Organizations →
- 08 Sep 2011
- What Do You Think?
What’s Apple’s Biggest Challenge: Replacing Steve or Wall Street?
Summing Up: Steve Jobs' influence on Apple is pervasive--maybe too much so. Jim Heskett's readers think Apple faces an almost impossible task in replacing the visionary founder. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Sep 2011
- Research & Ideas
Cheese Moving: Effecting Change Rather Than Accepting It
In his new business fable, I Moved Your Cheese, Professor Deepak Malhotra challenges the idea that change is simply something we must anticipate, tolerate, and accept. Instead, the book teaches readers that success often lies in first questioning changes in the workplace and, if necessary, in effecting new changes ourselves. Q&A plus book excerpt. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Aug 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
The Globalization of Corporate Environmental Disclosure: Accountability or Greenwashing?
Between 2005 and 2008, the world saw a dramatic increase in corporate environmental reporting. Yet this transition toward greater transparency and accountability has occurred unevenly across countries and industries. Findings by professors Christopher Marquis and Michael W. Toffel provide the first systematic evidence of how the global environmental movement affects corporations' environmental management practices. Firms' use of symbolic compliance strategies, for instance, is affected by specific corporate characteristics and by institutional context. This study contributes to a larger body of research on the effects of global social movements and environmental reporting. Key concepts include: Marquis and Toffel study more than 4,600 large publicly traded companies headquartered in 46 countries. They first examine the extent to which environmental pressures from governments and civil society influence corporate environmental transparency. Greater environmental disclosure was exhibited by companies headquartered in countries whose governments are better connected to the global environmental movement via international environmental institutions, and whose citizens are more connected to globalization and are afforded greater civil liberties and political rights. They also identify factors associated with greenwashing, where corporations selectively disclose benign environmental impacts to create an impression of transparency and accountability, while masking their true environmental performance. Visible companies' tendency to selectively disclose was tempered when headquartered in countries whose governments were better connected to the global environmental movement, and whose citizens are more connected to global society and are afforded greater civil liberties and political rights. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Aug 2011
- Research & Ideas
The Death of the Global Manager
The "global manager" was a coveted job description sought by many leaders for many years, but times have changed—now we are all global managers, says Harvard Business School professor emeritus Christopher A. Bartlett, coauthor of the classic business book Transnational Management. He reexamines the ever-changing nature of running multinational corporations while confirming that, six editions and 20 years later, some challenges remain the same. Key concepts include: Multinational corporations must pursue three core strategies to build layers of competitive advantage: exploit worldwide operations to build global scale efficiency; develop sensitivity and responsiveness to national differences; and leverage the world for information, knowledge, and expertise. The organizational capability of a company to rapidly develop and diffuse innovation is incredibly important but difficult to cultivate. The term "global manager" is a misnomer—we all operate in a global environment. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 Aug 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
A Dynamic Perspective on Ambidexterity: Structural Differentiation and Boundary Activities
Firms renew themselves by exploring new business models even as they exploit existing ones. But to conduct "explore and exploit" simultaneously, organizations must reconcile associated internal tensions and conflicting demands. Sebastian Raisch and Michael L. Tushman explore the shifting nature of differentiation and integration in organizations attempting to explore and exploit. Key concepts include: Whereas exploration is related to flexibility, decentralization, and loose cultures, exploitation is associated with efficiency, centralization, and tight cultures. Organizational ambidexterity is a firm's ability to simultaneously exploit and explore with equal dexterity. The paper updates the organizational ambidexterity concept by considering the underexplored roles of time, paradox, and locus. Based on a longitudinal data set of six business initiatives, the researchers find that organizations engage in a dynamic process of managing antagonistic boundary activities in order to explore and exploit. The locus of integration shifts from the corporate team to the business unit level when the new initiative gains economic and cognitive legitimacy. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Jul 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to Finance
Corporate social responsibility may benefit society, but does it benefit the corporation? Indeed it does, according to a new study that shows how CSR can make it easier for firms to secure financing for new projects. Research was conducted by George Serafeim and Beiting Cheng of Harvard Business School and Ioannis Ioannou of the London Business School. Key concepts include: The better a firm's CSR performance, the fewer capital restraints it will face. Better CSR performance is the result of improved stakeholder engagement, which in turn reduces the likelihood of opportunistic behavior and pushes managers to adopt a long-form strategy. This introduces a more efficient form of contracting with key constituents. Firms with good CSR performance are likely to report their CSR activities, thus increasing their overall transparency. Higher levels of transparency ease the fears of potential investors, making them more likely to invest. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Jul 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Delegation in Multi-Establishment Firms: Adaptation vs. Coordination in I.T. Purchasing Authority
Scholars have intensely studied the similarities and differences between organizations that are decentralized in their decision making versus those favoring more command-and-control central authority. What leads to a firm following a decentralized approach, and can that approach be predicted? Professor Kristina McElheran advances previous, largely theoretical, research on this subject to explore in the real world the economic determinants affecting how IT purchasing authority in 3,000 multi-establishment companies was allocated between central headquarters and outlying establishments. Key concepts include: Theoretically, organizations are expected to delegate authority when local choices are most important to the overall value of the firm, when local information advantages are significant, or when the cost of processing firm-wide information at the center grows too great. Centralization is predicted when the value of firm-wide coordination dominates these adaptation and information-processing concerns. The research confirmed most of those assumptions, but surprisingly, and contrary to leading models, found that the larger the size of the firm the less likely it was to delegate IT purchasing authority. Contrary evidence was also found in firms that produce a great variety of products and in units that operate outside the mainstream of the parent. These findings provide some of the first empirical evidence supporting prominent team theory models of organizational design, where demands for adaptation and coordination conflict within the organization and determine decision rights based on their relative importance as well as the information-processing and communication costs within the firm. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Jun 2011
- Lessons from the Classroom
Fame, Faith, and Social Activism: Business Lessons from Bono
Many executives struggle to balance work, family, and community, but for rock star Bono the effort is spread across the globe. In the HBS case "Bono and U2," professor Nancy F. Koehn discusses key business lessons to be learned from the famous band. Key concepts include: Take stock of how you are using your funds, your authority, and your people. A leader's mission and purpose isn't static; it evolves. The mission of the CEO should be related to the organization's performance. Who you are and what you stand for as an organization have great relevance to the people who buy your product. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 May 2011
- HBS Case
QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off
Instead of treating low-paid staffers as commodities, a new breed of retailers such as QuikTrip assigns them more responsibility and invests in their development, says professor Zeynep Ton. The result? Happy customers and even happier employees. Key concepts include: Unusual for a retailer, QuikTrip offers its operational employees above-average wages, job security, and significant benefits. By using operational efficiencies and standardization, QuikTrip reduces complexity to create higher employee productivity and fewer errors. By investing in employees and giving them more responsibility, QuikTrip enjoys a competitive advantage in service and benefits from continuous process improvement. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 May 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
The Consequences of Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting
The number of firms reporting sustainability information has grown significantly in the past decade, both due to voluntary actions and to mandates from several national governments and stock exchange authorities. In this paper, London Business School's Ioannis Ioannou and Harvard Business School's George Serafeim investigate whether mandatory sustainability reporting has any effect on a company's tendency to engage in socially responsible management practices. Key concepts include: The researchers show that mandatory sustainability reporting effectively promotes socially responsible managerial practices. Overall, supervision of managers by boards of directors improves, bribery and corruption decreases, and credibility of managers in society increases. In companies where sustainability reporting is a requirement, employee training becomes a higher priority, and corporate boards supervise management more effectively. These positive results are more pronounced in countries that have stronger law enforcement, countries where assurance of sustainability data is more frequent, and countries that are generally more developed. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 May 2011
- Research & Ideas
Moving From Bean Counter to Game Changer
New research by HBS professor Anette Mikes and colleagues looks into how accountants, finance professionals, internal auditors, and risk managers gain influence in their organizations to become strategic decision makers. Key concepts include: Many organizations have functional experts who have deep knowledge but lack influence. They can influence high-level strategic thinking in their organizations by going through a process that transforms them from "box-checkers" to "frame-makers." Frame-makers understand how important it is to attach the tools they create to C-level business goals, such as linking them to the quarterly business review. Frame-makers stay relevant by becoming personally involved in the analysis and interpretation of the tools they create. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 May 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
How Do Risk Managers Become Influential? A Field Study of Toolmaking and Expertise in Two Financial Institutions
Most organizations have technical experts on staff—accountants, finance professionals, internal auditors, risk managers-but not all experts are listened to at higher levels. To understand how expert influence on strategic thinking can be increased, Matthew Hall, Anette Mikes, and Yuval Millo followed the organizational transformation of risk experts in two large UK banks. One transformation was successful, the other not. Are your experts merely "box-tickers," or are they influential "frame-makers"? Key concepts include: In the first bank, the transformation of the role of experts was a movement from tacit knowledge, communicable person-to-person, to tools-mediated, highly communicable knowledge that was evident from a variety of organizational documents, practices, and technologies, and embedded in the organization's decision-making processes. These transformed experts, called frame-makers, avoided detaching themselves completely from the resulting knowledge and maintained a high degree of personal involvement in producing analysis and interpretation while participating in executive decision-making. While toolmakers may be successful in becoming frame-makers they might also fall into one of three less influential roles: box-ticker, disconnected technician, or ad hoc advisor. The second bank saw a struggle between conflicting risk management worldviews, which ultimately divided the risk function, and prevented the risk managers from reaching the influential role of frame-makers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 30 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Temptation at Work
Among the many distractions that keep office employees from their work, surfing the web is arguably the most irresistible time-waster of all. In order to deal with that problem, many companies either prohibit Internet use during working hours, or closely monitor employees' web activity. This means workers must wait until they get home to get their daily YouTube fix. But does forbidding this distraction actually increase productivity? In this paper, researchers find that the answer is no—and that delaying gratification actually has a negative impact on employee performance. Research was conducted by Alessandro Bucciol of the University of Verona and the University of Amsterdam, Daniel Houser of George Mason University, and Marco Piovesan, a research fellow at Harvard Business School. Key concepts include: Experimental research finds that subjects who were told to resist the temptation of watching a funny video made significantly more mistakes on a subsequent task than subjects who were allowed to watch the video right away. The findings suggest that employers should not tell employees not to surf the web in situations where the web is technically available to them. Rather, these companies should either remove web access entirely or, when this is not practical, allow a certain amount of time for personal Internet activity. Employers might also consider allowing regular Internet breaks, in the same way that they offer coffee and cigarette breaks. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Memory Lane and Morality: How Childhood Memories Promote Prosocial Behavior
Little Damien from The Omen notwithstanding, we generally associate childhood with goodness, purity, and innocence. This paper investigates whether feelings of moral purity can be triggered by reminding adults of their childhoods, and whether this can help to induce kind and philanthropic behavior both in social settings and in the workplace. Research was conducted by Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino and Sreedhari D. Desai of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Key concepts include: Through four experiments, the researchers show that triggering childhood memories induces feelings of moral purity in adults, which leads them to behave pro-socially—that is, to do kind, ethical things that benefit others. Recalling childhood memories also can lead adults to judge (and punish) unethical behavior more harshly than they would have otherwise. Businesses can promote positive, ethical behavior by using tasks and triggers that cause employees to hearken back to their childhoods. For example, Google, Disney, and IDEO decorate their offices with toys and colorful furniture. 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.
- 24 Jan 2011
- HBS Case
Terror at the Taj
Under terrorist attack, employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower bravely stayed at their posts to help guests. A look at the hotel's customer-centered culture and value system. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Jan 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Learning from Customers in Outsourcing: Individual and Organizational Effects
In farming out work to an external service provider, companies often count on volume-based learning--the idea that outsourced workers will build experience and improve their productivity if there is a large volume of work for them to do, and that the bigger the volume, the more productive and efficient they'll eventually become. However, there are several factors that challenge that education process. This paper explores whether and how repetition can breed competence in a business setting, using data from a provider of outsourced radiological services. Research was conducted by Harvard Business School professor Robert S. Huckman, Jonathan R. Clark (HBS PhD 2010) of Pennsylvania State University, and Bradley R. Staats (HBS MBA 2002, DBA 2009) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Key concepts include: In addition to technical aspects of the task, volume-based learning depends on the interpersonal interactions between the individual completing the task and the customer. The rate at which a worker learns depends independently on the customer, knowledge domain, and technology within which the worker accumulates volume-based experience. Workers learn faster from completing an individual task for a specific customer than they do from completing multiple tasks for multiple customers. Spreading a worker's experience over multiple customers may hinder the learning process, particularly with respect to the needs of specific customers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Dec 2010
- Research & Ideas
New Dean Sets Five Priorities for HBS
Harvard Business School's new Dean Nitin Nohria outlines five priorities that will shape the agenda for the School during his tenure: curriculum innovation, intellectual ambition, internationalization, inclusion, and closer ties to the University. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Dec 2010
- Research & Ideas
Managing the Support Staff Identity Crisis
Employees not connected directly to profit and loss can suffer from a collective "I-am-not-strategic" identity crisis. Professor Ranjay Gulati suggests that business managers allow so-called support function employees to become catalysts for change. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
The Profit Power of Corporate Culture
In the new book The Culture Cycle, Professor Emeritus James L. Heskett demonstrates that developing the right corporate culture helps companies be more profitable and provides sustainable competitive advantage. Open for comment; 0 Comments.