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New research on organizational design from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including resolving workplace issues, HR, and culture.
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How Social Entrepreneurs Can Increase Their Investment Impact

by Rachel Layne

Grants or investments? Philanthropic organizations have multiple funding tools available, but choosing the wrong one can dilute the benefits, according to research by Benjamin N. Roth. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The New Rules for Remote Work: Pandemic Edition

by Dina Gerdeman

Welcome to the new world of remote work, where employees struggle to learn the rules, managers are unsure how to help them, and organizations get a glimpse into the future. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Readers Ask: I Need Tips for Working at Home

by Kristen Senz

Working at home brings with it confusing new rules of conduct. Remote work expert Prithwiraj Choudhury answers questions from our readers. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Effects of Hierarchy on Learning and Performance in Business Experimentation

by Sourobh Ghosh, Stefan H. Thomke, and Hazjier Pourkhalkhali

Do senior managers help or hurt business experiments? Analyzing a dataset of more than 6,300 experiments on the A/B/n testing platform Optimizely, this study suggests that involving senior executives in experimentation teams can have surprising consequences.

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

by Dina Gerdeman

We asked Harvard Business School experts how the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to change business practice. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

For Migrant Workers, Homesickness Can Reduce Productivity

by Kristen Senz

Workers in the global economy increasingly perform their jobs far away from home. It turns out, says Prithwiraj Choudhury, that homesickness is a significant barrier to their productivity. Here's what employers can do. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

by Dina Gerdeman

When company leaders can't hear the voices of their workers, serious strategic mistakes are likely. Michael Beer discusses ways organizations can build powerful communication channels. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Businesses Need a 'Catalyst' to Make CSR Practices Stick

by Michael Blanding

Despite best intentions, many corporate social responsibility programs fail. One answer: Companies need community partners to sustain work over the long term, says Robert Kaplan. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Managerial Recognition as an Incentive for Innovation Platform Engagement: A Field Experiment and Interview Study at NASA

by Jana Gallus, Olivia S. Jung, and Karim R. Lakhani

What gets workers to go the extra mile in creative problem solving? A field experiment and interviews with NASA employees finds that employees respond to managerial appreciation above other incentives.

Can Capitalism Be Fixed by Making Companies More Just?

Re: Ethan C. Rouen, Charles C.Y. Wang

JUST Capital seeks to make public companies more "just" by measuring and ranking their overall impact on society, based on priorities most important to average Americans. Ethan Rouen and Charles Wang explore whether JUST Capital's performance evaluation methodology can improve corporate behavior. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Intelligent Design of Inclusive Growth Strategies

by Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim, and Eduardo Tugendhat

How companies, working with a catalyst, can redesign supply chains to achieve economic, environmental, and social returns.

Pathways to Materiality: How Sustainability Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors

by Jean Rogers and George Serafeim

This paper provides a framework for understanding and predicting how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues become financially material.

How Does a Company like Boeing Respond to Intense Competitive Pressure?

by James Heskett

SUMMING UP: Playing out in real time, Boeing's misguided responses to competitive pressure illustrate organizational "gaps" suffered by many organizations. James Heskett's readers discuss solutions. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Misreporting

by Aishwarrya Deore, Susanna Gallani, and Ranjani Krishnan

This study provides insights for designing effective management control systems. Managers must select their individual management control practices with care, craft mission statements to convey clear messages that drive organizational alignment with the firm’s overall goals, and consider the effects of interaction between components of their system of controls.

Lessons from IBM in Nazi Germany

Re: Geoffrey G. Jones

Geoffrey Jones discusses his case study, "Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany," exploring the options and responsibilities of multinationals with investments in politically reprehensible regimes. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations series

by Carliss Y. Baldwin

Building on Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, coauthored by HBS professor Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim B. Clark (MIT Press, 2000).

Torched Planet: The Business Case to Reinvent Almost Everything

by Rebecca Henderson

With climate change scorching the planet, business leaders have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the world—and make money in the process, says Rebecca Henderson. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?

by Valeria Giacomin, Geoffrey Jones, and Erica Salvaj

Drawing on 110 interviews with business leaders as part of the Creating Emerging Markets project at Harvard Business School, this paper represents the first systematic attempt to identify and compare investment in education across emerging economies, specifically in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf between the 1960s and the present day.

Decarbonization Factors

by Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim, David Turkington, and Hui (Stacie) Wang

This paper contributes to a growing knowledge base about how climate change impacts investor expectations, capital allocations and thereby pricing and returns. It provides actionable insights into how to decarbonize portfolios and evaluate the likely performance and carbon exposure differences across strategies.

Birds of a Feather ... Enforce Social Norms? Interactions Among Culture, Norms, and Strategy

by Hongyi Li and Eric J. Van den Steen

Does culture eat strategy for breakfast? By analyzing the role of a company's social norms—how they develop and why people reinforce them, despite their personal beliefs—this paper offers new insights about the power of culture.