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- 17 Feb 2009
- Research & Ideas
What’s Good about Quiet Rule-Breaking
If your company quietly allows employees to break some rules with the tacit approval of management, that's a moral gray zone. And your company is not alone. When rules are broken but privileges are not abused, such unspoken pacts between workers and management can allow both to achieve their respective goals of expressing professional identity and sustaining efforts in positive ways, says HBS professor Michel Anteby. Q&A Key concepts include: Moral gray zones in organizations rely on trust. Even if monitoring of employees increases, such gray zones are here to stay. Moral gray zones test middle management's ability to manage and to prevent abuses of mutual trust. Strong communities within occupations provide the unstated but necessary guidelines to ensure proper use of moral gray zones. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Jan 2009
- Working Paper Summaries
The Decentering of the Global Firm
Firms such as Caterpillar are typically considered American companies by virtue of history while Honda, for example, is regarded as a Japanese company. However, the archetypal multinational firm with a particular national identity and a corporate headquarters fixed in one country is becoming obsolete as firms continue to maximize the opportunities created by global markets. The defining characteristics of what makes a firm belong to a country—where it is incorporated, where it is listed, the nationality of its investor base, the location of its headquarters functions—are no longer bound to one country. Why are these changes taking place, and what are their consequences? This paper places the increasing mobility of corporate identities within the broader setting of transformations to the "shape" of global firms over the last half century. Key concepts include: Responding strategically to these changes requires a reconceptualization of what a corporate home is. Managers will make conscious choices about how to unbundle activities that have traditionally been centered in a home country headquarters. Policymakers in countries around the world need to understand how to create attractive homes for firms, and researchers need to devise ways to incorporate these changes in their empirical and theoretical work. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Oct 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Variation in Experience and Team Familiarity: Addressing the Knowledge Acquisition-Application Problem
Team familiarity helps team members successfully locate knowledge within a group, share the knowledge they possess, and respond to the knowledge of others. While team familiarity may help all teams to better coordinate their actions, it may play a particularly important role for teams with individuals looking to apply knowledge from their varied experience. This possibility leads to the question that provides the foundation for this paper: Does team familiarity moderate the relationship between variation in experience and performance? Prior research attempting to link variation in experience and performance has found effects ranging from positive to neutral to negative. Huckman and Staats explain these differential results by drawing on related work from learning, knowledge management, and social networking. Key concepts include: Managers may benefit from a more detailed understanding of the types of experience that are relevant in their setting (e.g., market, technology). If the most valuable assets of many companies are their employees, then organizations may need to shift from thinking about their project portfolio to their employee-experience portfolio. Conditions that assist in the acquisition of useful knowledge, such as variation in experience, will not guarantee—and may even deter—the eventual application of that knowledge. It is important to separate the processes of knowledge acquisition and knowledge application. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Aug 2007
- What Do You Think?
How Will Millennials Manage?
Gen Yers or "millennials"—those born beginning in the late 1970s—are generally bright, cheery, seemingly well-adjusted, and cooperative, says Jim Heskett. Their work styles are sometimes confounding, though. As managers, how will they shape organizations of the future? Online forum now closed. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 May 2007
- Research & Ideas
The Key to Managing Stars? Think Team
Stars don't shine alone. As Harvard Business School's Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee reveal in new research, it is imperative that top performers as well as their managers take into account the quality of colleagues. Groysberg and Lee explain the implications for star mobility and retention in this Q&A. Key concepts include: It takes a team. Despite a star's talent, knowledge, experience, and reputation, his or her colleagues make the difference for sustaining top performance. Before considering a career move, carefully evaluate the support you would receive from colleagues even in other parts of the firm. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Dec 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Three Perspectives on Team Learning: Outcome Improvement, Task Mastery, and Group Process
Organizations increasingly rely on teams to carry out critical strategies and operational tasks. How do teams learn, and what factors are most important to team learning? This paper reports on current perspectives and findings that address these questions, looking at empirical studies on team learning from three areas of research: outcome improvement, task mastery, and group process. Overall, Edmondson and coauthors characterize the nature of research to date and assemble what is known and unknown about the theoretically and practically important topic of team learning. Key concepts include: Team learning has value for organizations; learning in teams is seen as a key mechanism through which learning organizations become strategically and operationally adaptive and responsive. Research on team learning is at a crossroads. How the learning of individual work teams translates into organizational learning is not well understood, and management literature to date offers few insights. One avenue for future research is the durability and utility of team-based networks for the organization as a whole. Learning in teams almost necessarily plays a role in developing the knowledge and skills of individuals who compose the team. Another avenue for future research is how individuals benefit from their team learning experiences in terms of intellectual, career, and personal development goals. Organizations stand to benefit when ideas are cross-fertilized and diverse individuals learn to work together. "Outsiders" can introduce valuable ideas. Learning and execution are often at odds: Learning by its nature involves uncertainty, false starts, and occasional dead ends. Team learning in organizations must be recognized as a strategy for tolerating forays into the unknown. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Sep 2006
- What Do You Think?
Are We Ready for Self-Management?
On its face, self-management looks like a "win-win" answer to the scarcity of good managers and the predominance of low-involvement entry-level jobs. But are sufficient numbers of entry-level employees ready for self-management? And is management ready? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Jul 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Geographically-Colocated Subgroups in Globally Dispersed Teams: A Test of the Faultline Hypothesis
Team diversity can harness strengths or drive a team apart. Troublesome faultlines appear when team members identify with a subgroup more strongly than with the larger team. Previous research, conducted on teams who worked face-to-face, has shown that these faultlines can be based on demographic factors (such as differences in nationality). The authors of this paper conducted a study on faultlines that arise between subgroups in different geographic locations. They found that faultline dynamics did indeed occur in teams with subgroups in different locations, and that their geographic diversity caused disruptive group relations, diminished trust, and increased conflict between subgroups. Key concepts include: Geographic diversity is becoming increasingly important as more organizations rely on dispersed work teams to perform their core work activities. The existence of subgroups in different locations creates an "us versus them" mentality, which leads to misunderstandings and negative feelings between team members. When managing geographically dispersed teams, build relationships and instill a collective identity to integrate subgroups in different locations, and be aware of the very real potential for disruptive group dynamics. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Aug 2005
- Research & Ideas
Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green Light?
Four steps to ensure that the right decisions are made by the right people. HBS professor emeritus Michael C. Jensen explains in Harvard Management Update. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 31 May 2004
- Research & Ideas
How Team Leaders Show Support–or Not
What does a team leader do so that employees know they are being supported? A Q&A with HBS professor and creativity expert Teresa Amabile about new research. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
When Goal Setting Goes Bad
If you ever wondered about the real value of goal setting in your organization, join the club. Despite the mantra that goals are good, the process of setting beneficial goals is harder than it looks. New research by HBS professor Max H. Bazerman and colleagues explores the hidden cost when stretch goals are misguided. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.