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Tsedal Neeley

Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration

Photo of Tsedal Neeley

Unit: Organizational Behavior

Contact:

(617) 495-6776

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Tsedal Neeley (@tsedal) is a Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at the Harvard Business School. She is course head of and teaches in the required MBA course LEAD. She has taught in both the MBA (Leading Teams in a Global Economy, Field Global Immersion) and in numerous executive education programs including Leading Global Businesses, Harvard Business Analytics Program and Program for Leadership Development (PLD). Professor Neeley is a recipient of the HBS Charles M. Williams award for outstanding teaching in Executive Education.

With her award-winning book, The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations (Princeton University Press), Professor Neeley's research focuses on the challenges that global collaborators face when they work across national boundaries. Successful global collaboration can enable firms to capitalize on the promise of their global reach. For example, firms can draw on their diverse intellectual capital to meet customer demands the world over, giving them a competitive advantage in a range of marketplaces. The scale and complexity of global collaboration, however, makes its promise often hard to realize. Companies now span more languages, geographies, and cultures than ever before, making it more imperative and more difficult for workers to communicate effectively if they are to meet performance targets. To examine the communication challenges that global collaborators face, as well as potential solutions to those challenges, professor Neeley has identified key determinants of effectiveness in global work.

Professor Neeley has also published her work in leading scholarly and practitioner-oriented outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, Journal of International Business, Strategic Management Journal and Harvard Business Review. Her research has been covered in many media outlets such as CNN, Financial Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist.

Prior to her academic career, Professor Neeley spent ten years in industry working for companies like Lucent Technologies and The Forum Corporation in various capacities including strategies for global customer experience, 360 degree performance software management systems, sales force/sales management development, and business flow analysis for telecommunication infrastructures.  With extensive international experience, Professor Neeley is fluent in four languages. 

Professor Neeley received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering specializing in Work, Technology and Organizations. Professor Neeley was a Stanford University School of Engineering Lieberman award recipient for excellence in teaching and research as well as a Stanford Distinguished Alumni Scholar.

Featured Work

  1. Make Tools Like Slack Work for Your Company

    Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Paul Leonardi, a management professor at UC Santa Barbara, talk about the potential that applications such as Slack, Yammer, and Microsoft Teams have for strengthening employee collaboration, productivity, and organizational culture. They discuss their research showing how effective these tools can be and warn about common traps companies face when they implement them. Neeley and Leonardi are co-authors of the article “What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools” in the November-December 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.
  2. The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations

    by Neeley, T. (2017) Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

    For nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of cross-border organizations, yet studies on corporate language strategies and their importance for globalization have been scarce. In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley provides an in-depth look at a single organization—the high-tech giant Rakuten—in the five years following its English lingua franca mandate. Neeley's behind-the-scenes account explores how language shapes the ways in which employees who work in global organizations communicate and negotiate linguistic and cultural differences.
  3. Global Collaboration Simulation: Tip of the Iceberg

    This online simulation teaches students about the difficulties in cross-cultural communication and managing global teams. Communicating via chat, teams of 4 or 5 students race against the clock to prepare a VC presentation. Students are assigned the role of a native English speaker or a nonnative English speaker at their organization. The simulation constrains the ways in which the native and nonnative speakers can interact, and the resulting experience replicates communication patterns in real globally diverse and distributed teams. As their team struggles to collaborate, students experience first-hand how communication challenges can interfere with work goals.
  4. WORKING KNOWLEDGE Cold Call PODCAST: How to Fix a Broken Global Team

    Increasingly, almost every team is a global team in some capacity. This presents a difficult challenge for managers everywhere, and especially for high-potential leaders who want to take their careers to the next level: how do you bring together a team whose members are geographically and culturally dispersed? Professor Tsedal Neeley discusses her case of a real-life executive charged with corralling a hugely diverse, underperforming group and leading it back to success on a global scale.
  5. Interview with Prof.Tsedal Neeley (1) (In Japanese)

    Japanese interview with Prof. Tsedal Neeley about Rakuten case and LEAD Class
  6. Interview with Prof.Tsedal Neeley (2) (In Japanese)

    Continuation of interview (in Japanese) with Prof. Tsedal Neeley about Language Strategy
  7. Global Teams That Work

    From the October 2015 Issue of Harvard Business Review

    To succeed in the global economy today, more and more companies are relying on a geographically dispersed workforce. They build teams that offer the best functional expertise from around the world, combined with deep, local knowledge of the most promising markets. They draw on the benefits of international diversity, bringing together people from many cultures with varied work experiences and different perspectives on strategic and organizational challenges. All this helps multinational companies compete in the current business environment.

    But managers who actually lead global teams are up against stiff challenges. Creating successful work groups is hard enough when everyone is local and people share the same office space. But when team members come from different countries and functional backgrounds and are working in different locations, communication can rapidly deteriorate, misunderstanding can ensue, and cooperation can degenerate into distrust.
  8. The ‘Promotion’ That Makes You Feel Bad

    HBS Working Knowledge Article from July 27, 2015
    Receiving an unexpected professional status bump doesn't always feel good, especially if it wasn't really earned. Companies need to be aware of potential problems with unearned status gain, and be ready with solutions, says Tsedal Neeley.
  9. Getting Cross-Cultural Teamwork Right

    Harvard Business Review Blog from September 10, 2014

    People struggle with global teamwork, even though it's essential to success in multinational firms. Despite their efforts to nimbly manage differences in time zones, cultures, and languages, cross-border collaborators often fail to reach shared understanding or common ground. They face conflicting group norms, practices, and expectations — all of which can cause severe fracturing along cultural lines.

    So how do you negotiate those differences and discover common ground? Through extensive research on global organizations and teams, I've found that learning, understanding, and teaching are three critical factors — on both sides.
  10. What’s Your Language Strategy?

    Language pervades every aspect of organizational life. It touches everything. Yet remarkably, leaders of global organizations, whose employees speak a multitude of languages, often pay too little attention to it in their approach to talent management. As we have observed in countless organizations, unrestricted multilingualism creates inefficiency in even the most dedicated and talented workforces. It can lead to friction in cross-border interactions, lost sales, and a host of other serious problems that may jeopardize competitiveness (see also “Global Business Speaks English,” by Tsedal Neeley, HBR May 2012). Developing a comprehensive strategy for managing language can help transform that vulnerability into a source of competitive advantage.
  11. Global Business Speaks English

    Why You Need a Language Strategy Now

    Ready or not, English is now the global language of business. More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language—Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing, to name a few—in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors.

  12. Language Wars Divide Global Companies

    An increasing number of global firms adopt a primary language for business operations—usually English. The problem: The practice can surface dormant hostilities around culture and geography. Tsedal Neeley discusses her research in this story from HBS Working Knowledge.

  13. Radical Language Strategy Case

    See Related Article: Learning to Speak the Language of Business

    Also see Related Article: HBS Cases: Overcoming the Stress of ‘Englishnization'

  14. Firsthand experience in global collaboration

    For a manager to assume that they can conduct all of their global work without any face-to-face contact is a mistake. In this leadership insight, Professor Neeley discusses how traveling to meet colleagues in other countries not only gives you direct knowledge of what they're doing, but also a better understanding of how they perceive you.

  15. Leaders' Blindspots Undermine Their Global Language Policies

  16. The challenges of companies mandating English as the global language and the SCARF model

  17. It's Not Nagging: Why Persistent, Redundant Communication Works

    (Top Ten Popular Article of 2011)

    CEOs of global companies increasingly mandate that their employees learn English. The problem: these workers can experience a loss of status and believe they aren't as effective in their learned language, says Assistant Professor Tsedal Neeley. 

Publications

Books

  1. Book | 2017

    The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations

    Tsedal Neeley

    For nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of cross-border organizations, yet studies on corporate language strategies and their importance for globalization have been scarce. In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley provides an in-depth look at a single organization—the high-tech giant Rakuten—in the five years following its English lingua franca mandate. Neeley’s behind-the-scenes portrayal explores how language shapes the ways in which employees who work in global organizations communicate and negotiate linguistic and cultural differences.

    Bringing together 650 interviews conducted across Rakuten’s locations in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, Neeley argues that an organization’s lingua franca is the catalyst by which all employees become some kind of “expat”(someone detached from their mother tongue or home culture). Through her unfettered access to the inner workings of Rakuten, she reveals three distinct social groups: “linguistic expats” who live in their home country yet have to give up their native language in the workplace; “cultural expats” or native speakers of the lingua franca who struggle with organizational values that are more easily transmitted after language barriers are removed; and finally “linguistic-cultural expats” who, while neither native to the lingua franca nor the organization’s home culture, surprisingly have the easiest time adjusting to language changes. Neeley demonstrates that language can serve as the conduit for an unfamiliar culture, often in unexpected ways, and that there are lessons to be learned for all global companies as they confront language and culture challenges. Examining the strategic use of language by one international corporation, The Language of Global Success uncovers how all organizations might integrate language effectively to tap into the promise of globalization.

    Keywords: Communication; Residency; Corporate Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Brazil; France; Germany; Indonesia; Japan; Taiwan; Thailand; United States;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal. The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.  View Details
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Journal Articles

  1. Article | Organization Science

    Head, Heart or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change Over Time?

    Sebastian Reiche and Tsedal Neeley

    To understand how recipients respond to radical change over time across cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, we conducted a longitudinal study of a mandated language change at a Chilean subsidiary of a large U.S. multinational organization. The engineering-focused subsidiary aiming to facilitate cross-border interactions embedded language acquisition experts to transition all employees from Spanish to English full time. We gathered survey data and objective fluency scores from the language change recipients at five points over a period of two years. Using variable and person-centered exploratory analyses, our results suggest that recipients’ negative affective responses to the language change precede their cognitive responses or self-efficacy, predicting their current language learning. Further, we find that recipients’ cognitive and affective responses over time differentially influence two future behavioral outcomes: intention to leave the organization and willingness to adopt the change. While cognitive rather than affective responses over time drive recipients’ intentions to leave, affective responses influence recipients’ willingness to adopt English. Finally, we show that change recipients followed three trajectories of cognitive responses and two trajectories of affective responses over time. We discuss theoretical and practical implications to the literature on organizational change, emotions, and language in global organizations.

    Keywords: language; Communication; Change; Employees; Attitudes; Emotions; Globalized Firms and Management;

    Citation:

    Reiche, Sebastian, and Tsedal Neeley. "Head, Heart or Hands: How Do Employees Respond to a Radical Global Language Change Over Time?" Organization Science 30, no. 6 (November–December 2019): 1252–1269.  View Details
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  2. Article | Harvard Business Review

    What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools: Avoid the Common Pitfalls So That Your Organization Can Collaborate, Learn, and Innovate

    Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley

    Workplaces have adopted internal social tools—think stand-alone technologies such as Slack, Yammer, and Chatter, or embedded applications such as Microsoft Teams and JIRA—at a staggering rate. In an ambitious study of 4,200 companies, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, 72% reported using them to facilitate employee communication. We have studied internal social tools in various work settings, including banking, insurance, telecommunications, e-commerce, atmospheric science, and computing. The mounting evidence is clear: These tools can promote employee collaboration and knowledge sharing across silos. They can help employees make faster decisions, develop more innovative ideas for products and services, and become more engaged in their work and their companies. Over the past two decades, organizations have sought some of these benefits through knowledge management databases but with limited success. That’s because determining who has expertise and understanding the context in which it was created are important parts of knowledge sharing. Databases do not provide that type of information and connection. Social tools do. But we have found that companies that try to “go social,” as many of them call it, often fall into four traps. In this article, we look at those traps and share recommendations for capitalizing on the promise of social tools.

    Keywords: leadership; management; social tools; Social and Collaborative Networks; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Improvement; Management;

    Citation:

    Leonardi, Paul, and Tsedal Neeley. "What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools: Avoid the Common Pitfalls So That Your Organization Can Collaborate, Learn, and Innovate." Harvard Business Review 95, no. 6 (November–December 2017): 118–126.  View Details
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  3. Article | Strategic Management Journal

    Enacting Knowledge Strategy Through Social Media: Passable Trust and the Paradox of Non-work Interactions

    Tsedal Neeley and Paul Leonardi

    Despite the recognition that knowledge sharing among employees is necessary to enact knowledge strategy, little is known about how to enable such sharing. Recent research suggests that social media may promote knowledge sharing because they allow social lubrication and the formation of trust. Our longitudinal and comparative analysis of social media usage at two large firms indicates that users who participate in non-work interactions on social media catalyze a cycle of curiosity and passable trust that enables them to connect and share knowledge. Paradoxically, the very non-work related content that attracts users to social media and shapes passable trust can become a source of tension, thwarting a firm’s ability to encapsulate knowledge in the form of routines and to use it to enact its strategy.

    Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Employees; Interactive Communication; Trust;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal, and Paul Leonardi. "Enacting Knowledge Strategy Through Social Media: Passable Trust and the Paradox of Non-work Interactions." Special Issue on Strategy Processes and Practices: Dialogues and Intersections. Strategic Management Journal 39, no. 3 (March 2018): 922–946.  View Details
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  4. Article | Academy of Management Journal

    Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate

    Tsedal Neeley and Tracy Dumas

    Theories of status rarely address unearned status gain—an unexpected and unsolicited increase in relative standing, prestige, or worth, attained not through individual effort or achievement, but from a shift in organizationally valued characteristics. We build theory about unearned status gain drawing from a qualitative study of 90 U.S.–based employees of a Japanese organization following a company-wide English language mandate. These native English-speaking employees believed that the mandate elevated their worth in the organization, a status gain they attributed to chance, hence deeming it unearned. They also reported a heightened sense of belonging, optimism about career advancement, and access to expanded networks. Yet among those who interacted regularly with Japanese counterparts, narratives also revealed discomfort, which manifested in at least two ways. These informants engaged in “status rationalization,” emphasizing the benefits Japanese employees might obtain by learning English, and predicated on whether the change was temporary or durable, a process we call “status stability appraisal.” The fact that these narratives were present only among those working closely with Japanese employees highlights intergroup contact as a factor in shaping the unearned status gain experience. Supplemental analysis of data gathered from 66 Japanese employees provided the broader organizational context and the nonnative speakers’ perspective of the language shift. These findings expand our overall understanding of status dynamics in organizations and show how status gains can yield both positive and negative outcomes.

    Keywords: Status and Position; Equality and Inequality; Spoken Communication; Organizations; Japan; United States;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal, and Tracy Dumas. "Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate." Academy of Management Journal 59, no. 1 (February 2016): 14–43.  View Details
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  5. Article | Harvard Business Review

    Global Teams That Work

    Tsedal Neeley

    Many companies today rely on employees around the world, leveraging their diversity and local expertise to gain a competitive edge. However, geographically dispersed teams face a big challenge: physical separation and cultural differences can create social distance, or a lack of emotional connection, that leads to misunderstandings and mistrust. To help global team leaders manage effectively, the author shares her SPLIT framework for mitigating social distance. It has five components: Structure—If a team is made up of groups with different views about their relative power, the leader should connect frequently with those who are farthest away and emphasize unity. Process—Meeting processes should allow for informal interactions that build empathy. Language—Everyone, regardless of language fluency, should be empowered to speak up. Identity—Team members must be active cultural learners and teachers to understand one another's identity and avoid misinterpreting behaviors. Technology—When choosing between videoconferencing, e-mail, and other modes of communication, leaders should ask themselves if real-time conversation is desirable, if their message needs reinforcement, and if they are opting for the technology they want others to use.

    Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Groups and Teams; Performance; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Teams That Work." Harvard Business Review 93, no. 10 (October 2015): 74–81.  View Details
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  6. Article | Harvard Business Review

    What's Your Language Strategy?: It Should Bind Your Company's Global Talent Management and Vision

    Tsedal Neeley and Robert Steven Kaplan

    Language pervades every aspect of organizational life. Yet leaders of global organizations—where unrestricted multilingualism can create friction—often pay too little attention to it in their approach to talent management. By managing language carefully, firms can hire and develop the best employees, improve collaboration on global teams, and strengthen the company's footing in local markets. Language proficiency—either in a lingua franca, or shared language, or in a local language—does not guarantee high performance. Recruiters may favor fluency over other capabilities. They may rely on external hires with language skills rather than grooming internal candidates with the capacity and motivation to learn new languages. And leaders may give expatriate assignments not to the best candidates but to people who speak certain languages. To hire and promote the best people, firms may need to provide training to meet global and local language needs. Fluency in a language also does not equal cultural fluency. For leaders, understanding the cultural background of each team member and customers is as essential as learning to conjugate new verbs. The same can be said for employees at all levels: even when they are fluent in the lingua franca, a lack of cultural understanding can cause significant misunderstandings. To prevent such rifts, language training must include cross-cultural education.

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal, and Robert Steven Kaplan. "What's Your Language Strategy? It Should Bind Your Company's Global Talent Management and Vision." R1409D. Harvard Business Review 92, no. 9 (September 2014): 70–76.  View Details
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  7. Article | Journal of International Business Studies

    Language as a Lightning Rod: Power Contests, Emotion Regulation, and Subgroup Dynamics in Global Teams

    Pamela J. Hinds, Tsedal Neeley and Catherine Durnell Cramton

    Through an ethnographic study comprised of interviews with and observations of 96 globally distributed members in six software development teams, we propose a model that captures how asymmetries in language fluency contribute to an us vs. them dynamic so common in global teams. Faultlines, formed along the dimensions of asymmetries in the degree of fluency of team members, location, and nationality, were associated with subgrouping in some, but not all of the teams. Our findings suggest that divisive subgroup dynamics only occurred in teams that also suffered from power contests, suggesting power contests activate otherwise dormant faultlines. Language asymmetries further acted as a lightning rod such that team members' emotional responses to them were constant reminders of subgroup differences on these teams, which further fueled negative emotions. Our findings extend theory on subgroup dynamics in global teams by adding language as a potential faultline, showing how power struggles activated faultlines and were, in turn, reinforced by them, and documenting the emotion regulation processes triggered by subgrouping and enacted through language-related choices and behaviors.

    Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Communication Intention and Meaning; Groups and Teams; Software; Emotions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Power and Influence; Information Technology Industry;

    Citation:

    Hinds, Pamela J., Tsedal Neeley, and Catherine Durnell Cramton. "Language as a Lightning Rod: Power Contests, Emotion Regulation, and Subgroup Dynamics in Global Teams." Journal of International Business Studies 45, no. 5 (June–July 2014): 536–561.  View Details
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  8. Article | Organization Science

    Language Matters: Status Loss & Achieved Status Distinctions in Global Organizations

    Tsedal Neeley

    How workers experience and express status loss in organizations has received little scholarly attention. I conducted a qualitative study of a French high-tech company that had instituted English as a lingua franca, or common language, as a context for examining this question. Results indicate that nonnative English-speaking employees experienced status loss regardless of their English fluency level. Yet variability in their self-assessed fluency—an achieved status marker—was associated with differences in language performance anxiety and job insecurity in a non-linear fashion: those who believed they had medium level fluency were the most anxious compared to their low and high fluency co-workers. In almost all cases where they differed, self-assessed rather than objective fluency determined how speakers explained their feelings and actions. Although nonnative speakers shared a common attitude of resentment and distrust toward their native English-speaking co-workers, their behavioral responses—assertion, inhibition, or learning—to encounters with native speakers differed based on their self-perceived fluencies. No status differences materialized among nonnative speakers as a function of diverse linguistic and national backgrounds. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for status, achieved characteristics, and language in organizations.

    Keywords: Organizations; Status and Position; Loss; Spoken Communication; Emotions; Attitudes; Behavior; Globalization;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal. "Language Matters: Status Loss & Achieved Status Distinctions in Global Organizations." Organization Science 24, no. 2 (March–April 2013): 476–497.  View Details
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  9. Article | Management Science

    Reflected Knowledge and Trust in Global Collaboration

    Mark Mortensen and Tsedal Neeley

    Scholars argue that direct knowledge about distant colleagues is crucial for fostering trust in global collaboration. However, their arguments focus mainly on how trust accrues from knowledge about distant collaborators' personal characteristics, relationships, and behavioral norms. We suggest that an equally important trust mechanism is "reflected knowledge," knowledge focal actors gain about the personal characteristics, relationships, and behavioral norms of their own site through the lens of their distant collaborators. Based on surveys gathered from 140 employees in a division of a global chemical company, we found that direct knowledge and reflected knowledge enhanced trust differentially. While both enhanced feelings of closeness with others, results indicate that direct knowledge increased focal actors' understanding of their distant colleagues, while reflected knowledge promoted feelings of being understood. We discuss implications of reflected knowledge to theories of trust and interpersonal dynamics in globally distributed collaboration.

    Keywords: global work; organizational studies; Knowledge; Trust; Cooperation; Global Range; Relationships; Behavior; Personal Characteristics;

    Citation:

    Mortensen, Mark, and Tsedal Neeley. "Reflected Knowledge and Trust in Global Collaboration." Management Science 58, no. 12 (December 2012): 2207–2224. (equal authorship.)  View Details
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  10. Article | Organizational Dynamics

    The (Un)Hidden Turmoil of Language in Global Collaboration

    Tsedal Neeley, Pamela J. Hinds and Catherine D. Cramton

    Companies are increasingly relying on a lingua franca, or common language (usually English), to facilitate cross-border collaboration. Despite the numerous benefits of a lingua franca, our research reveals myriad challenges that disrupt collaboration and contribute to process decrements and productivity losses, many of which are hidden from leaders' attention. Through a series of field studies with global companies, we document language dynamics among global workers. Most notably, we found that both native and nonnative English speakers suffer anxiety when faced with conducting business in English. Nonnative English speakers respond with anxiety-mitigating strategies, such as avoiding English-only speakers or reverting to their native language, thus passing the problem like a "hot potato" to their native English-speaking colleagues. Native English speakers respond with strategies to reduce their own anxiety, such as exiting meetings and demanding that English be spoken, which passes the burden back to their nonnative English speaking colleagues. This back-and-forth dynamic often occurs because the feelings and experiences of native and nonnative co-workers are hidden from each other. Empathy arrests this cycle, leading to more sensitivity and accommodation of language diversity. Based on the insights from our research, we present lessons that global managers and collaborators alike can employ to halt the "hot potato" cycle and minimize productivity loss in global collaborations.

    Keywords: Strategy; Loss; Spoken Communication; Performance Productivity; Research; Global Range; Problems and Challenges; Diversity; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal, Pamela J. Hinds, and Catherine D. Cramton. "The (Un)Hidden Turmoil of Language in Global Collaboration." Organizational Dynamics 41, no. 3 (July–September 2012): 236–244.  View Details
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  11. Article | Harvard Business Review

    Global Business Speaks English: Why You Need a Language Strategy Now

    Tsedal Neeley

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Business Speaks English: Why You Need a Language Strategy Now." Harvard Business Review 90, no. 5 (May 2012): 116–124.  View Details
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  12. Article | Organization Science

    How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication

    Paul Leonardi, Tsedal Neeley and Elizabeth M. Gerber

    Several recent studies have found that managers engage in redundant communication; that is, they send the same message to the same recipient through two or more unique media sequentially. Given how busy most managers are, and how much information their subordinates receive on a daily basis, this practice seems, initially, quite puzzling. We conducted an ethnographic investigation to examine the nature of events that compelled managers to engage in redundant communication. Our study of the communication patterns of project managers in six companies across three industries indicates that redundant communication is a response to unexpected endogenous or exogenous threats to meeting work goals. Managers employed two distinct forms of redundant communication to mobilize team members toward mitigating potentially threatening discrepant events-unforeseen disruptive occurrences during the regular course of work. Managers with positional power over team members reactively followed up on a single communication when their attempt to communicate the existence of a threatening discrepant event failed, and they determined that a second communication was needed to enable its joint interpretation and to gain buy-in. In contrast, managers without positional power over team members proactively used redundant communication to enroll team members in the interpretation process-leading team members to believe that they had come up with the idea that completion of their project was under threat-and then to solidify those interpretations. Moreover, findings indicate that managers used different types of technologies for these sequential pairings based on whether their motivation was simply to transmit a communication of threat or to persuade people that a threat existed. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory about, and the practice of, technologically mediated communication, power, and interpretation in organizations.

    Keywords: Communication; Media; Information; Groups and Teams; Projects; Management Style; Power and Influence; Motivation and Incentives; Technology;

    Citation:

    Leonardi, Paul, Tsedal Neeley, and Elizabeth M. Gerber. "How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication." Organization Science 23, no. 1 (January–February 2012): 98–117.  View Details
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  13. Article | Harvard Business Review

    Effective Managers Say the Same Thing Twice (or More)

    Tsedal Neeley and Paul Leonardi

    How do effective managers get employees to act promptly? New research suggests that it's by making their requests at least twice. Though you may think redundancy is unnecessary and even a waste of time, a new study indicates that it helps your message cut through today's information overload.

    Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Employees; Management Style; Performance Improvement;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal, and Paul Leonardi. "Effective Managers Say the Same Thing Twice (or More)." Harvard Business Review 89, no. 5 (May 2011): 38–39.  View Details
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Book Chapters

  1. Article | Academy of Management Proceedings

    Affective, Cognitive and Behavioral Trajectories of Change Recipients in Global Organizations

    B. S. Reiche, T. B. Neeley and N. Overmeyer

    Research rarely addresses how change recipients respond to radical change across affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions over time. We examined a radical change in a recently acquired subsidiary of a U.S.-based global organization over a two-year period. With the aim to standardize communication across borders, the subsidiary changed its native working language from Spanish to English. External experts were embedded to support the acquisition by ensuring that all employees learn English. Using latent class growth modeling, our results suggest that change recipients followed distinct trajectories in their demonstrated ability, efficacy and affect. Further, we show that affective states—more so than demonstrated ability or efficacy—influence change recipients’ willingness to adopt the change. By contrast, change recipients’ turnover intentions are driven by their levels of demonstrated ability and efficacy rather than their affective states.

    Keywords: Change; Spoken Communication; Globalized Firms and Management; Behavior; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;

    Citation:

    Reiche, B. S., T. B. Neeley, and N. Overmeyer. "Affective, Cognitive and Behavioral Trajectories of Change Recipients in Global Organizations." Academy of Management Proceedings (2017). (Proceedings of the 77th Annual Meeting (2017), edited by Guclu Atinc. Online ISSN: 2151-6561.)  View Details
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  2. Chapter | Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, Volume 6: International Management | 2014

    The Language of Global Management

    Tsedal Neeley

    Over the last two decades, organizations seeking global expansion have been mandating an English lingua franca, or common language to facilitate global collaboration regardless of the country location of their headquarters. This article explains why stipulating a lingua franca for employees has replaced the exclusive use of language brokers. In the era of a business lingua franca, nevertheless, gives rise to the phenomenon of native and nonnative speakers. While a lingua franca can unify a nationally and linguistically diverse workforce, nascent research reveals challenging dynamics among speakers of various levels of lingua franca fluency. In-depth studies at the micro-, macro-, and meso-levels can shed important light on this nascent field of research.

    Keywords: Networks; Governance; Technology; Management; Ethics; Emerging Markets; Innovation and Invention;

    Citation:

    Neeley, Tsedal. "The Language of Global Management." In Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, Volume 6: International Management. 3rd ed. Edited by Markus Vodosek and Deanne den Hartog. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.  View Details
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Working Papers

    Cases and Teaching Materials

    1. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | June 2019

      Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (B)

      Tsedal Neeley, Paul Leonardi and Michael Norris

      Supplements the (A) case, HBS No. 419-066, and provides information about what happened after the (A) case ends.

      Keywords: Agile; digital transformation; values; vision; corporate culture; Leadership; Transformation; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry; United States; California;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, Paul Leonardi, and Michael Norris. "Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 419-088, June 2019.  View Details
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    2. Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2019

      Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (A)

      Tsedal Neeley, Paul Leonardi and Michael Norris

      Eric Hawkins, director of engineering at AppFolio—a digital technology firm that offered cloud-based business software to small and medium sized companies—was shocked by an unusual request from his senior leadership team. Could Hawkins and one of his agile teams build a check scanner feature inside their management software? AppFolio’s founders had instructed to never build a check scanner; providing technologies to help businesses move into the digital era was a primary company goal. A scanner for paper checks would contradict the hard-won culture of software innovation and project self-selection that AppFolio and Hawkins’ teams lived by. Hawkins also worried that creating a new team to work on the check scanning project would cause workload and morale issues. But the sales team believed that this technology could close deals with larger, more complex property management companies, some with managers who wanted the check scanner feature. Several large-scale deals were on the line. Hawkins quickly assembled an agile market validation team and considered two options: hold fast to the company’s values and refuse to build the check scanner feature or capitulate and build a basic check scanner with minimum functionality. Engineers would likely consider this a “loser” project, yet sales might get a boost that could open a new revenue stream. Hawkins had to make his decision quickly.

      Keywords: digital transformation; values; Agile; vision; corporate culture; Leadership; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; United States; California;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, Paul Leonardi, and Michael Norris. "Eric Hawkins Leading Agile Teams @ Digitally-Born AppFolio (A)." Harvard Business School Case 419-066, June 2019.  View Details
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    3. Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2019

      The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with'International Values and Local Roots' (A) and (B)

      Tsedal Neeley and Julia Kelley

      Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 419-031 and 419-032.

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Julia Kelley. "The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with'International Values and Local Roots' (A) and (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 419-063, June 2019.  View Details
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    4. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | April 2019

      From Globalization to Dual Digital Transformation: CEO Thierry Breton Leading Atos Into 'Digital Shockwaves' (B)

      Tsedal Neeley and JT Keller

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and JT Keller. "From Globalization to Dual Digital Transformation: CEO Thierry Breton Leading Atos Into 'Digital Shockwaves' (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 419-046, April 2019.  View Details
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    5. Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2019 (Revised June 2019)

      From Globalization to Dual Digital Transformation: CEO Thierry Breton Leading Atos Into 'Digital Shockwaves' (A)

      Tsedal Neeley, JT Keller and James Barnett

      Thierry Breton, chairman and CEO of IT company Atos, faced a pivotal juncture. After spending eight intense years scaling the company globally to over 100,000 employees in 70 countries, he was ready to take the next crucial step. Breton was convinced that rapid digital shockwaves would cause transformative disruption and become key to competitiveness for companies, including his own. To take the digital leap, Breton needed Atos to undergo dual digital transformation—defined as redesigning the underlying processes and competencies of an organization to become more adaptive using digital technology, from artificial intelligence and machine learning to the Internet of Things, while simultaneously guiding customers through the same changes. Breton had also struck a high-profile partnership with Google to deliver cloud design and artificial intelligence to customers. But now that the deal had been announced, Atos had to deliver. The firm's top leadership was split on how to equip Atos' large workforce for its digital transformation. In one view, Atos needed to motivate the majority of its employees to voluntarily complete digital certification programs. In another view, on-the-job learning was the best way to train both technical and non-technical employees in the digital skills relevant to their respective roles. Breton had to determine which approach would be the fastest and most effective way of upskilling his workforce to meet the demands of dual digital transformation.

      Keywords: dual digital transformation; Transformation; Disruption; Employees; Competency and Skills; Training; Decision Making;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, JT Keller, and James Barnett. "From Globalization to Dual Digital Transformation: CEO Thierry Breton Leading Atos Into 'Digital Shockwaves' (A)." Harvard Business School Case 419-027, April 2019. (Revised June 2019.)  View Details
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    6. Other Teaching and Training Material | 2018

      Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Global Teams

      Tsedal Neeley

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Global Teams." Core Curriculum Readings Series. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publishing 8358, 2018.  View Details
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    7. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | December 2018

      The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (B)

      Tsedal Neeley

      Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone’s operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting processes. The situation has been escalated to Vodafone’s audit committee, which expects Colao and his team to act drastically. In the second case, €7 million have been misreported through deferred recognition of costs into the future. The two cases challenge Colao’s organizational model of International Values and Local Roots that aims to maintain productive tension between global mandates and local practices. Colao meticulously designed his model based on the key value of trust, his unwavering convictions earning him the moniker of the ‘benevolent dictator.’ Colao is acutely aware that his response to the accounting discrepancies will be a referendum on his leadership for over 120,000 employees worldwide. If he doesn’t make the right decisions, the consequences will reverberate throughout the organization and erode confidence in the value of trust that he relentlessly worked to establish.

      Keywords: GLOBAL-LOCAL; global identity; local identity; accounting discrepency; Globalization; Leadership; Trust; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizations; Identity; Local Range; Global Range; Values and Beliefs; Accounting Audits;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 419-032, December 2018.  View Details
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    8. Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2018

      The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (A)

      Tsedal Neeley

      Vittorio Colao, CEO of telecommunication giant Vodafone, must respond to reports of disturbing accounting practices at two of Vodafone’s operating companies. In one case, €60 million have been misreported due to a series of failures to check manual accounting processes. The situation has been escalated to Vodafone’s audit committee, which expects Colao and his team to act drastically. In the second case, €7 million have been misreported through deferred recognition of costs into the future. The two cases challenge Colao’s organizational model of International Values and Local Roots that aims to maintain productive tension between global mandates and local practices. Colao meticulously designed his model based on the key value of trust, his unwavering convictions earning him the moniker of the “benevolent dictator.” Colao is acutely aware that his response to the accounting discrepancies will be a referendum on his leadership for over 120,000 employees worldwide. If he doesn’t make the right decisions, the consequences will reverberate throughout the organization and erode confidence in the value of trust that he relentlessly worked to establish.

      Keywords: GLOBAL-LOCAL; organization culture; global identity; local identity; accounting discrepency; Globalization; Leadership; Trust; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizations; Identity; Local Range; Global Range; Values and Beliefs; Accounting Audits;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "The Global-Local Tension: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao Leading with 'International Values and Local Roots' (A)." Harvard Business School Case 419-031, December 2018.  View Details
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    9. Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

      Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (A, B, C, D)

      Tsedal Neeley and Nathan Overmeyer

      Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 417-068, 417-069, 417-070, and 417-071.

      Keywords: functions; structure; centralization; Decentralization; diversity; experience and expertise; crisis management; country of origin effects; global contextual intelligence; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Experience and Expertise; Situation or Environment; Central Asia; Turkey;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Nathan Overmeyer. "Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (A, B, C, D)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 417-084, April 2017.  View Details
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    10. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

      Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (D)

      Tsedal Neeley and Esel Çekin

      Supplements the (A) case.

      Keywords: functions; structure; centralization; Decentralization; diversity; experience and expertise; crisis management; country of origin effects; global contextual intelligence; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Experience and Expertise; Situation or Environment; Central Asia; Turkey;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Esel Çekin. "Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (D)." Harvard Business School Supplement 417-071, April 2017.  View Details
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    11. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

      Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (C)

      Tsedal Neeley and Esel Çekin

      Supplements the (A) case.

      Keywords: functions; structure; centralization; Decentralization; diversity; experience and expertise; crisis management; country of origin effects; global contextual intelligence; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Experience and Expertise; Situation or Environment; Central Asia; Turkey;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Esel Çekin. "Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 417-070, April 2017.  View Details
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    12. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

      Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (B)

      Tsedal Neeley and Esel Çekin

      Supplements the (A) case.

      Keywords: functions; structure; centralization; Decentralization; diversity; experience and expertise; crisis management; country of origin effects; global contextual intelligence; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Experience and Expertise; Situation or Environment; Central Asia; Turkey;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Esel Çekin. "Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 417-069, April 2017.  View Details
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    13. Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

      Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (A)

      Tsedal Neeley and Esel Çekin

      Galya Frayman Molinas, President of Coca-Cola's Turkish business and a 20-year company veteran, is unexpectedly asked to take the helm of a newly expanded territory with operations across eight additional countries in Central Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. With seemingly competing instructions to accelerate growth, while not diluting focus in Turkey or Central Asia, Molinas must decide how to balance change versus continuity across functions and country locations. In the meantime, tensions arise among the newly combined members of her business unit, as some fear being sidelined or losing their autonomy. Molinas wonders whether her team's leadership is too homogenous to manage this diverse and disgruntled group across emerging markets. Centralizing, decentralizing, or creating a hybrid structure is now Molinas' first priority. On top of these pressing organizational issues, shortly after assuming her new role, domestic and international events suddenly derail her unit's 17 consecutive months of record-breaking performance. Molinas and her largely female and Turkish senior leadership team grapple with the significant financial impact of massive protests in Turkey, the rise of anti-American sentiments, growing national health concerns, the reduction of the U.S. Fed's financial stimulus, and capital flight from emerging markets. While Turkey's revenue is in a precipitous decline, Molinas needs the Central Asian region to help alleviate the financial gap during this turbulent time. Molinas questions whether her unit's structure and her homogenous senior team's background are too narrow to help her counteract the external crises.

      Keywords: functions; structure; centralization; Decentralization; diversity; experience and expertise; crisis management; country of origin effects; global contextual intelligence; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Organizational Structure; Experience and Expertise; Situation or Environment; Central Asia; Turkey;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Esel Çekin. "Global Leadership in a Dynamic and Evolving Region: Molinas @ The Coca-Cola Company (A)." Harvard Business School Case 417-068, April 2017.  View Details
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    14. Module Note | February 2017

      Leading Global Teams

      Tsedal Neeley

      This module aims to help students become effective leaders and members of global teams that must work together across national boundaries and toward a common goal. Students will learn to diagnose the challenges that global teams often face as well as strategies that they can employ to foster effective collaboration in those teams.
      Learning to navigate the challenges associated with global teams is a critical component of today's MBA curricula. Students will emerge from their MBA programs to join companies that rely on employees from around the world to help the firms capitalize on the promise of their global reach and resources. Global teams, however, face significant challenges; physical separation and demographic differences can create social distance, or lack of emotional connection between groups, that then contributes to disruptive misunderstandings and mistrust. This module prepares students with the knowledge and skills necessary to address these challenges.

      Keywords: Groups and Teams; Leadership; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Leading Global Teams." Harvard Business School Module Note 417-073, February 2017.  View Details
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    15. Simulation | 2017

      Global Collaboration Simulation: Tip of the Iceberg

      Tsedal Neeley

      This online simulation teaches students about the difficulties in cross-cultural communication and managing global teams. Communicating via chat, teams of 4 or 5 students race against the clock to prepare a VC presentation. Students are assigned the role of a native English speaker or a nonnative English speaker at their organization. The simulation constrains the ways in which the native and nonnative speakers can interact, and the resulting experience replicates communication patterns in real globally diverse and distributed teams. As their team struggles to collaborate, students experience firsthand how communication challenges can interfere with work goals.

      Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Interpersonal Communication; Groups and Teams; Social and Collaborative Networks;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Collaboration Simulation: Tip of the Iceberg." Simulation and Teaching Note. Harvard Business Publishing, 2017. Electronic.  View Details
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    16. Teaching Note | 2017

      Global Collaboration Simulation: Tip of the Iceberg

      Tsedal Neeley

      This Teaching Note reproduces the communication dynamics that occur during global collaborations, in which diverse work teams interact in the commonly used English business language or lingua franca.

      Keywords: Communication; Cooperation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Global Collaboration Simulation: Tip of the Iceberg." Harvard Business Publishing Teaching Note 7102, 2017.  View Details
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    17. Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2016

      Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages

      Tsedal Neeley and Tom Ryder

      Communicating persuasively is a critical skill for leaders of any team or organization. Yet, connecting and resonating with an audience can nevertheless be a challenging task. We outline how to effectively mobilize groups through the power of communication. This note will serve leaders and members of diverse groups as they find their voice to inspire, unite, and engage others through messaging. With multiple examples as a backdrop, we highlight four key components of effective messaging in this note: 1) Structuring Messages and the Persuasive Story Pattern, 2) Appealing to the Audience, 3) Persuasively Communicating through Rhetorical Devices, and 4) Delivering Clear and Captivating Messages.

      Keywords: messaging; communication; leading; public speaking; persuasion; rhetorical devices; Communication Intention and Meaning; Forms of Communication; Communication Strategy;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Tom Ryder. "Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages." Harvard Business School Technical Note 416-046, March 2016.  View Details
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    18. Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2015 (Revised May 2016)

      Leading Global Teams: Managing SPLIT to Bridge Social Distance

      Tsedal Neeley

      Keywords: global leadership; global collaboration; social distance; global teams; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Organizations; Diversity; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Leading Global Teams: Managing SPLIT to Bridge Social Distance." Harvard Business School Technical Note 416-011, August 2015. (Revised May 2016.)  View Details
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    19. Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2015 (Revised June 2016)

      (Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek

      Tsedal Neeley

      Keywords: global teams; language; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 416-012, August 2015. (Revised June 2016.)  View Details
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    20. Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2013 (Revised November 2015)

      (Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek

      Tsedal Neeley

      Tariq Khan arrived home after a nearly 16-hour meeting. He was grappling with whether to take the global sales and marketing team manager position that had been offered to him, and had spent the entire day with the senior leadership of his potential new team. He wanted to understand the causes of the group's multiple problems and get a handle on how to help them thrive. But so far, the meeting had raised more questions than answers.

      Keywords: global teams; language; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Problems and Challenges;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek." Harvard Business School Case 414-059, December 2013. (Revised November 2015.)  View Details
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    21. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | March 2013 (Revised April 2013)

      Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten: Results Are In! (B)

      Tsedal Neeley

      Keywords: Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Japan;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten: Results Are In! (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 413-090, March 2013. (Revised April 2013.)  View Details
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    22. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | September 2012

      Hiroshi Mikitani Reflects and Provides Early Updates on Englishnization (November, 2011)

      Tsedal Neeley

      CEO of Rakuten, Hiroshi Mikitani, candidly responds to controversial questions about his Englishnization strategy and implementation across 7,100 employees a year and a half later: Did he make an impulsive move when he mandated English as the company language? Why does he enforce a universal mandate? How has he adjusted his stance on how to elicit commitment from his employees over time? Is he imposing the pursuit of being a role model company of a new Japan on his employees?

      Keywords: language; culture; globalization; communication barriers; dynamic global marketplace; rapid change; Change Management; Ethnicity; Communication; Globalization; Management Teams; Japan;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Hiroshi Mikitani Reflects and Provides Early Updates on Englishnization (November, 2011)." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 413-703, September 2012.  View Details
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    23. Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | July 2009 (Revised June 2016)

      Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A) & (B)

      Tsedal Neeley

      Teaching Note for [409003].

      Keywords: Management; Groups and Teams; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A) & (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 410-014, July 2009. (Revised June 2016.)  View Details
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    24. Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | November 2011 (Revised June 2016)

      Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten (A) & (B)

      Tsedal Neeley

      Keywords: Spoken Communication; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalization;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten (A) & (B)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 412-083, November 2011. (Revised June 2016.)  View Details
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    25. Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2011 (Revised April 2013)

      Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten (A)

      Tsedal Neeley

      Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten, (Japan's largest online retailer), is at the helm of an organization that is rapidly expanding into global markets. In a critical stride toward becoming the world's No. 1 Internet services company, Mikitani announces Englishnization—a highly publicized aggressive two-year English proficiency mandate for all 7,100 of Rakuten's Japanese employees. Mikitani's goal is not only to ensure the success of the organization, but also to break down linguistic and cultural boundaries in Japanese society. At the time, only an estimated 10% of the Japanese staff could function in English. The stakes are high: those who do not reach their target score by the deadline risk being demoted. As Englishnization progresses, loss of productivity, lack of time to study, and conflicted views among managers impede staff success. Some employees even question the relevance of Englishnization, particularly for staff working exclusively in Japan. Fifteen months since the announcement, the vast majority had not yet reached their target English proficiency scores. With the deadline rapidly approaching, Mikitani must decide how to proceed to ensure the success of Englishnization, the continued global rise of his organization, and even the future of Japan.

      Keywords: Teaching; Human Capital; Change Management; Transformation; Social Enterprise; Communication Strategy; Internet; Disruptive Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Leadership; Global Strategy; Technology Industry; Retail Industry; Japan;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Language and Globalization: 'Englishnization' at Rakuten (A)." Harvard Business School Case 412-002, August 2011. (Revised April 2013.)  View Details
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    26. Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2008 (Revised November 2009)

      Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A)

      Tsedal Neeley and Thomas J. DeLong

      Greg James, a global manager at Sun Microsystems, Inc., sets out to meet with his entire 43-member customer implementation team spread across India, France, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America to resolve a dire customer system outage as required by a service agreement. Rather than finding a swift resolution to the rapidly escalating customer situation that motivated his trip, he finds himself facing distributed work, global collaboration, conflict, and management issues that are threatening to unravel his team.

      Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Crisis Management; Service Delivery; Groups and Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Technology Industry; India; United Arab Emirates; France; United States;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal, and Thomas J. DeLong. "Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 409-003, July 2008. (Revised November 2009.)  View Details
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    27. Supplement | HBS Case Collection | November 2009

      Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (B)

      Tsedal Neeley

      This case updates students on the steps Greg James took to solve the problems that instigated the crisis documented in “Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A).” We find out how James solves the process problems involved in his team's breakdown and creates team cohesion to help them function together effectively. We also learn whether or not James is successful in taking his global team to a new level of productivity and customer service.

      Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Globalized Firms and Management; Crisis Management; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Technology Industry;

      Citation:

      Neeley, Tsedal. "Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 410-020, November 2009.  View Details
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    Presentations

      Other Publications and Materials

              Awards & Honors

            1. Received the 2018-2019 Robert F. Greenhill Award for Outstanding Service to the HBS Community.

            2. Winner of the 2018 Axiom Business Book Award Bronze Medal in the International Business/Globalization category for The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations (Princeton University Press, 2017).

            3. Included in the 2018 Thinkers50 On the Radar list—a list of "emerging thinkers with the potential to make lasting contributions to management theory and practice."

            4. Received the 2015 Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching.

            5. Honored as a 2013 Stanford Distinguished Alumni Scholar.

            6. Awarded the 2012 Marvin Bower Fellowship by Harvard Business School to support research by outstanding scholars.

            7. Received the 2006–2007 Stanford University Lieberman Fellowship award at the School of Engineering for excellence in teaching and research.

            Tsedal Neeley In the News

            30 Jan 2019
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            Demand for non-Japanese engineers is growing, but know what you're in for before you apply
            05 Dec 2018
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            6 Ways Traveling Makes You A Better Employee
            24 Oct 2018
            Sankei News
            楽天の三木谷氏、英語公用語化6年「壮大な挑戦」
            07 Nov 2018
            Japan Times
            Rakuten’s English drive a case study of success, but wider adoption by Japan Inc. much slower going
            08 Nov 2018
            Toyokeizai
            How did Rakuten change in 'English official language'
            28 Mar 2018
            Knowledge@Wharton
            Wharton Business Radio with Tsedal Neeley
            29 Jan 2018
            Harvard Business Review
            How to Build Trust with Colleagues You Rarely See
            27 Feb 2018
            Harvard Business Review
            Make Tools Like Slack Work for Your Company
            22 Jan 2018
            Strategy + Business
            When a Japanese Company Adopted English as a First Language
            26 Dec 2017
            Boston Globe
            America First will make US companies last
            26 Oct 2017
            Foreign Affairs
            The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations
            14 Sep 2017
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            01 Sep 2017
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            29 Aug 2017
            Harvard Business Review
            How to Successfully Work Across Countries, Languages, and Cultures
            28 Aug 2017
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            Business in a Common Tongue
            07 Dec 2015
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            The One Thing You Should Be Doing At The Beginning of Every Meeting
            30 Sep 2015
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            17 Sep 2015
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            How to Create an Emotional Connection With Remote Employees
            29 Jun 2015
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            When Promotion is a Bad Thing
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            28 Mar 2014
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            The English empire
            20 Jan 2014
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            02 May 2012
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            Language Barriers Blamed for Miscues
            18 May 2012
            CNN
            Workers told, ditch local languages for English
            18 Apr 2012
            Financial Times
            Lessons in a common language
            04 May 2012
            Boston Globe
            Harvard Business Review: A language strategy is a must for global companies
            06 May 2009
            Profs: Keep those corporate road warriors flying

            Additional Information (Links)

            • Tsedal's Ted Talk
            • Tsedal Neeley Twitter Feed
            • www.tsedal.com
            • Working Knowledge Articles

            Areas of Interest

            • cross-cultural adaptation
            • English as a Lingua Franca for global work
            • global collaboration
            • individuals and teams
            • organizational behavior

            Additional Topics

            • communication technologies
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