Leadership
Leadership
As our world grows increasingly global, intricate, and ever-changing, the role of leaders is becoming more and more complex and critical to business success. In the 1950s and 1960s, Fritz Roethlisberger and Elton Mayo's contributions to the "Hawthorne effect," and work by Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch on organizational integration, sparked the field of Organizational Behavior. Early work by Michael Beer on leading organizational change, Rosabeth Kanter on innovation for productivity, John Kotter on power and influence, and Michael Tushman on innovation management helped shape today's understanding of organizational transformation. With an interest in Leadership that spans our academic units, our approach to research is collaborative and multi-disciplinary. We leverage a wide range of research methodologies – from onsite field research to surveys, experiments, and extensive longitudinal studies.
Leadership Initiative
The Leadership Initiative undertakes cutting-edge research and course development projects about leadership and leadership development, both within HBS and through collaborations with other organizations.
LeadershipRecent Publications
From "BIG" Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (B)
- March 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
From “BIG” Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (A)
- March 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Funderbeam: Teaming Up or Going Alone?
- March 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Governing OpenAI
- March 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Continuity & Change at Boston Consulting Group
- February 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Archetypes of Product Launch by Insiders, Outsiders, and Visionaries
- February 2024 |
- Article |
- Industrial and Corporate Change
Leaders Must React: A Framework for Responding to Unforeseen Events
- January–February 2024 |
- Article |
- Harvard Business Review
On average, addressing unexpected issues—which range from fluctuations in stock price, to just-discovered product flaws, to major accidents and crises—consumes 36% of a CEO’s time. That’s a big proportion, and not all those problems merit a leader’s attention. To help CEOs understand which ones they truly need to focus on, Nohria, the former dean of Harvard Business School, has created a framework that sorts events into four categories—normal noise, clarion calls, whisper warnings, and siren songs—and offers guidance on how leaders should handle each type.
More than Optics: Olympus's Vision to Become a Leading Global MedTech Company
- February 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
When asked if he could have done any better, he laughed with a humble smile. "There's no 'perfect' in the world—but we are doing almost perfectly. I am not a very optimistic type of person. But we are certainly advancing [the transformation] in the right direction. I have to say, it is working very well.'"
Despite being on course, the journey was ongoing. Strategically, the evolving medical technology landscape demanded new capabilities—notably building an integrated digital solutions ecosystem. Organizationally, Takeuchi was at the helm of a matrix organization in which product divisions did not necessarily have full authority for all their activities; corporate functions were learning how to establish their global roles; and regional companies still drove local sales. And personnel issues remained a concern. Senior executive positions were staffed with “two in a box”—one Japanese and one non-Japanese manager—while Japanese employees were adapting to a job-based rather than a seniority system and the widespread use of the English language in meetings. How should Olympus navigate these challenges to deliver on its aspiration to be a leading global MedTech player?
Runa
- January 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
OpenAI: Idealism Meets Capitalism
- January 2024 (Revised February 2024) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research