General Management

- May 6, 2021
- Article
How to Build a Life: How Adult Children Affect Their Mother's Happiness

By: Arthur C. Brooks
- May 6, 2021
- Article
How to Build a Life: How Adult Children Affect Their Mother's Happiness

By: Arthur C. Brooks
- April 2021
- Case
JPMorgan Chase’s Path Forward

By: Joseph L. Bower, Nien-hê Hsieh and Michael Norris

In 2020, JPMorgan Chase announced a $30 billion Commitment to Advance Racial Equity. The Commitment included investments in housing, small businesses, and financial literacy across the U.S., and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the bank. It was part of a broader cultural shift within JPMorgan and U.S. society to better acknowledge and work to remedy the effects of systemic racism in the financial system. The bank was now focused on implementing their commitments—turning their $30 billion into homes, bank accounts, and businesses that would improve the situation in minority communities across the country.
- April 2021
- Case
JPMorgan Chase’s Path Forward

By: Joseph L. Bower, Nien-hê Hsieh and Michael Norris

In 2020, JPMorgan Chase announced a $30 billion Commitment to Advance Racial Equity. The Commitment included investments in housing, small businesses, and financial literacy across the U.S., and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the bank. It was part of a broader cultural shift within JPMorgan and U.S. society to better acknowledge and work...
- 2021
- Working Paper
Spiritual Philanthropy in Emerging Markets

By: Valeria Giacomin and G. Jones

This working paper discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly for strategic motives that served wider corporate purposes. We argue that philanthropic foundations in emerging markets have distinctive characteristics that merit separate examination. We scrutinize the ethics behind the longitudinal activity of such foundations using 70 oral history interviews with business leaders in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. We find that 55 out of 70 foundations associated with these leaders were used as vehicles for a specific type of philanthropic ethics that we define as “spiritual philanthropy.” These foundations often embodied inherited personal or family traditions, culture and religious values, which emphasized charitable giving and social responsibility. As in the case of many of the industrial foundations in Europe, these foundations also carried founding family names providing a structure to maintain family control and enhance corporate reputation. We argue that, as business leaders in emerging markets are more directly exposed to dire social, educational and health deprivation than their counterparts in developed countries, they are less inclined towards grandiose world-making, and their foundations are more focused on delivering immediate benefits to communities in their home countries, motivated by implicit or explicit spirituality.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Spiritual Philanthropy in Emerging Markets

By: Valeria Giacomin and G. Jones

This working paper discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly...

About the Unit

The General Management Unit is concerned with the leadership and management of the enterprise as a whole. This concern encompasses:

the personal values and qualities of effective general managers and enterprise leaders;
the philosophies, values, and strategies that inform successful enterprises; and
the relation of enterprise to the broader community and other external constituencies.

The Unit's work is conceived and carried out principally in four interest groups, each of which has its own leadership, research agenda, and teaching programs:

Management Policy and Process
Management Information Systems
Society and Enterprise
Leadership, Values, and Corporate Responsibility

Recent Publications

How to Build a Life: How Adult Children Affect Their Mother's Happiness

By: Arthur C. Brooks

May 6, 2021 |
Article |
The Atlantic

Citation

Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy — Operating the Business Model Exercise, Instructor Version

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Christopher Payton

May 2021 |
Supplement |
Faculty Research

On a mission to "automate the on-demand economy," Harvard Business School classmates Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck launched Hello Alfred in 2013 to provide subscribers with an "Alfred" to complete various chores for a monthly fee. In early 2016, the company has built an infrastructure, including a mobile app, to develop Alfreds' routes and respond to customer requests in conjunction with other service providers, for example grocery delivery services, in what the founders describe as their "B2B2C" business model. Alfred won the coveted TechCrunch San Francisco Disrupt Cup in 2014, and by April 2015 had secured $12.5 million in seed and Series A funding. The founders must determine the best growth strategy for Alfred. Should they expand Alfred beyond their present operating cities, New York and Boston, or should they focus on their current markets? Should they increase public visibility to attract more customers, or should they enroll landlords in Alfred and reach consumers in that way?

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Online Technology; Business Startups; Service Operations; Service Industry; New York (city, NY); Boston

Citation

Purchase

How to Build a Life: Stop Spending Time on Things You Hate

By: Arthur C. Brooks

April 29, 2021 |
Article |
The Atlantic

Citation

JPMorgan Chase’s Path Forward

By: Joseph L. Bower, Nien-hê Hsieh and Michael Norris

April 2021 |
Case |
Faculty Research

In 2020, JPMorgan Chase announced a $30 billion Commitment to Advance Racial Equity. The Commitment included investments in housing, small businesses, and financial literacy across the U.S., and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the bank. It was part of a broader cultural shift within JPMorgan and U.S. society to better acknowledge and work to remedy the effects of systemic racism in the financial system. The bank was now focused on implementing their commitments—turning their $30 billion into homes, bank accounts, and businesses that would improve the situation in minority communities across the country.

Keywords: Diversity; Race; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Leading Change; Banking Industry; New York (city, NY); Chicago

Citation

Educators

Purchase

Spiritual Philanthropy in Emerging Markets

By: Valeria Giacomin and G. Jones

2021 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

This working paper discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly for strategic motives that served wider corporate purposes. We argue that philanthropic foundations in emerging markets have distinctive characteristics that merit separate examination. We scrutinize the ethics behind the longitudinal activity of such foundations using 70 oral history interviews with business leaders in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. We find that 55 out of 70 foundations associated with these leaders were used as vehicles for a specific type of philanthropic ethics that we define as “spiritual philanthropy.” These foundations often embodied inherited personal or family traditions, culture and religious values, which emphasized charitable giving and social responsibility. As in the case of many of the industrial foundations in Europe, these foundations also carried founding family names providing a structure to maintain family control and enhance corporate reputation. We argue that, as business leaders in emerging markets are more directly exposed to dire social, educational and health deprivation than their counterparts in developed countries, they are less inclined towards grandiose world-making, and their foundations are more focused on delivering immediate benefits to communities in their home countries, motivated by implicit or explicit spirituality.

Keywords: Foundations; Philanthropy; Business Leaders; Spirituality; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Emerging Markets; Ethics; Values and Beliefs

Citation

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