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- October 2021
- Case
The 2012 Spanish Labor Reform: Lifting All Boats or Levelling Down?
By: Vincent Pons, Rafael Di Tella, Santiago Botella and Elena Corsi
Since 1978, Spain had struggled to control unemployment. The country’s labor law was protective of employees hired long-term and companies used temporary contracts as buffers. In 2012, amid economic recession and a 23.6% unemployment rate, a center-right government of...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Equilibrium Effects of Pay Transparency
By: Zoë B. Cullen and Bobak Pakzad-Hurson
The public discourse around pay transparency has focused on the direct effect: how workers seek
to rectify newly-disclosed pay inequities through renegotiations. The question of how wage-setting
and hiring practices of the firm respond in equilibrium has received...
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- May 2021
- Supplement
Paul Levy: Confronting a 'Corporate Campaign' (B)
By: James K. Sebenius and Isaac Silberberg
Paul Levy, CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center hospital is faced with a formidable negotiation campaign to unionize staff at BIDMC. Armed only with his personal blog, does Paul stand a chance against the union's multi-million dollar organizing budget?
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Coupling and Coupling Compromises in Supplier Factories' Responses to Worker Activism
By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel
Many companies have adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in response to activist pressure, but ensuring the implementation of these policies is challenging. Recognizing the paucity of research on the effect of contentious activism on companies’...
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- March 2021
- Supplement
Toyota and Its Labor Union in Argentina (C)
By: Jorge Tamayo, Erik Snowberg and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago
Toyota Argentina (TASA) and the union representing automotive industry workers in the country had been working together since 2011 to address the challenges faced by Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Zárate (Argentina). In 2019, after achieving all the goals set forward...
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- Article
Manage the Suppliers That Could Harm Your Brand: Know When to Avoid, Engage, or Drop Them
By: Jodi L Short and Michael W. Toffel
The pandemic has placed a new spotlight on working conditions in factories that supply global companies. To avert problems, firms often impose codes of conduct on their suppliers and perform audits to assess compliance. Do these measures help identify unethical...
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Keywords:
Auditing;
Agency Cost;
Quality And Safety;
Quality Management System;
Quality Management;
Unions;
Environmental Management;
Globalization;
Goods and Commodities;
Governance;
Labor;
Labor Unions;
Wages;
Working Conditions;
Operations;
Supply Chain;
Safety;
Quality;
China;
Bangladesh;
Asia;
Pakistan
- January 2021
- Case
Toyota and Its Labor Union in Argentina (A)
By: Jorge Tamayo, Erik Snowberg and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago
In 2011, Daniel Herrero, CEO of Toyota Argentina (TASA) since 2010, was about to meet with the Secretary-General of the union representing automotive industry workers in the country. The company produced vehicles in Argentina since 1997 at their plant at Zárate, and,...
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- January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Supplement
Toyota and Its Labor Union in Argentina (B)
By: Jorge Tamayo, Erik Snowberg and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago
Toyota Argentina (TASA) and the union representing automotive industry workers in the country had been working together since 2011 to address the challenges faced by Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Zárate (Argentina). The strategy for moving forward was built on an...
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- December 2020 (Revised June 2021)
- Case
France Télécom (A): A Challenging Restructuring
These cases explore the impacts of industry shocks, resulting corporate actions that had a devastating impact on employees, and the legal conviction of corporate leaders for “institutional harassment."
This case series follows the evolution of France... View Details
This case series follows the evolution of France... View Details
Keywords:
Health ＆ Wellness;
Human Resource Management;
Strategic Change;
Leadership & Corporate Accountability;
Leadership And Change Management;
Leadership And Managing People;
Change;
Restructuring;
Crime and Corruption;
Ethics;
Health;
Human Capital;
Human Resources;
Labor;
Labor and Management Relations;
Labor Unions;
Law;
Social Psychology;
Strategy;
Leadership;
Leadership Style;
Organizations;
Problems and Challenges;
Relationships;
Crisis Management;
Organizational Culture;
Employees;
Well-being;
Telecommunications Industry;
Europe;
European Union
- December 2020
- Supplement
France Télécom (B): A Wave of Staff Suicides
In the B case we learn that at least 19 France Telecom employees took their own lives between 2006 and 2009, 12 others attempted suicide, and eight suffered from serious depression for reasons reportedly related to work. Some of these deaths occurred in public places,...
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Keywords:
Mental Health;
Change;
Crime and Corruption;
Ethics;
Health;
Human Capital;
Human Resources;
Labor and Management Relations;
Labor Unions;
Law;
Social Psychology;
Strategy;
Leadership Style;
Organizations;
Problems and Challenges;
Relationships;
Crisis Management;
Employees;
Well-being;
Telecommunications Industry;
Europe;
European Union
- December 2020
- Supplement
France Télécom (C): An Unprecedented Trial
In the C case we learn that former CEO Didier Lombard, Deputy Chief Executive Louis-Pierre Wenes, Human Resources Head Olivier Barberot and France Telecom itself were charged for institutional harassment by French authorities, a first for a CAC 40 company. In December...
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Keywords:
Human Behavior;
Human Dignity;
Human Resource Practices;
Corporate Change And Sustainability;
Corporate Culture;
Strategic Corporate Decisions;
Strategic Change;
Strategic Decision Making;
Emotion;
Management Challenges;
Corporate Accountability;
Organizational Culture;
Human Resources;
Crisis Management;
Law;
Courts and Trials;
Labor;
Labor and Management Relations;
Management Practices and Processes;
Employees;
Well-being;
Telecommunications Industry;
Europe;
European Union
- March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Culture at Google
By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta
Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google’s contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of...
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Keywords:
Human Resources;
Employee Relationship Management;
Recruitment;
Retention;
Resignation and Termination;
Labor;
Working Conditions;
Employment;
Labor Unions;
Wages;
Law;
Lawsuits and Litigation;
Rights;
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
Fairness;
Organizations;
Organizational Culture;
Mission and Purpose;
Social Psychology;
Attitudes;
Behavior;
Conflict Management;
Trust;
Motivation and Incentives;
Prejudice and Bias;
Power and Influence;
Information Technology;
Internet and the Web;
Information Infrastructure;
Society;
Social Issues;
Culture;
Civil Society or Community;
Demographics;
Diversity;
Ethnicity;
Gender;
Race;
Technology Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
California
- September 2019
- Case
Shell: A Company of Opportunity?
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney
The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had...
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Keywords:
Business Divisions;
Change Management;
Competency and Skills;
Experience and Expertise;
Talent and Talent Management;
Energy;
Energy Sources;
Non-Renewable Energy;
Renewable Energy;
Human Resources;
Employees;
Retention;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Jobs and Positions;
Job Design and Levels;
Knowledge Sharing;
Knowledge;
Knowledge Use and Leverage;
Labor;
Human Capital;
Labor Unions;
Leading Change;
Resource Allocation;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Performance Evaluation;
Performance Productivity;
Strategic Planning;
Projects;
Motivation and Incentives;
Business Strategy;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
Technology Platform;
Chemical Industry;
Energy Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Technology Industry;
United Kingdom;
Netherlands
- July 2019
- Teaching Note
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg
A Teaching Note for the "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow" case study (HBS#820-017). The case describes how AT&T designed and implemented a program to retrain 100,000 of its workers. The case first reviews the technological forces that compelled AT&T to...
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Keywords:
AT＆T;
Workforce;
Future Of Work;
Telecommunications;
Unions;
Technological Change;
Layoffs;
MOOCS;
Strategic Planning;
Employees;
Training;
Labor;
Learning;
Labor Unions;
Technology Adoption;
Talent and Talent Management;
Transformation;
Telecommunications Industry;
Communications Industry;
United States
- July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Case
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg
By the late 2000s, rapid changes in the telecommunications industry forced AT&T’s management team to take on a task that CEO Randall Stephenson called the “biggest logistical challenge” they had ever seen: retraining 100,000 workers by 2020. In 2012, internal company...
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Keywords:
AT＆T;
Workforce;
Skills;
Future Of Work;
Telecommunications;
Unions;
Technological Change;
Layoffs;
MOOCS;
Strategic Planning;
Employees;
Training;
Competency and Skills;
Labor;
Learning;
Labor Unions;
Technology Adoption;
Talent and Talent Management;
Telecommunications Industry;
Communications Industry;
United States
- 2019
- Article
The Social Desirability of Offshoring: A Swiss Consensus (1945–1975)
By: Sabine Pitteloud
This article focuses on the evolution of the rhetoric and practice of corporate offshoring in Switzerland from the post-war economic boom to the industrial crisis in the mid-seventies. The virtue of a historical perspective on the issue of offshoring is to show how...
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- August 2018 (Revised August 2019)
- Technical Note
A Note on Compensation
By: Ethan Bernstein and Michael Norris
This note provides an overview of the important terms, concepts, and frameworks that a manager should know about compensation—whether it be their own or that of an employee. Because compensation in practice is fraught with pitfalls, this note presents an overview of...
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- February 2017 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
The Flint, Michigan Sit-Down Strike
By: Tom Nicholas, Christopher T. Stanton and Matthew Preble
For roughly six weeks between late December 1936 and February 1937, a major strike at several critical General Motors (GM) plants in Flint, Michigan, essentially halted the corporation’s U.S. production and resulted in significant gains for the nascent United...
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Keywords:
Industrial Unionism;
Craft Unionism;
Welfare Capitalism;
General Motors;
Labor;
Labor Unions;
Labor and Management Relations;
Wages;
Working Conditions;
Government Legislation;
Business History;
Business and Government Relations;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Business and Community Relations;
Auto Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Mining Industry;
Steel Industry;
United States;
Michigan
- Article
L'autodiscipline en guise de régulation. La stratégie patronale à l'heure de la surchauffe économique en Suisse autour de 1960
By: Sabine Pitteloud
Die Strategie der Unternehmensverbände zur Bekämpfung der konjunkturellen «Überhitzung» um 1960 Sabine Pitteloud interessiert sich für den Versuch, privatwirtschaftliche Antworten auf die Teuerung der 1960er-Jahre zu finden. Arbeitgeber und Gewerkschaften waren sich...
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- March 2016 (Revised September 2021)
- Case
South Africa: A Fractured Rainbow?
By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason
Twenty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa's democracy persists, albeit with problems. A tripartite coalition — the African National Congress, the labor unions, and the Communist Party — still controls the political system but with diminishing economic...
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