Organizational Behavior
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- Harvard Business Review
Culture is not the culprit
When Organizations Are in Crisis, It's Usually Because the Business is Broken.
By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague- Harvard Business Review
Culture is not the culprit
When Organizations Are in Crisis, It's Usually Because the Business is Broken.
By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague -
We blame women for not taking the lead in the workplace. Here's why that's wrong.
By: Robin ElyWomen and men alike make a lot of assumptions about women. Yet when it comes to women and work, some of the most ubiquitous beliefs are the most mistaken.
We blame women for not taking the lead in the workplace. Here's why that's wrong.
By: Robin ElyWomen and men alike make a lot of assumptions about women. Yet when it comes to women and work, some of the most ubiquitous beliefs are the most mistaken.
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2015 Thinkers50 Innovation Award
By: Linda A. HillProfessor Linda Hill won the 2015 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award for Innovation. She was also ranked #6 overall on the Thinkers50 ranking.
2015 Thinkers50 Innovation Award
By: Linda A. HillProfessor Linda Hill won the 2015 Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award for Innovation. She was also ranked #6 overall on the Thinkers50 ranking.
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- HBS Working Knowledge
CEOs and Coaches
How Important is Organizational 'Fit'?
By: Boris Groysberg & Abhijit NaikHow big a factor is matching the right coach with the right team?
- HBS Working Knowledge
CEOs and Coaches
How Important is Organizational 'Fit'?
By: Boris Groysberg & Abhijit NaikHow big a factor is matching the right coach with the right team?
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- HBS Working Knowledge
Is it Worth a Pay Cut to Work for a Great Manager (Like Bill Belichick)?
By: Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik- HBS Working Knowledge
Is it Worth a Pay Cut to Work for a Great Manager (Like Bill Belichick)?
By: Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik -
- HBS Working Paper Series
Does 'What We Do' Make Us 'Who We Are'?
Organizational Design and Identity Change at the Federal Bureau of Investigation
By: Ranjay Gulati, Ryan Raffaelli, and Jan Rivkin- HBS Working Paper Series
Does 'What We Do' Make Us 'Who We Are'?
Organizational Design and Identity Change at the Federal Bureau of Investigation
By: Ranjay Gulati, Ryan Raffaelli, and Jan Rivkin
About the Unit
Through its research, teaching, and course development, the Organizational Behavior Unit creates and disseminates knowledge that advances the understanding of how to lead and manage with the aim of increasing personal and organizational effectiveness. Although specific research interests span a wide range of subjects, the faculty share a problem driven, interdisciplinary, multi method approach that has led to significant impact on theory and practice.
Our current intellectual agenda builds on the rich history of OB at HBS and focuses squarely on the organizational changes and challenges arising from today's increasingly global and more competitive economy. In the last decade, the faculty have been recognized for their work on leadership in an increasingly diverse and dynamic environment, the evolution of managerial careers in our society, managing diversity, and organizational design and change to meet evolving needs and expectations in a changing world.
Recent Publications
Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- June 2025 |
- Article |
- Strategic Management Journal
[Research Summary]: Framing is critical for leaders who must build support for strategic renewal. While research has concentrated on renewal that replaces one set of capabilities with another, we explore a distinctive challenge: how leaders persuade stakeholders to endorse the reprioritization of resources toward a capability set that must coexist with an existing one. Moreover, while research has focused on how leaders build employee support for renewal, we examine how to persuade those overseeing resource allocation. Our study analyzes Director Robert Mueller's 12-year effort at the FBI—after the 9/11 terrorist attacks—to build up counterterrorism capabilities while maintaining existing law enforcement capabilities. We offer a novel distinction between outcome frames and process frames and discuss how each frame, sequenced properly, is relevant to strategic renewal. [Managerial Summary]: This study examines how leaders can build support for strategic renewal when an organization must develop new capabilities while maintaining existing ones. We analyze how FBI Director Robert Mueller, in the wake of 9/11, used strategic communication—or framing—to persuade members of Congress overseeing the FBI's budget to support the development of new counterterrorism capabilities alongside its traditional law enforcement mandate. We highlight two types of frames: outcome frames (focused on what the organization seeks to achieve) and process frames (emphasizing how the organization operates). Our findings reveal that sequencing these types of frames is essential. By using outcome frames to address immediate concerns and shifting to process frames to resolve longer-term tensions, leaders can build stakeholder support for complex resource reprioritization efforts.
Riding the Passion Wave or Fighting to Stay Afloat? A Theory of Differentiated Passion Contagion
By: Emma Frank, Kai Krautter, Wen Wu and Jon M. Jachimowicz
- June 2025 |
- Article |
- Administrative Science Quarterly
Prior research suggests that employees benefit from highly passionate teammates because passion spreads easily from one employee to the next. We develop theory to propose that life in high-passion teams may not be as uniformly advantageous as previously assumed. We suggest that high-passion teams also evoke pressures that lead employees to expend effort to increase their levels of passion, which negates the benefits the team provides. We first conducted an experience-sampling study at an engineering company involved in the production and maintenance of critical infrastructure that benefits the greater good, with 829 employees nested in 155 teams, which we surveyed three times per day for 20 consecutive work days. These data show that employees caught their teammates’ passion and consequently reported better performance, lower emotional exhaustion, and a stronger sense of social connection. However, these benefits coexisted alongside costs employees incurred that were associated with increasing their passion. In a subsequent pre-registered experiment (N = 1,063), we provide causal evidence for these effects and their underlying mechanism, finding that passion contagion is particularly effort-laden—more so than contagion of other states and increases in passion that are not the result of contagion. We develop a theory of differentiated passion contagion that exposes the effort inherent in contagion and the implications of that effort. Our work suggests that passion caught from others may hold less value than passion incited from within, and shifts our understanding of when and why passion for work is beneficial and detrimental. We also discuss implications for broader emotional contagion theory.
Skills-First Talent Management: The Importance of Managers
By: Boris Groysberg, Nicole Zelazko, Tom Quinn, Robin Abrahams, Izzy Yeoh and Colleen Ammerman
- May 2025 |
- Background Note |
- Faculty Research
This note supplements a 2025 series on skills-first talent management in organizations, comprising “Skills-First Talent Management: Hiring” (HBS No. 425-019), “Skills-First Talent Management: Onboarding, Development, and Performance Management” (HBS No. 425-020), and “Skills-First Talent Management: Engagement and Retention” (HBS No. 425-021). This note explores how managers shape the experiences of employees without four-year college degrees (non-degreed employees or those Skilled Through Alternative Routes [STARs]) and examines the challenges that these employees face, along with best management practices for supporting their development, advancement, and retention.
Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (D)
By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag
- May 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
This fourth installment in the Pfizer Global Clinical Supply (GCS) transformation case series highlights how over a decade of cultural and digital evolution positioned GCS to meet unprecedented global challenges. In 2011, Michael Ku became the Vice President of GCS and set out to create an end-to-end, physical and digital clinical supply chain, focusing on building a culture of innovation before leading the organization through a digital transformation. This groundwork proved invaluable during the COVID-19 crisis, as GCS delivered Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine in just 266 days, maintained continuity across all their global trials, and supported the launch of the historic COVID-19 antiviral, PAXLOVID . By August 2021, GCS launched “Project A,” initiating a four-year journey to reshape its operating model, enhance agility, and cultivate a digitally dexterous workforce. With the right culture in place, Ku and his leadership team leaned into building a more digitally dexterous workforce, embedding artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to enhance their end-to-end clinical supply chain. In early 2025, GCS entered another phase of change. Ku remained focused on sustained transformation—even as engagement scores signaled rising fatigue. The team prepared for a pivotal strategic visit to Asia to deepen regional understanding and global alignment across the business.
The VideaHealth AI Factory: CEO Florian Hillen on Speed, Scale, and Innovation
By: Tsedal Neeley
- May 2025 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 425-720. Florian Hillen, co-founder and CEO of VideaHealth, a startup using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect dental conditions on x-rays, spent the early years of his company laying the groundwork for an AI factory. This AI factory, designed to rapidly build and iterate on new AI products, was central to Hillen's vision of giving VideaHealth a competitive edge in the market. VideaHealth’s AI technology aspires to detect dental conditions on x-rays with a level of accuracy and consistency that would resonate with the needs of both individual dentists and Dental Service Organizations (DSOs). Yet, the puzzle remained: how precise and reliable would the AI's performance need to be to earn the trust of practitioners, enhance patient care, and seamlessly integrate into clinical workflows? The exact threshold of success was unclear, challenging Hillen to ensure the AI factory could continuously refine the technology to improve decision-making in dental practices.
Shore Capital Partners: 2025
By: Boris Groysberg and Kerry Herman
- May 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
This supplement updates the case Shore Capital Partners: The Next Ten Years
Sustainability as a Business-Model Transformation
By: Ivanka Visnjic, Felipe Monteiro and Michael L. Tushman
- May–June 2025 |
- Article |
- Harvard Business Review
Many global companies have made public commitments to sustainability targets. Fulfilling these commitments will require firms to transform their business models and organizational architectures. A few pioneers are leading the way, demonstrating that companies can make sustainability not only a goal but also the driver of their business model. They are leveraging what they’ve learned from developing innovation capabilities to help them on their sustainability journey. This article identifies three fundamental tensions that companies must address. First, they need to maintain a long-term sustainability vision while delivering on short-term financial targets. Second, they must introduce systemwide change while keeping their employees engaged at the local level. And third, they have to be open to external collaboration while maintaining strong internal integration. Drawing on real-world examples such as the Italian energy group Enel and Swiss cement giant Holcim Group, the authors describe the practices companies can use to face each challenge with intention.
Mobidrop: Leadership at a Crossroads
By: Letian Zhang, Jiaqi Jin and Yapei Li
- April 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.