- 20 Jun 2012
- Lessons from the Classroom
Teaching Leadership: What We Know
The field of leadership education has reached a critical stage. After several decades of experimentation, "The Handbook for Teaching Leadership," Scott A. Snook, Rakesh Khurana, and Nitin Nohria, is intended to be a foundational reference for educators facing this increasingly important challenge. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
From Social Control to Financial Economics: The Linked Ecologies of Economics and Business in Twentieth Century America
No transformation looks more consequential for the history of American higher education than the extraordinary rise of business schools and business degrees in the twentieth century. Marion Fourcade (UC Berkeley) and Rakesh Khurana (HBS) analyze the changing place of economics in American business education as reflected in the teaching of three elite business schools over the course of the twentieth century: the Wharton School (1900-1930), the Carnegie Tech Graduate School of Industrial Administration (post World War II), and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago (1960s-present). Key concepts include: Wharton is an illustration of the earliest trends and dilemmas, when business schools found themselves caught between their business connections and their striving for moral legitimacy in higher education. The Carnegie Tech Graduate School of Industrial Administration reflects a new vision, starting in the 1950s, of the contribution of business to society with the rise of "management science"-a new formation that broke from the existing disciplinary system and sought to legitimatize itself through its hard-core technical capabilities. The University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business marks the decisive ascendancy of economics, and particularly financial economics, in business education over the other behavioral disciplines. This transformation helped produce and sustain new understandings of the nature of the firm, with far-reaching consequences for business practices and economic relations in society. Theories from each period provided a new language, and new categories of understanding and action, that not only became naturalized in the teachings of American business schools but also came to sustain and even instigate profound alterations in the nature of American corporations and markets-at least until the next series of tools, concepts, and business recipes came along. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
How Foundations Think: The Ford Foundation as a Dominating Institution in the Field of American Business Schools
What causes institutions to change? This paper adds organizational and exogenous perspective to existing theories by looking at the idea of "dominating institutions"—a class of formal organizations purposively designed to change other institutions. HBS professor Rakesh Khurana and colleagues look at the Ford Foundation and its work reshaping America's graduate schools of management between 1952 and 1965 through funding of "centers of excellence" at a number of schools, including Harvard Business School. Key concepts include: The goal of this paper is to describe the structural characteristics and associated behaviors of dominating institutions, specifically the Ford Foundation, as they incite change within other institutions. Through its analysis and recommendations, the Ford Foundation reshaped America's graduate schools of management between 1952 and 1965 from a vocationally disparate, but "successful" field to a more academically and discipline-based orientation. The researchers anchor their work around two questions: What are the structural characteristics of a dominant institution? What key behaviors do dominant institutions use to allow them to significantly reshape an existing institution? The power of these institutions to change other institutions resided in their ability to broker personnel and practices across institutional sectors, elevating and legitimating particular practices, and providing resources in ways that increase the interdependence between the foundations and their beneficiaries. Large-scale institutional change does not occur in isolation, the findings suggest, but rather has to be understood in relation to what is happening in other institutional fields. Scholars studying institutional change should make an analytical distinction between the structure of the position of organizational actors in an institutional field and the interactions among the organizations in that field. Both are important in understanding the processes of institutional change. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 May 2010
- Research & Ideas
What Top Scholars Say About Leadership
As a subject of scholarly inquiry, leadership—and who leaders are, what makes them tick, how they affect others—has been neglected for decades. The Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Harvard Business School's Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, brings together some of the best minds on this important subject. Q&A with Khurana, plus book excerpt. Key concepts include: Leadership as a phenomenon for research is experiencing a rebirth due to developments in the academy and the urgency of improving leadership globally. At the turn of the 20th century, leadership was studied intensely. It then fell off the academic grid. Given the number of schools asserting leadership development as part of their mission statement, it is critical for scholars to understand and explain how leaders succeed and fail based on opportunities and constraints. Leadership should be examined through a variety of lenses, including psychology, sociology, economics, and history. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Sep 2009
- Research & Ideas
Excessive Executive Pay: What’s the Solution?
Now that the worst fears about economic meltdown are receding, what should be done about lingering issues such as over-the-top executive compensation? Does government have a role? Is it time we rethink corporate governance? HBS faculty weigh in. From the HBS Alumni Bulletin. Key concepts include: With White House support, congressional leaders are intent on shifting the balance of power in the boardroom away from management. Skeptics say more than two decades of well-meaning attempts to constrain ever-soaring corporate pay and to reform governance through legislation, regulation, and shareholder pressure have, for the most part, failed or even backfired. According to Professor Brian Hall, it is not a given that executive pay practices had a role in creating the financial crisis. Director independence on boards is a mixed blessing. Independence has a downside when directors don't understand the business, says Professor Jay Lorsch. We need to rethink corporate governance structure in fundamental ways for the 21st century, according to Professor Rakesh Khurana. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Nov 2008
- Research & Ideas
Harvard Business School Discusses Future of the MBA
The MBA industry is in turmoil. Many business schools are revisiting their offerings to see if they still have relevance in the 21st century. And HBS is using its centennial year to convene worldwide experts on business education and plot its directions for the next 100 years. From HBS Alumni Bulletin. Key concepts include: Critics claim MBA programs put too much emphasis on theory and not enough on leadership in a global environment. A number of top MBA programs have retooled their offerings. HBS is looking at several change proposals, including the development in students of "soft skills." Whatever curriculum changes HBS ultimately adopts, the School will remain committed to the case method. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Oct 2007
- Research & Ideas
Management Education’s Unanswered Questions
Managers want the status of professionals, but not all managers want the constraints that go along with professions. Why? For more than 100 years, business education at the top universities has been searching for its soul. HBS professor Rakesh Khurana, author of a new book, says business school education is at a turning point. Key concepts include: Is management a profession? After more than a century of business education, it remains an open question. The founders of today's top business schools envisioned a world in which managers served the best interests of society, not narrow self-interests. Management education is closely linked with the prevailing winds of society. Elite business schools today are at a crossroads, especially since the rise of business education in China and India. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 30 Aug 2006
- Op-Ed
The Compensation Game
Do CEOs deserve "star" compensation? The idea that CEO pay is driven by the invisible hand of market forces is a myth from which chief executives have long benefited, say Harvard professors Lucian Bebchuk and Rakesh Khurana. Key concepts include: It is wrong to use sports stars' salaries to justify high CEO compensation. When setting CEO pay, board members can be influenced by economic incentives that are reinforced by social and psychological factors. Directors must be given strong incentives to focus on shareholder interests. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Jul 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Governance and CEO Turnover: Do Something or Do the Right Thing?
CEOs who become "entrenched" by the board of directors can gain an extra buffer between themselves and angry shareholders. Entrenchment has potential costs (a poorly performing CEO hangs on to the job) but also benefits (the board can deflect shareholder cries for dismissal of a CEO who was merely unlucky). The authors hope to shift the emphasis of the debate on entrenchment to a consideration of these tradeoffs and to shift the focus of the entrenchment-performance discussion toward the decisions, such as CEO dismissal, that are directly tied to the actions of the board. Key concepts include: By caving in to shareholder demands, boards may act against the long-time interests of the company and those same shareholders. Governance is a very important mediating factor in the relationship between performance and firing. At the time of founding a forward-looking investor may wish to put in place governance mechanisms that address these issues. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Feb 2006
- Research & Ideas
Take Responsibility for Rising Stars
Leadership succession and recruitment need the sharp attention of your company's top executives and board. But who should be held accountable—and how? An excerpt from a Harvard Business Review article by Jeffrey Cohn, Rakesh Khurana, and Laura Reeves. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Feb 2005
- Op-Ed
Is Business Management a Profession?
If management was a licensed profession on a par with law or medicine, there might be fewer opportunities for corporate bad guys, argue HBS professors Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria, and research associate Daniel Penrice. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Jan 2005
- Research & Ideas
How to Put Meaning Back into Leading
When research on leadership pays more attention to financial results than a person's ability to give the company a sense of purpose, something crucial is lost. Three Harvard Business School scholars are working to change the debate. A Q&A with Joel M. Podolny, Rakesh Khurana, and Marya Hill-Popper. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 May 2003
- Research & Ideas
Greed, Fear, and The System Hinder Corporate Reform
Enforcers of regulatory laws are making headway, but their work as a whole needs more teeth, according to panelists at Harvard Business School. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Sep 2002
- Research & Ideas
The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs
Companies reflexively look to charismatic CEOs to save them, and that's a bad idea, says HBS professor Rakesh Khurana. In this excerpt from his new book and in an e-mail interview with HBS Working Knowledge, he explains how the CEO cult arose. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Jul 2001
- Research & Ideas
Looking for CEOs in All the Wrong Places
In searching for a new CEO, many companies depend on board contacts to find candidates and diminish the role of search firms. And that may be a big mistake, suggests HBS assistant professor Rakesh Khurana. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Leading Amidst Competing Technical and Institutional Demands: Revisiting Selznick’s Conception of Leadership
Leadership can be greatly enriched by the insights of Philip Selznick (1919-2010), the author of landmark studies in organizational theory, the sociology of law, and public administration. His work on the Tennessee Valley Authority, for example, showed that the combination of technical and institutional pressures compels even well-intentioned leaders to concede to external demands that threaten an organization's character. He further conceptualized how leaders can overcome these pressures and uphold the integrity of their organization and the institutional values it embodies. In this paper, Besharov and Khurana join with other scholars to highlight how a "Selznickian" approach contributes to contemporary research on leadership: first, by directing our attention to the role of values even in avowedly utilitarian organizations and, second, by suggesting that the protection and promotion of values is an essential task of leadership. Besharov and Khurana also focus on fundamental dualities and tensions between the institutional realm of values, culture, and politics, and the technical realm of efficiency, rationality, and administration. This paper explains how these two realms are interrelated, and articulates how leaders can uphold institutional values while simultaneously meeting technical imperatives. The authors hope the paper provides a starting point for new research on how leaders uphold institutional values in the face of often conflicting technical demands. Key concepts include: Selznick generated powerful insights about the inner life of organizations. He showed how character and integrity enhance an organization's technical competence, enabling it to meet the demands of external constituencies on whom it depends. Even as he argued that upholding institutional integrity could enhance economic performance, Selznick made it his fundamental contention that, whether or not so doing is rewarded in the marketplace, it is the right thing for leaders to do. Through their own moral development, leaders become capable of authentic performance in relations with others, Selznick suggested. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.