G.; Thomas, Robert J. Publication Date: 09/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0209B Subjects: Interpersonal behavior; Leadership; Management styles; Mentors; Motivation; Power & influence; Values; Vision Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: What makes a great leader? Why do some people appear to know instinctively how to inspire employees — bringing out their confidence, loyalty, and dedication — whereas others flounder again and again? No simple formula can explain how great leaders come to be, but Bennis and Thomas believe it has something to do with the ways people handle adversity. The authors' recent research suggests that one of the most reliable indicators and predictors of true leadership is the ability to learn from even the most negative experiences. In interviewing more than 40 leaders in business and the public sector over the past 3 years, the authors discovered that all of them — young and old alike — had endured intense, often traumatic, experiences that transformed them and became the source of their distinctive leadership abilities. Bennis and Thomas call these shaping experiences “crucibles,” after the vessels medieval alchemists used in their attempts to turn base metals into gold. For the interviewees, their crucibles were the points at which they were forced to question who they were and what was important to them. These experiences made them stronger and more confident and changed their sense of purpose in some fundamental way. May be used with: (9-405-087) Oprah!; (9-406-016) Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Young Minister Confronts the Challenges of Montgomery.
Article Author(s): Bennis, Warren G.; Thomas, Robert J. Publication Date: 09/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0209B, originally published in September 2002. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. What makes a great leader? Why do some people appear to know instinctively how to inspire employees -- bringing out their confidence, loyalty, and dedication -- whereas others flounder again and again? No simple formula can explain how great leaders come to be, but Bennis and Thomas believe it has something to do with the ways people handle adversity. The authors' recent research suggests that one of the most reliable indicators and predictors of true leadership is the ability to learn from even the most negative experiences. In interviewing more than 40 leaders in business and the public sector over the past 3 years, the authors discovered that all of them -- young and old alike -- had endured intense, often traumatic, experiences that transformed them and became the source of their distinctive leadership abilities. Bennis and Thomas call these shaping experiences ``crucibles,'' after the vessels medieval alchemists used in their attempts to turn base metals into gold. For the interviewees, their crucibles were the points at which they were forced to question who they were and what was important to them. These experiences made them stronger and more confident and changed their sense of purpose in some fundamental way. HBS Number: 1717 Subjects: Interpersonal behavior; Leadership; Management styles; Mentors; Motivation; Power & influence; Values; Vision Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Iannucci, Bob; O'Connell, Andrew Publication Date: 06/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0806E Subjects: Cellphones; Growth strategy Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Nokia's chief technology officer is helping the company find growth by going in a radical new direction. Because Nokia has been down the reinvention road before, Iannucci believes it has the mind-set, structure, and strategy in place to realize its “deep future.”
Article Author(s): Field, Anne Publication Date: 02/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article HBS Number: U0802A Subjects: Creativity; Entrepreneurs; Experimentation; Innovation; Psychological safety Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Successful innovations deliver tremendous value, generating new products, fresh strategies, and better processes. But most managers shy away from the risk taking that innovation necessarily involves. To cultivate a healthy appetite for risk, organizations can learn to extract more value from the inevitable failures. This article explains how to create a risk-friendly culture by increasing the potential gains and reducing the potential costs of risk taking, reducing individuals' accountability on riskier projects, and productively managing failure.
Article Author(s): Robbins, Stever Publication Date: 08/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Management Communication Letter Article Product Description: How do you ensure that your vision of a positive company culture is made real in the day-to-day interactions of the business? It becomes easier when you treat culture as communication. Make your culture real around you and your work group, and then propagate it outward. Some keys are: letting your actions describe your words, aligning corporate rewards with the desired culture, and reinforcing that culture with nonverbal as well as verbal clues. HBS Number: C0108A Subjects: Communication; Corporate culture; Corporate image; Employee morale; Work force management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Kell, Thomas; Carrott, Gregory T. Publication Date: 05/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Managers with different jobs in the same company are more likely to have similar leadership styles than managers with similar jobs in different companies, report Thomas Kell and Gregory T. Carrott of Heidrick & Struggles. HBS Number: F0505D Subjects: Corporate culture; Leadership; Management styles; Organizational behavior Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Heath, Chip; Heath, Dan Publication Date: 12/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0612A Subjects: Communication in organizations; Communication strategy; Knowledge management Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Impenetrable strategy statements can't unite employees behind an organization's goals, but concrete language and stories can.
Article Author(s): Khurana, Rakesh Publication Date: 09/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0209D, originally published in September 2002. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. When struggling companies look for a new chief executive today, the one quality they prize above all others is charisma. But once they've recruited a larger-than-life leader, they often find that their troubles only get worse. Indeed, as the author's new research painfully reveals, the widespread belief in the powers of charismatic CEOs can be problematic. Why? First, Khurana says, there's no conclusive evidence that charismatic leadership affects an organization's performance. Second, the insistence on finding a charismatic leader, combined with the undefinable nature of charisma, results in selection processes that are overly conservative and even irrational. Boards end up considering only candidates who have already achieved the rank of CEO or president at a high-performing, high-profile company, even if they are not right for the job. Third, charismatic leaders deliberately destabilize organizations. This can result in a more vibrant company, as it did at General Electric during Jack Welch's tenure, but it can also leave a troubled legacy for the organization to overcome, as GE, Ford, and Enron have all found. Faith in a company, a product, or an idea can unleash tremendous innovation and productivity. HBS Number: 1741 Subjects: CEO; Interpersonal behavior; Leadership; Management styles; Personal strategy & style; Power & influence; Values; Vision Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Wheatley, Margaret; Kiechel, Walter Publication Date: 11/01/1996 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Margaret "Meg" Wheatley, a noted consultant, author, and educator, discusses the struggle occurring within American corporations between traditional structures and self-organizing forms, in which networks, patterns, and structures emerge without external imposition or direction. The role of a leader in an organization is changing profoundly. While some leaders have become more thoughtful, declaring, "We just can't keep going on this way," others feel threatened by change. Wheatley argues that the preservation of personal power and status is antithetical to learning in organizations. She worries about organizational change driven by Wall Street's concerns and not by questioning our beliefs and experience about why people work and work well together. HBS Number: U9611B Geographic Setting:Industry Setting: Subjects: Interviews; Leadership; Organizational design; Organizational development; Organizational structure Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Kets de Vries, Manfred F.R. Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: In many walks of life — and business is no exception — there are high achievers who believe that they are complete fakes. To the outside observer, these individuals appear to be remarkably accomplished; often, they are extremely successful leaders with staggering lists of achievements. These neurotic impostors — as psychologists call them — are not guilty of false humility. The sense of being a fraud is the flip side of giftedness and causes a great many talented, hardworking, and capable leaders to believe that they don't deserve their success. “Bluffing” their way through life (as they see it), they are haunted by the constant fear of exposure. With every success, they think, “I was lucky this time, fooling everyone, but will my luck hold? When will people discover that I'm not up to the job?” In his career as a management professor, consultant, leadership coach, and psychoanalyst, Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries has found neurotic impostors at all levels of organizations. In this article, he explores the subject of neurotic imposture and outlines its classic symptoms: fear of failure, fear of success, perfectionism, procrastination, and workaholism. He then describes how perfectionist overachievers can damage their careers, their colleagues' morale, and the bottom line by allowing anxiety to trigger self-handicapping behavior and cripple the very organizations they're trying so hard to please. Finally, Kets de Vries offers advice on how to limit the incidence of neurotic imposture and mitigate its damage through discreet vigilance, appropriate intervention, and constructive support. HBS Number: R0509F Subjects: Executive ability; Leadership; Psychology Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Kets de Vries, Manfred F.R. A leadership change in a company is unsettling. Key players may act on unconscious feelings that can disrupt and possibly sabotage a sensible succession process. The CEO, board, and other top managers are most vulnerable to these forces when the CEO first recognizes the need to retire, when the successor is chosen, and when the new CEO takes charge. HBS Number: 88107 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1988 Subjects: Executives; Leadership; Managerial behavior; Managerial selection; Retirement; Succession planning
Article Kets de Vries, Manfred F.R. Research on 38 entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries reveals them as achievement oriented, liking to take responsibility for decisions, and disliking repetitious work. Entrepreneurs tend to be visionary, creative, and have high levels of energy. The industries and jobs they create stimulate the economy. But their strong personality traits can make them difficult people to work with. Difficult characteristics include: a need for control, a sense of distrust, desire for applause, and particular defenses. HBS Number: 85609 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1985 Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Personal strategy & style; Small business
Article Author(s): Neeleman, David; Wademan, Daisy Publication Date: 03/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: JetBlue's David Neeleman talks about how his unexpected lessons from working with the poor have informed his company's egalitarian culture. HBS Number: F0503K Subjects: Corporate culture; Employee morale; Leadership Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Koch, Nancy; Moore, Geoffrey A. Publication Date: 03/15/2007 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article HBS Number: B0703E Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Change management; Disruptive technologies; Globalization; Innovation; Organizational transformations; Strategic vision Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: Innovation, claims Geoffrey Moore, is Darwinian. It's not strategy, but requirement. Yet most organizations naturally resist change. How do elite companies embrace change to innovate and succeed? By ruthlessly distinguishing between their “core” and “context” activities, by wedding the right innovation model to their business strategy. Moore, bestselling author on disruptive technologies and strategic transformation, shares insights from his latest book, “Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution” (Portfolio, 2006).
Article Author(s): Ross, Judith Publication Date: 08/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Although most people tell human resources they are leaving for more money or a better opportunity, 88% change jobs because of negative factors in their current workplace, ranging from subpar people management to toxic culture. With the U.S. Department of Labor predicting potential labor shortages through the year 2012, managers must discontinue this ostrich-like behavior and address employee turnover head on. Doing so effectively will require many managers to rethink their approach to retention. At plenty of firms, for example, retention remains a concern only when executives fear that valued employees may seriously be considering leaving. But this way of thinking dooms a company to failure, as it ignores all the opportunities to keep people from even thinking about leaving. Indeed, the retention war begins at the hiring stage -- with companies recruiting employees whose talents and interests fit with both the short- and long-term needs of the organization. And once employees are in the door, the battle to keep them should commence immediately. Learn more about how to keep your employees from leaving. HBS Number: U0508A Subjects: Employee retention; Employee turnover; Job satisfaction; Personnel management; Work environment Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Hemp, Paul Publication Date: 09/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0909J Subjects: Information management; Knowledge workers Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership Product Description: The value of information in the knowledge economy is indisputable, but so is its capacity to overwhelm consumers of it. HBR contributing editor Hemp reports on practical ways for individuals and organizations to avoid getting too much of a good thing. Ready access to useful information comes at a cost: As the volume increases, the line between the worthwhile and the distracting starts to blur. And ready access to you — via e-mail, social networking, and so on — exacerbates the situation: On average, Intel executives get 300 e-mails a day, and Microsoft workers need 24 minutes to return to work after each e-mail interruption. Clearly, productivity is taking a hit. Technological aids can help, such as e-mail management software for you, a message-volume regulation system for your organization, or even more sophisticated solutions being developed by Microsoft, IBM, and others. Yet, battling technological interruptions on their own turf only goes so far. You also need to change your mind-set, perhaps by seeking help from personal-productivity experts or by simply accepting that you can't respond to every distraction that flits across your screen. Similarly, organizations must change their cultures, for instance by establishing clear e-communication protocols. In the end, only a multipronged approach will help you and your organization subdue the multiheaded monster of information overload. The secret is to manage the beast while still respecting it for the beautiful creature it is.
Article Author(s): Michelman, Paul; Kleiner, Art Publication Date: 05/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Art Kleiner, research director at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based consulting firm Dialogos and author of Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success (Doubleday, 2003), talks about the extra burden certain forms of leadership impart. These leadership roles often exist outside the command-and-control structure; they rise from the informal but powerful obligations of what Kleiner calls the ``organizational core group.'' Leaders who belong to their companies' core groups must be careful with how they exert influence, as well as take specific steps to ensure they steer their firms in the right direction. HBS Number: U0405E Subjects: Group decision making; Group dynamics; Leadership; Management of professionals; Power & influence; Teams Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
Article Author(s): Johnson, Lauren Keller Publication Date: 12/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: It's an old, troubling story: individuals or groups within an organization--feeling the need to safeguard their jobs or secure their successful position in the company--set out to make themselves indispensable. They move to protect their turf and seize control over what work gets done and how it gets done. In short, they create fiefdoms. How can you best shatter the fiefdoms proliferating in your company? According to Bob Herbold, former COO of Microsoft and author of The Fiefdom Syndrome, you need to strike a delicate balance. Specifically, you must restore discipline across the organization while also reviving fiefdom inhabitants' ability and willingness to generate creative ideas for solving problems and satisfying customers. Learn more about breaking up corporate fiefdoms in this interview. HBS Number: U0412B Subjects: Corporate strategy; Creativity; Interviews; Organizational change; Organizational problems; Problem solving Academic Discipline: Organizational behavior & leadership
