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

Work Arrangements in the Post-Pandemic World

By: Leslie A. Perlow and Salvatore J. Affinito
  • September 2023 |
  • Technical Note |
  • Faculty Research
Whether you are choosing your job based on geographic location, work arrangements (i.e., fully in-person, hybrid, fully virtual), or other unrelated factors (e.g., career, family, partner, hobbies), in the post-pandemic world you will likely be surrounded by people working in a multitude of different work arrangements. This is especially true for those in “knowledge work” professions. This note lays out a continuum for understanding and assessing these work arrangements.
Keywords: Hybrid Work; Remote Work
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(Not) Paying for Diversity: Repugnant Market Concerns Associated with Transactional Approaches to Diversity Recruitment

By: Summer R. Jackson
  • September 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Administrative Science Quarterly
In a 20-month ethnographic study, I examine how a technology firm, ShopCo (a pseudonym), considered 13 different recruitment platforms to attract racial minority engineering candidates. I find that when choosing whether to adopt recruitment platforms focused on racial minority candidates (targeted recruitment platforms) but not when choosing whether to adopt recruitment platforms on which the modal candidate was White (traditional recruitment platforms), ShopCo managers expressed distaste for what they perceived to be the objectification, exploitation, and race-based targeting of racial minorities. These managers’ repugnant market concerns influenced which types of platforms ShopCo adopted. To recruit racial minorities, ShopCo eschewed recruitment platforms taking a transactional approach that emphasized speed, quantity, efficiency, opportunity, and compensation, in favor of platforms taking a developmental approach that emphasized individuality, ethics, equity, community, and commitment. I show that ShopCo managers had different relational models for recruiting based on the race of the candidate. By exploring the new mechanism of repugnant market concerns, I aim to increase understanding of employees’ resistance to DEI initiatives, which can create barriers to workplace reforms even when organizations are committed to change.
Keywords: Technology Adoption; Recruitment; Race; Organizational Change and Adaptation
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Toby Norman: Is Passion Enough for Simprints to Thrive?

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Amram Migdal and Max Hancock
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Two Ways of Pursuing a Calling

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman
  • August 2023 |
  • Technical Note |
  • Faculty Research
Work can be a means to a financial end, a stepping stone to higher-level jobs, or a meaningful end in itself: a calling. The technical note provides an overview of two different ways people can pursue a calling: with an internal focus or external focus.
Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Happiness; Identity; Well-being; Motivation and Incentives; Human Needs; Satisfaction; Mission and Purpose; Health Industry; Music Industry; Education Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry
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Stay or Go? Sarah Reynolds at Kensington Partners

By: David G. Fubini, Amr Seifeldin and Patrick Sanguineti
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Sarah Reynolds, a Partner at the global Kensington Partners strategy consulting firm, has headed the firm's Telecommunications Group for a few years. Thanks to her stellar track record with clients, she has brought the group, and herself, a range of accolades and recognition. Amid this success, she faces a handful of challenges: a new hybrid work paradigm within client services, mentoring the Vice Presidents and Associates within her group, integrating and utilizing new technical staffs into her existing practice, and more, all while maintaining the same level of results that brought her such responsibilities in the first place. With seemingly not enough hours in the day to tackle everything, Reynolds faces difficult tradeoffs for what to prioritize moving forward.
Keywords: Consulting; Consulting Firms; Client Service; Career Management
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Beamery: Using Skills and AI to Modernize HR

By: Boris Groysberg, Alexis Lefort, Susan Pinckney and Caroline Bartunek
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Unicorn human relationships startup Beamery evaluates it growth versus depth strategy as its strategic partners and customers could become future competitors in a quickly changing AI based human resources and talent management industry
Keywords: Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Customers; Nationality; Learning; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Values and Beliefs; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Analytics and Data Science; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Job Offer; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Employment; Human Capital; Europe; United Kingdom; United States
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Salma Qarnain: Spaceships to Broadway

By: Leslie Perlow, Mel Martin and Hannah Weisman
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Salma Qarnain, daughter of Pakistani Muslim immigrants, is an engineer trained at Stanford and MIT. She began her career building spacecrafts but 30 years later finds herself pursuing her calling, acting on Broadway. The case explores Qarnain’s career path, family life, and arts activities from her childhood into her fifties, as she finds what brings her meaning and happiness in life.
Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Job Search; Job Design and Levels; Happiness; Identity; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Theater Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Talent and Talent Management; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Aerospace Industry; United States; New York (city, NY); Boston; California
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The Ethical Tightrope: When to Disclose the AI Shortcut

By: David G. Fubini, William Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In this short vignette on ethics in consulting, John Child, a new Associate at a prestigious firm who is eager to impress, decides to use an AI tool to expedite his analysis and craft his presentation due to a short project timeframe. Feeling uneasy about his decision not to inform his team after a successful presentation, he must weigh the tradeoffs of providing late disclosure, whether partial or full, or continuing to withhold his decision from his team and client, and the ethical and career implications those decisions might carry.
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Contact Information

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