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New research on management practices and processes from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including successful employee-suggestion programs, the rise of the functional manager, and how and why management practices differ in style and quality across nations, organizations, and industries.
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Are You Sabotaging Your Own Company?

by Dina Gerdeman

A World War II spy manual offers intriguing insights into how modern management techniques may be sabotaging your organization, says Stefan Thomke. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

by Dina Gerdeman

In today's tight job market, employers must focus on how to attract and keep top talent. Giving away stacks of money may not always be the best incentive, warns Ashley Whillans. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

by Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, and Amy C. Edmondson

In strategic management research, the dynamic capabilities framework enables a “helicopter view” of how firms achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the critical role of work teams, arguing that managers must leverage the knowledge generated by teams to support innovation and strategic change. It matches types of team learning to innovation activities.

What Should Harley-Davidson’s Management Do?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP Stuck between a rock and a critical POTUS, Harley-Davidson should ignore the politics and operate where best business practices lead it, most of James Heskett's readers advise. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The Creative Consulting Company

by Robert S. Kaplan, Richard Nolan, and David P. Norton

Management theories cannot be tested in laboratories; they must be applied, tested, and extended in real organizations. For this reason the most creative consulting companies balance conflicting demands between short‐term business development and long‐term knowledge creation.

Learning to Manage: A Field Experiment in the Indian Startup Ecosystem

by Aaron Chatterji, Solene Delecourt, Sharique Hasan, and Rembrand Koning

This study of 100 high-growth startups in India finds that founder-executives can learn how to improve their management style from their peers at other firms. These interfirm network connections between founders may help explain why some companies are well managed and others less so. Despite the apparent value of this peer learning, founders don’t appear to naturally connect with peers who could help them improve their management style.

Why Productivity Suffers When Employees Are Allowed to Schedule Their Own Tasks

by Carmen Nobel

Deviating from an organization’s prescribed task schedule tends to erode productivity, even among the most experienced workers, according to new research from María R. Ibáñez, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman, and Bradley R. Staats. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

by Michael Blanding

Management practice acts exactly as a new technology might in giving companies competitive advantage—and there is a right way and a wrong way to do things, says a new study by Raffella Sadun and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Management as a Technology?

by Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun, and John Van Reenen

Economists, business people and many policymakers have long believed that management practices are an important element in productivity. This study provides firm-level measures of management in an internationally comparable way, drawing on original data on over 11,000 firms across 34 countries. Differences in management practices account for about 30 percent of cross-country productivity differences.

Enhancing the Practical Relevance of Research

by Michael W. Toffel

Research is relevant when it has the potential to improve the decision making of managers or policymakers. Elaborating on his remarks at the 2015 Production and Operations Management Society conference, Toffel explains why research relevance matters and how scholars can increase the relevance of their research. Journals, professional societies, and doctoral programs can also foster research that is more useful and influential in society at large.

Why Business IT Innovation is so Difficult

by Maggie Starvish

If done right, IT has the potential to completely transform business by flattening hierarchies, shrinking supply chains, and speeding communications, says professor Kristina Steffenson McElheran. Why, then, do so many companies get it wrong? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Employee-Suggestion Programs That Work

by Paul Guttry

The key to operating a successful employee-suggestion program is to stop spending so much time on big-bang projects and focus on solving "low-hanging-fruit" problems. Research by Anita L. Tucker and Sara J. Singer. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Crowded at the Top: The Rise of the Functional Manager

by Carmen Nobel

It's not lonely at the top anymore—today's CEO has an average of 10 direct reports, according to new research by Julie M. Wulf, Maria Guadalupe, and Hongyi Li. Thank a dramatic increase in the number of "functional" managers for crowding in the C-suite. Key concepts include: The number of managers reporting directly to the CEO has doubled, from an average of 5 direct reports in 1986 to an average of 10 today. In 2008, companies averaged 2.9 general managers, compared with 1.6 in 1986, according to data from several surveys. The average number of functional managers reporting directly to the CEO increased much more dramatically, from 3.1 in the late 1980s to 6.7 in 2008. Two main factors have driven the C-suite sea change: an overall increase in IT investments and an overall decrease in firm diversification. As hierarchical flattening occurs, companies are pushing some decisions toward the top, casting doubt on the common idea that firms flatten in order to push ideas down the organization. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

by Carmen Nobel

Over the past seven years, Harvard Business School's Raffaella Sadun and a team of researchers have interviewed managers at some 10,000 organizations in 20 countries. The goal: to determine how and why management practices differ vastly in style and quality not only across nations, but also across various organizations and industries. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator

by Carmen Nobel

When evaluating compensation issues, economists often assume that both an employer and an employee make rational, albeit self-interested choices while working toward a goal. The problem, says Assistant Professor Ian Larkin, is that the most powerful workplace motivator is our natural tendency to measure our own performance against the performance of others. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What CEOs Do, and How They Can Do it Better

by Michael Blanding

A CEO's schedule is especially important to a firm's financial success, which raises a few questions: What do they do all day? Can they be more efficient time managers? HBS professor Raffaella Sadun and colleagues set out to find some answers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Are We Thinking Too Little, or Too Much?

by Carmen Nobel

In the course of making a decision, managers often err in one of two directions—either overanalyzing a situation or forgoing all the relevant information and simply going with their gut. HBS marketing professor Michael I. Norton discusses the potential pitfalls of thinking too much or thinking too little. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Connecting Goals and Go-To-Market Initiatives

by Sean Silverthorne

In some respects, developing strategy is the easy part. Executing that strategy in alignment with strategic priorities is where real mastery of management takes place. Harvard Business School senior lecturer Frank V. Cespedes shows how it is done. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Operational Failures and Problem Solving: An Empirical Study of Incident Reporting

by Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer & Michael W. Toffel

Operational failures occur within organizations across all industries, with consequences ranging from minor inconveniences to major catastrophes. How can managers encourage frontline workers to solve problems in response to operational failures? In the health-care industry, the setting for this study, operational failures occur often, and some are reported to voluntary incident reporting systems that are meant to help organizations learn from experience. Using data on nearly 7,500 reported incidents from a single hospital, the researchers found that problem-solving in response to operational failures is influenced by both the risk posed by the incident and the extent to which management demonstrates a commitment to problem-solving. Findings can be used by organizations to increase the contribution of incident reporting systems to operational performance improvement. Key concepts include: Operational failures that trigger more financial and liability risks are associated with more frontline worker problem-solving. By communicating the importance of problem-solving and engaging in problem-solving themselves, line managers can stimulate increased problem-solving among frontline workers. Even without managers' regular engagement in problem-solving, communication about its importance can promote more problem-solving among frontline workers. By explaining some of the variation in responsiveness to operational failures, this study empowers managers to adjust their approach to stimulate more problem-solving among frontline workers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

High Commitment, High Performance Management

by Martha Lagace

High commitment, high performance organizations such as Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, McKinsey, and Toyota effectively manage three paradoxical goals, says HBS professor Michael Beer. His new book explains what all companies can learn. Q&A Key concepts include: High commitment, high performance (HCHP) firms carry out performance alignment, psychological alignment, and the capacity for learning and change. HCHP transformations are a unit-by-unit process. HCHP firms allow employees to speak to power in honest, collective, and public conversations. Leaders must make conscious, principled choices. Leaders develop an institution that cares about people while understanding the importance of profits. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.