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. Our close ties to practice and fellow academics across the world are invaluable to our problem-centered research approach that is driven by a relentless investigation of "Why?" and tackles such issues as:

The challenge of leading change in a changing world
Effective and harmful leadership styles
Selection of new firm leadership
Managing productive teams
Adaptation to volatile and unpredictable careers
How to learn from the history of leadership

We leverage a wide range of research methodologies – from onsite field research to surveys, experiments, and extensive longitudinal studies. As an example, Boris Groysberg of the Organizational Behavior unit engaged in over two hundred interviews with Wall Street star analysts to understand the impact on analyst performance of moving to competitor firms. Or take Raffaella Sadun of the Strategy unit who coleads the World Management Survey with Stanford University and the London School of Economics with whom she spent the last seven years interviewing managers at 10,000 organizations in 20 countries to examine differences in the style and quality of leadership across the world. Our research is contributing enduring ideas to the world’s understanding of Leadership, impacting both theory and practice, and helping to fulfill our school’s mission of building strong leaders for tomorrow.

Keywords: leading change, leadership style, strategic alliances, teams, innovation leadership, change management, competitive strategy, leadership development, organizational change, motivation, growth strategy, leadership decisions, governance

Featured Works

Book | 2009
Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis
William W. George
Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis outlines the seven critical lessons leaders need to learn when facing crises. The book contains numerous examples of successful and failed leaders, with stories to illustrate their experiences and the author's advice to readers who may face similar crises.
Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Learning; Leadership; Crisis Management;
Citation:
George, William W. Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis. Warren Bennis Signature Series. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009. (ISBN 978-0-470-53187-7.)
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Article | McKinsey Quarterly | January 2012
How Leaders Kill Meaning at Work
Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer
Senior executives routinely undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees in four avoidable ways. This article is based on analysis of hundreds of work diaries from professionals describing everyday events that involved high-level managers in their companies. The analysis uncovered four major type of actions that reduce meaningfulness in the work and, as a result, lead to more negative emotions, lower intrinsic motivation, and less favorable perceptions of the organization--with negative consequences for performance. These actions include signaling low expectations for innovation, switching strategic direction too frequently, miscoordination of organizational systems, and vague, unrealistically grandiose goals. The research also revealed ways in which top managers can avoid these traps.
Keywords: Leadership; Creativity; Performance Productivity; Motivation and Incentives; Innovation Strategy; Performance; Strategic Planning; Leading Change; Balanced Scorecard; Mission and Purpose;
Citation:
Amabile, Teresa, and Steven J. Kramer. "How Leaders Kill Meaning at Work." McKinsey Quarterly, no. 1 (January 2012): 124–131.
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Book | 2002
Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs
Rakesh Khurana
Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected and dismissed or about their true power. This is the first book to take us into the often secretive world of the CEO selection process. Rakesh Khurana's findings are surprising and disturbing. In recent years, he shows, corporations have increasingly sought CEOs who are above all else charismatic, whose fame and force of personality impress analysts and the business media, but whose experience and abilities are not necessarily right for companies' specific needs. The labor market for CEOs, Khurana concludes, is far less rational than we might think. Khurana's findings are based on a study of the hiring and firing of CEOs at over 850 of America's largest companies and on extensive interviews with CEOs, corporate board members, and consultants at executive search firms. Written with exceptional clarity and verve, the book explains the basic mechanics of the selection process and how hiring priorities have changed with the rise of shareholder activism. Khurana argues that the market for CEOs, which we often assume runs on cool calculation and the impersonal forces of supply and demand, is culturally determined and too frequently inefficient. Its emphasis on charisma artificially limits the number of candidates considered, giving them extraordinary leverage to demand high salaries and power. It also raises expectations and increases the chance that a CEO will be fired for failing to meet shareholders' hopes. The result is corporate instability and too little attention to long-term strategy. The book is a major contribution to our understanding of corporate culture and the nature of markets and leadership in general.
Keywords: Managerial Roles; Selection and Staffing; Personal Characteristics; Experience and Expertise; Investment Activism; Corporate Strategy;
Citation:
Khurana, Rakesh. Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
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Book | 2012
Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy
Amy C. Edmondson
Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. I show that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those organizations work. In most organizations, the work that produces value for customers is carried out by teams, and increasingly, by flexible team-like entities. The pace of change and the fluidity of most work structures mean that it's not really about creating effective teams anymore, but instead about leading effective teaming. 'Teaming' shows that organizations learn when the flexible, fluid collaborations they encompass are able to learn. The problem is teams, and other dynamic groups, don't learn naturally. I outline the factors that prevent them from doing so, such as interpersonal fear, irrational beliefs about failure, groupthink, problematic power dynamics, and information hoarding. With 'Teaming,' leaders can shape these factors by encouraging reflection, creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the sharing of ideas. Further, they can use practical management strategies to help organizations realize the benefits inherent in both success and failure. Based on years of research, this book shows how leaders can make organizational learning happen by building teams that learn.
Keywords: Change; Interpersonal Communication; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Innovation and Invention; Management; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Research; Strategy; Complexity; Value;
Citation:
Edmondson, Amy C. Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy. Jossey-Bass, 2012.
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Book | 2011
Flying Without a Net: Turn Fear of Change into Fuel for Success
Thomas J. DeLong
Confronted by omnipresent threats of job loss and change, even the brightest among us are anxious. In response, we're hunkering down, blocking ourselves from new challenges. This response hurts us and our organizations, but we fear making ourselves even more vulnerable by committing mistakes while learning something new. In Flying Without a Net, Thomas DeLong explains how to draw strength from vulnerability. First, understand the forces that escalate anxiety in high achievers and the unproductive behaviors you turn to for relief. Then adopt practices that give you the courage to "do the right things poorly" before "doing the right things well." Drawing on his extensive research and consulting work, DeLong lays out (1) Roots of high achievers' anxiety: fear of being wrong, lack of a sense of purpose, and a craving for human connection; (2) Destructive behaviors we adopt to relieve our anxiety: busyness, comparing ourselves to others, and blaming others for our frustrations; (3) Behaviors we must adopt to gain strength from vulnerability: putting the past behind us and seeking honest feedback. Packed with practical advice and inspiring stories, Flying Without a Net is an invaluable resource for all leaders seeking to thrive in this age of anxiety.
Keywords: Leadership Style; Personal Development and Career; Problems and Challenges; Attitudes; Behavior;
Citation:
DeLong, Thomas J. Flying Without a Net: Turn Fear of Change into Fuel for Success. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011.
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Recent Publications

Chapter | Oxford Bibliographies: Management | 2013
Technology and Innovation Management
Elizabeth J. Altman, Frank Nagle and Michael Tushman
The goal of this annotated bibliography on technology and innovation is to organize and present the most important literature relevant to a scholar seeking to understand and advance the field. It includes articles that are highly-cited and foundational pieces, as well as recent articles that help give the reader a sense of where the field is headed and where likely opportunities for future research lie. This article seeks to strike an equilibrium among the variety of perspectives that exist in technology and innovation literature, balancing new and old research as well as economic, organizational, and cross-disciplinary methodologies. The innovative process is broadly considered here, as well as the technologies that result from it, including business model innovation, service-level innovation, and product innovation, highlighting articles that utilize diverse levels of analysis.
Keywords: technology; technological change; innovation streams; organizational evolution; executive leadership; organizational architecture; Technology; Technological Innovation; Innovation and Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Organizational Design;
Citation:
Altman, Elizabeth J., Frank Nagle, and Michael Tushman. "Technology and Innovation Management." In Oxford Bibliographies: Management, edited by Ricky W. Griffin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
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Article | Strategic Management Journal | 2013
Who Is Governing Whom? Executives, Governance, and the Structure of Generosity in Large U.S. Firms
Christopher Marquis and Matthew Lee
We examine how organizational structure influences strategies over which corporate leaders have significant discretion. Corporate philanthropy is our setting to study how a differentiated structural element-the corporate foundation-constrains the influence of individual senior managers and directors on corporate strategy. Our analysis of Fortune 500 firms from 1996 to 2006 shows that leader characteristics at both the senior management and director levels affect corporate philanthropic contributions. We also find that organizational structure constrains the philanthropic influence of board members but not of senior managers, a result that is contrary to what existing theory would predict. We discuss how these findings advance understanding of how organizational structure and corporate leadership interact and of how organizations can more effectively realize the strategic value of corporate social responsibility activities.
Keywords: Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Giving and Philanthropy; Leadership; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; United States;
Citation:
Marquis, Christopher, and Matthew Lee. "Who Is Governing Whom? Executives, Governance, and the Structure of Generosity in Large U.S. Firms." Strategic Management Journal 34, no. 4 (2013): 483–497. (Earlier version distributed as Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 11-121.)
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Article | American Economic Journal: Applied Economics | October, 2012
The Power of Political Voice: Women's Political Representation and Crime in India
Lakshmi Iyer, Anandi Mani, Prachi Mishra and Petia Topalova
Using state-level variation in the timing of political reforms, we find that an increase in female representation in local government induces a large and significant rise in documented crimes against women in India. Our evidence suggests that this increase is good news, driven primarily by greater reporting rather than greater incidence of such crimes. In contrast, we find no increase in crimes against men or gender-neutral crimes. We also examine the effectiveness of alternative forms of political representation: large-scale membership of women in local councils affects crime against them more than their presence in higher level leadership positions.
Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; Crime and Corruption; Leadership; Gender Characteristics; Performance Effectiveness; Rank and Position; India;
Citation:
Iyer, Lakshmi, Anandi Mani, Prachi Mishra, and Petia Topalova. "The Power of Political Voice: Women's Political Representation and Crime in India." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 4, no. 4 (October, 2012): 165–193.
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Article | Economic Times | December 4, 2012
Business Leaders Are More Than Profiteers, as They Deliver Growth in an Efficient, Fair Manner
Karthik Ramanna
The legitimacy of market capitalism rests on its ability to deliver freedom, prosperity, and growth in a manner that is efficient and fair. The pursuit of profit is a central but not the only element of capitalism. There are many circumstances, such as when lobbying the government for technical regulations or when confronted with opportunities to obtain public licences through corrupt means, when businesspersons may have to suspend the short-term profit motive and assume a more benevolent, stewardship role toward the system and society. It is their capacity and good judgment to identify and act on these circumstances that will transform them from being simply profiteers to true business leaders, and will forestall the heavy-handed political response that might destroy the very system from which so many benefit.
Keywords: Capitalism; leadership; Leadership; India;
Citation:
Ramanna, Karthik. "Business Leaders Are More Than Profiteers, as They Deliver Growth in an Efficient, Fair Manner." Economic Times (December 4, 2012).
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Article | Washington Post, On Leadership Blog | November 9, 2012
For Obama, Where has Lincoln Gone?
Nancy F. Koehn
The 2012 presidential race was not only the most expensive in history, it was also one of the most closely contested elections the country has known. President Barack Obama inherits the very serious challenge of trying to reunite a divided nation in which political paralysis has seemingly become the frustrating and often destructive new normal. It's a tall order, but history tells us this problem is not insurmountable.
Keywords: leadership; Leadership;
Citation:
Koehn, Nancy F. "For Obama, Where has Lincoln Gone?" Washington Post, On Leadership Blog (November 9, 2012).
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Article | MIT Sloan Management Review | Summer 2012
How to Become a Sustainable Company
Robert G. Eccles, Kathleen Miller Perkins and George Serafeim
Using field and survey data we identify the characteristics of sustainable companies, and we develop a two-stage model that can help companies develop a culture of innovation, trust, and the ability for transformational change.
Keywords: sustainability; innovation; trust; leadership; Leadership; Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Culture; Innovation and Invention; Trust; Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Citation:
Eccles, Robert G., Kathleen Miller Perkins, and George Serafeim. "How to Become a Sustainable Company." MIT Sloan Management Review 53, no. 4 (Summer 2012).
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Book | 2012
Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations
Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind
How can leaders make their big or growing companies feel small again? How can they recapture the "magic"--the tight strategic alignment, the high level of employee engagement--that drove and animated their organization when it was a start-up? As more and more executives have discovered in recent years, the answer to this conundrum lies in the power of conversation. In "Talk, Inc.," Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind show how trusted and effective leaders are adapting the principles of face-to-face conversation in order to pursue a new form of organizational conversation. They explore the promise of conversation-powered leadership—from the time-tested practice of talking straight (and listening well) to the thoughtful adoption of social media technology. And they offer guidance on how to balance the benefits of open-ended talk with the realities of strategic execution. Drawing on the experience of leaders at diverse companies from around the world, "Talk, Inc." offers provocative insights and user-friendly tips on how to make organizational culture more intimate, more interactive, more inclusive, and more intentional—in short, more conversational.
Keywords: Leadership; Interpersonal Communication; Organizational Culture; Social and Collaborative Networks; Spoken Communication;
Citation:
Groysberg, Boris, and Michael Slind. Talk, Inc. How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012.
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Article | Harvard Business Review | June 2012
Leadership Is a Conversation
Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind
Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders can promote operational flexibility, employee engagement, and tight strategic alignment. Groysberg and Slind have identified four elements of organizational conversation that reflect the essential attributes of interpersonal conversation: intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality. Intimacy shifts the focus from a top-down distribution of information to a bottom-up exchange of ideas. Organizational conversation is less corporate in tone and more casual. And it's less about issuing and taking orders than about asking and answering questions. Interactivity entails shunning the simplicity of monologue and embracing the unpredictable vitality of dialogue. Traditional one-way media—print and broadcast, in particular—give way to social media buttressed by social thinking. Inclusion turns employees into full-fledged conversation partners, entitling them to provide their own ideas, often on company channels. They can create content and act as brand ambassadors, thought leaders, and storytellers. Intentionality enables leaders and employees to derive strategically relevant action from the push and pull of discussion and debate.
Keywords: Employees; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership; Cooperation; Partners and Partnerships;
Citation:
Groysberg, Boris, and Michael Slind. "Leadership Is a Conversation." Harvard Business Review 90, no. 6 (June 2012).
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Panel Discussion | 15 May 2012
Capitalism at Risk
Lynn S. Paine and Joseph L. Bower
Keywords: capital markets; capital structure; innovation; Capital Structure; Innovation Leadership; Consumer Products Industry;
Citation:
"Capitalism at Risk." Recast Capitalism, Rethink Company, Institut de l'entreprise, Paris, France, May 15, 2012.
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Talk | 14 May 2012
Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business
Lynn S. Paine and Joseph L. Bower
Keywords: capital markets; innovation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Innovation Leadership; Consumer Products Industry;
Citation:
"Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business." Lunch Discussion with Professor Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine, Harvard Business School Europe Research Center, Paris, France, May 14, 2012.
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