Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior

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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

The Passionate Pygmalion Effect: Passionate Employees Attain Better Outcomes in Part Because of More Preferential Treatment by Others

By: Ke Wang, Erica R. Bailey and Jon M. Jachimowicz
  • July 2022 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Employees are increasingly exhorted to “pursue their passion” at work. Inherent in this call is the belief that passion will produce higher performance because it promotes intrapersonal processes that propel employees forward. Here, we suggest that the pervasiveness of this “passion narrative,” coupled with the relative observability of passion, may lead others to treat passionate employees in more favorable ways that subsequently produce better workplace outcomes, a self-fulfilling prophecy we term the Passionate Pygmalion Effect. We find evidence for this effect across two experiments (Study 1 and pre-registered Study 3) and one field survey with pairs of subordinates and supervisors from a diverse set of organizations (Study 2). In line with the Passionate Pygmalion Effect, our studies show that more passionate employees (1) received more positive feedback for their success, (2) were offered more training and promotion opportunities, (3) elicited more favorable emotional reactions, and (4) prompted more favorable attributions for varied performance outcomes. Such favorable treatment persisted despite describing passionate employees' job performance identically or controlling for job performance statistically. Notably, more passionate employees even elicited more favorable emotional reactions and attributions when their job performance decreased. We subsequently discuss how our interpersonal perspective on the passion narrative implicates challenges for the advancement of employees with fewer opportunities to pursue their passion (e.g., given socioeconomic constraints or exploitative work demands), or who are less likely to be perceived as passionate by others (e.g., given cross-cultural differences).
Keywords: Passion; Self-fufilling Prophecy; Lay Beliefs; Interpersonal Processes; Employees; Performance; Attitudes; Organizational Culture; Social Psychology
Related

On the Origins of Our Discontent

By: Rawi Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong
  • 2022 |
  • Working Paper |
  • Faculty Research
Signs of discontent with global capitalism and national capitalisms abound. Unless we find ways to create better jobs and then improve those jobs further with empathic management and thoughtful mentoring, then we will be unable to create a more stable, purposeful political and economic system. We cannot resolve any of these challenges only with money. Our crisis is about the distribution of dignity, purpose, and meaning within our societies. Failure to resolve these challenges would likely lead to a generation of ongoing disruption and the destruction of our era of globalization.
Related

Byte

By: Boris Groysberg, Katherine Connolly Baden and Julia Kelley
  • May 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In January 2021, Byte co-founders Scott Cohen and Blake Johnson reflected on how far their Los Angeles-based direct-to-consumer (DTC) orthodontics company had come since launching its clear aligners just a little over two years earlier. Cohen and Johnson were both serial entrepreneurs who had guided several companies to successful exits. They had planned to take the same approach with Byte, preparing for an exit by focusing on profitability and stable growth and forgoing dilutive venture capital (VC) funding. Neither of them had expected Byte to grow as quickly as it had, but the market opportunity had unexpectedly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many consumers sought at-home treatment options. Cohen and Johnson thought about what their next move should be. Given Byte’s rapid growth, the founders considered whether they should instead consider other options, such as a strategic acquisition or an eventual initial public offering (IPO). Either option would help position Byte for global expansion, which the founders felt would be a promising growth opportunity for the company.
Keywords: Growth; Customer Experience; Customer Focused Organization; Innovation; Growth Management; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States
Related

Volkswagen and Suzuki: A Match Made in Heaven (A)? and An Alliance Breaks Down (B1, B2)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Bradley Turner
  • May 2022 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 420-037, 420-038, and 420-039.
Keywords: Alliances; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizations; Emerging Markets; Auto Industry
Related

Tensions at SearchLight Cures

By: Laura Huang and Katie LaMattina
  • May 2022 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 422-059.
Related

Proposing to Redesign a Global Investment Bank

By: David G. Fubini
  • May 2022 (Revised June 2022) |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
A major, NYC-based, global investment bank is looking to rethink its Systems strategy amid a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Your firm has served the client across most of its major geographies on a range of substantial Systems and IT efforts, but is facing competition from two other leading firms who have also supported the client. As you work to develop a proposal, your firm must balance voices from a number of Senior Partners, each of whom has supported the client and has a unique perspective, incorporate the right specialists with technical expertise, and chart a way forward. How should your firm organize to win the work?
Keywords: Consulting; Professional Services; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Digital Strategy; Presentations; Competitive Strategy; Consulting Industry; New York (city, NY)
Related

What to Propose?

By: David G. Fubini
  • May 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Two audit and financial services firms, one of which your consulting firm has supported extensively, have merged to create one of the largest audit firms in the world. The audit firm's Executive Team has requested proposals aimed at re-evaluating their internal governance structure ahead of the CEO's retirement. As your team works to develop a proposal, your team wonders if a new governance structure is really what is needed given perceived shortfalls of the merger. With your presentation scheduled and fast approaching, how should you proceed?
Keywords: Consulting; Professional Services; Governance; Presentations; Organizational Structure; Transition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Consulting Industry
Related

Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper
  • May 2022 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart rate spiking, Gebru was shocked to find that her company account had been cut off. She scrolled through her personal inbox to find an email stating that the company could not agree to the conditions she had stipulated about a research paper critiquing large language models and also expressing disapproval of a message she had sent to an internal listserv about halting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts without accountability. Therefore, Google was accepting Gebru’s “resignation,” effective immediately. Gebru who hadn’t submitted a formal resignation realized she had been fired. Gebru had been concerned that large language models were racing ahead with little appraisal of their potential risks and debiasing strategies. Her ousting sent shockwaves through the AI and tech community. Thousands of people signed a petition against what they characterized as unprecedented research censorship. Nine members of congress would write the CEO of the company—Sundar Pichai—questioning his commitment to Ethical AI. The outspoken Gebru’s experience raises fundamental questions about countering AI bias. Could tech companies lead the way with in-house AI ethics research? Should that type of work reside with more objective actors outside of companies? On the other hand, shouldn’t those who best understand the technology at play be the ones to investigate the bias or ethical challenges that might creep up? The answers to these questions remain central to the exponentially growing AI domain that companies have to consider.
Keywords: Ethics; Employment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technological Innovation
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Contact Information

Organizational Behavior Unit
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
OB@hbs.edu