Interpersonal skills

A confident approach is a useful strategy when dealing with difficult people.

Uncivil behavior at work damages productivity far more than most managers would imagine.

How to minimize the drama and keep your team on track.

Why failing to give feedback does long-term damage.

“Where on earth is it?” Mark Landstad wondered aloud. He scanned the sea of files in his predecessor’s master folder on the company network one more time. “I know it must be here somewhere!” Walking to the window, Mark gritted his teeth and scratched his face, which felt itchy and hot. He surveyed the crepuscular […]

Denial dogged my travels around the world these past weeks. At a World Economic Forum gathering in Dubai just before Dubai World’s debt problems made headlines, the head Sheikh touted Dubai’s superiority over the West for problems that Dubai had seemingly avoided. But the idle cranes and empty buildings I saw were monuments to denial […]

People with certain cognitive conditions may not do well in job interviews-but they may have exactly the talents you need for an open position in your...

Most leaders focus on how employees think and behave—but feelings matter just as much.

Effective sponsors can help catapult junior talent into top management tiers, and good proteges can greatly expand the reach and impact of senior leaders-but...

In the four years since Rob Miranda became CEO of Growing Places, a provider of on-site child care for companies in the Midwestern United States, he has...

For decades, negotiators have been working out agreements by focusing on interests, not positions. But the messy problem of how to share the gains created...

Diversity efforts in the workplace have been undertaken with great goodwill, but, ironically, they often end up fueling tensions. They rarely spur the...

Despite heavy investments to acquire talented data scientists and take advantage of the analytics boom, many companies have been disappointed in the results....

It's possible to keep things civil without an outright ban on talking politics.

Peace and harmony are overrated. Though conflict-free teamwork is often held up as the be-all and end-all of organizational life, it actually can be the...

Don't lose your cool.

One with someone else, and one with yourself.

Senior leaders, particularly CEOs, confront a central paradox in their work: They generally have access to more lines of communication than anybody else,...

It's not what you say; it's how you say it, and MIT professor Sandy Pentland has the data to prove it. He has created ingenious devices that record the...

Recently the top executives of a major manufacturing plant in the Chicago area were asked to survey the role that listening plays in their work. Later, an executive seminar on listening was held. Here are three typical comments made by participants: “Frankly, I had never thought of listening as an important subject by itself. But […]

This one-paragraph case adds to the data presented in the (A) case. A redisguised and updated version of earlier case 494-006.

Describes the outcome of Erik Peterson's meetings over the course of two days with a number of senior executives from the parent company. Students should...

Vegemite is an iconic Australian breakfast spread and is often seen as a quintessential Australian product. This case focuses on Kraft's decision to revitalize...

Personal history of David Alpert, with emphasis on psychoanalytic developmental issues.

The HBR Women at Work series, based on the popular HBR podcast of the same name, spotlights the real challenges and opportunities women experience throughout...

The case describes the dilemma of a marketing manager, Thomas Green, who, after being rapidly promoted, is harshly criticized by his boss, Frank Davis....

The case examines the downward spiral of Nokia, the mobile technology giant that once conquered the world, seen from the perspective of 'insiders' - based...

Sanford C. Bernstein, a premier sell-side research firm, is expanding globally, and has recently opened an office in Hong Kong. Global Director of Research...

Seize the benefits of the five-generation workforce. Generational distrust and ageism are seeping into organizations worldwide. Differences over communication...

Karen Bruck, Corporate Sales Director at MercadoLibre, Latin America's largest e-commerce platform, needs to make a decision about one of her managers,...

In 2011, Celeritas is a leading data communications company in the crowded, highly competitive, and ever-evolving enterprise-network optimization market....

Note describes aspects of bargaining situations that point toward either collaborative or distributive bargaining strategies. Focuses on the nature of...

Jeremy Leahman, president of Filtroil, Inc., and Albert Randolph, founder of the firm, had partnered with a supplier in China to ramp up the manufacture...

In late September 1999, representatives from Telstri, Japan Telecom, and Teleglobe met to discuss the structure of the Australia-Japan Cable (AJC) project,...

Provides a hotel context in which to explore the link between customer loyalty and financial performance, using four years of hotel data. Challenges students...

This special enhanced edition features 15 videos with author John Kotter, who explains how to prevent your good idea from getting shot down. You've got...

Focuses on InterSoft of Argentina, a growing software company in Argentina. In 1993, InterSoft acquires a Russian software company and Emilo Lopez, the...

This one-paragraph case adds to the data presented in the (A) case. A redisguised and updated version of earlier case 494-006.

A confident approach is a useful strategy when dealing with difficult people.

Teaching Note for E439

Describes the outcome of Erik Peterson's meetings over the course of two days with a number of senior executives from the parent company. Students should...

Uncivil behavior at work damages productivity far more than most managers would imagine.

How to minimize the drama and keep your team on track.

Vegemite is an iconic Australian breakfast spread and is often seen as a quintessential Australian product. This case focuses on Kraft's decision to revitalize...

Why failing to give feedback does long-term damage.

“Where on earth is it?” Mark Landstad wondered aloud. He scanned the sea of files in his predecessor’s master folder on the company network one more time. “I know it must be here somewhere!” Walking to the window, Mark gritted his teeth and scratched his face, which felt itchy and hot. He surveyed the crepuscular […]

Denial dogged my travels around the world these past weeks. At a World Economic Forum gathering in Dubai just before Dubai World’s debt problems made headlines, the head Sheikh touted Dubai’s superiority over the West for problems that Dubai had seemingly avoided. But the idle cranes and empty buildings I saw were monuments to denial […]