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The Rawlinsons, a young, ambitious, career-minded couple, are considering their life and career goals. They are both successful, have aspirations to serve in public office, and are negotiating important career choices as a couple.

"Highlights critical gaps between research and practice in the field of strategic human resources management. Also, aims to debunk some myths and preconceptions that general managers bring to their HR decisions. Before class, participants fill out a true-or-false questionnaire for subsequent class discussion.<br> Note: Please refer to the Teaching Note for ""People Management"" (Product #: 406034). Although the numbering of the questions will not line up, all the information is included. A Teaching Note for the abridged version is forthcoming."

Reprint: R1309D Business leaders send a powerful message when they make a commitment to diversity that goes beyond rhetoric. But what motivates them to do so, and how do they actually create inclusive cultures? To find out, the authors interviewed 24 CEOs whose firms were known for embracing people of all backgrounds. These executives saw diversity as a strategic and moral imperative and made promoting it a personal mission. Many had experienced what it was like to be an outsider, which gave them a deeper understanding of the barriers that women, in particular, face at work. The CEOs resoundingly agreed that an inclusive environment was one in which employees contributed to success as their authentic selves, and the organization respected and leveraged their talents and provided a sense of connectedness. Eight best organizational practices for instilling such a culture emerged from their interviews: 1. Measure diversity and inclusion. 2. Hold managers accountable. 3. Support flexible arrangements. 4. Recruit and promote from diverse pools of candidates. 5. Provide leadership education. 6. Sponsor employee resource groups and mentoring programs. 7. Offer quality role models. 8. Make the chief diversity officer position count. It's also key for CEOs to dedicate time to work personally on diversity initiatives. That sets the tone for everyone and helps ensure that organizations attract and develop the best talent.

In 2013, Anders Byriel, CEO of the family-owned Danish textiles company, Kvadrat, considered the firm's strategic plan. In 2000, Byriel and Mette Bendix, Kvadrat's Product Director, had taken over management of the company from their fathers, who had founded Kvadrat in the 1960s. Byriel and Bendix had joined Kvadrat in 1992, and since that time, Kvadrat had grown from €19 million in annual sales to over €86 million. It had expanded its focus on selling textiles to European architects and furniture manufactures, becoming a global company with a wide product range and a broad customer base. Kvadrat's internal organization had grown and transformed to support this larger business. Now Kvadrat's management team was focused on a number of key initiatives: expansion into Asia; improved sales trends in its curtain and Soft Cells businesses; development of Kvadrat's retail sales operations; the implementation of new Human Resources practices; and the execution of a new organizational design. Was such an extensive growth, turnaround and internal development agenda feasible? And, were the initiatives being considered the right ones for Kvadrat?

Though boards claim they strive for diversity, the number of female directors remains low; women held only 16.6% of Fortune 500 board seats in 2012. To find out why--and learn about the women appointed to boards and their experiences--Harvard Business School's Groysberg and organizational researcher Bell teamed up with Heidrick & Struggles and WomenCorporateDirectors to conduct annual surveys of board members. In this article they reveal the findings of their 2010 survey of 294 women and 104 men, presenting a profile of the typical female director, what directors thought about the benefits of diversity and the dynamics between men and women on boards, and best practices for recruiting and managing directors. Three themes emerged from the data: (1) Women had to be more qualified than men to be considered for boards. Contrary to popular belief, female directors had more operational and leadership experience than male directors. (2) Boards don't know how to leverage diversity. The women said they were not treated as full members of the group, though the men were largely oblivious to this problem. (3) Great talent is not enough to create a great board. Boards need processes and cultures that encourage inclusiveness as well as diversity.

Eight women had first enrolled in Harvard Business School's traditional MBA program in 1963. By 2013, the number of women in the MBA classroom had reached 40%. The 50th anniversary of women's enrollment in the traditional MBA program gave HBS Dean Nitin Nohria the opportunity to take stock of the progress that had been made by HBS women students and alumnae and ponder what still remained to be done. The case examines the evolving experiences of male and female MBAs over the decades through interviews with dozens of HBS alumni, as well as the experiences of female faculty at the School. The case scrutinizes a number of issues facing professional women, such as changing definitions of success and diversity, barriers faced by women at work, the expectations of work and family, and present-day implications for the pipeline of future women leaders. Students consider the role of the School in addressing disparities both on campus and in the wider business world.

In 2011, Sarah Naudé and Matt Stanley sat down with the chairman of Telecom New Zealand, Wayne Boyd. Telecom, a publicly listed company and the largest telecom provider in New Zealand, was being divided into two publicly traded companies, Chorus, a telecom infrastructure company, and new Telecom, a telecom retail services provider. In connection with this split, Naudé and Stanley were charged with overseeing the process of creating two new boards of directors for these companies. As part of this process, the team reviews the roles and responsibilities of a board, defines what capabilities the new boards need, and reduces a preliminary list of candidates to a short list. They must now use this short list to create two strong boards.

This follow up to Chorus and Telecom: Building the Boards provides a one-page description of the new boards that were created at Telecom and Chorus.

After rising through the ranks of Corporate America, Beth Stewart has become a corporate director on the board of General Growth Properties. Stewart is struggling with how to address her mounting concerns over the financial health of the growing large publically traded real estate investment trust (REIT) to her fellow board members and company management. The case explores interpersonal communications, influencing one's peers, leadership style, and board dynamics. The case also chronicles Stewart's career progression focusing on different stages including work/life choices she made as a wife and mother of five children.

Since its inception, London-based private equity firm Greighton Partners had managed over $15 billion in investor capital. The firm employed about 150 professionals around the globe and had completed over 175 company acquisitions since its founding. Started with a small intimate team in London, the firm had merged with a continental PE firm and was successful, with an increased focus on Asia deals. After a long day of global partner meetings behind them, a group of Greighton partners, eager to unwind, gathered to discuss the firm's success in terms of executing on its recently refined strategy. Opinions ranged across the following strategic issues: growing the firm's Asian footprint versus remaining focused in Europe; aiming to be a top performing mid-market firm or focusing on moving up a tier to compete for bigger deals against larger firms; growth and expansion through organic growth, merger/acquisition, or through lateral hires; and finally, sector mix and client mix/client focus.

Private equity firm XAF Partners, created out of the 2003 merger of Shanghai-based Xuan Partners and AF Group, a spin out of the Shanghai-based, emerging market-focused private equity arm of a large European bank, had grown steadily over the last decade, establishing offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Seoul and Singapore. At the end of their day-long partners' retreat, several firm partners discuss the challenges they face as they juggle three roles in their business life: deal makers in their own sectors; managers of younger associates and directors across their sector teams; and as leaders in their young but successful firm.

This case showcases the 30-year career of Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairman of HSBC India, a leading woman business leader globally. It demonstrates how Kidwai spent a lifetime overcoming barriers as a woman in a male-dominated profession and as an Indian in the global marketplace. Now, as opportunities to play a role in the environment are beginning to open up, she has to decide the next direction to take in her career.

Learning Resources is a family-owned educational toy company that, by late 2011, was facing a myriad of challenges, including increased competition, entry into new markets, new distribution methods, rising costs of production in China, and changing customer behavior. The company lacked a clear strategy and suffered from organizational misalignment. Rick Woldenberg, the former CEO of Learning Resources, is called back to the helm after a four-year absence to address these issues, increase performance and set a direction for the company, all while remaining true to the values of his family's business.

A large global study examines the factors that stock analysts consider most important when issuing buy, hold, or sell recommendations. The considerations that are deemed significant vary widely from region to region.

In 2012, Bill Allen and Maria Pejter, of Maersk Group's Human Resources Department, sat down to consider some key aspects of Maersk's talent management strategy. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Maersk was a global conglomerate with large shipping and oil & gas businesses. Among the talent management issues being discussed: an increase an employee turnover; internal training and development programs; hiring experienced talent from outside the firm; rehiring former employees ("boomerangs"); and increasing employee diversity.

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders can promote operational flexibility, employee engagement, and tight strategic alignment. Groysberg and Slind have identified four elements of organizational conversation that reflect the essential attributes of interpersonal conversation: intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality. Intimacy shifts the focus from a top-down distribution of information to a bottom-up exchange of ideas. Organizational conversation is less corporate in tone and more casual. And it's less about issuing and taking orders than about asking and answering questions. Interactivity entails shunning the simplicity of monologue and embracing the unpredictable vitality of dialogue. Traditional one-way media--print and broadcast, in particular--give way to social media buttressed by social thinking. Inclusion turns employees into full-fledged conversation partners, entitling them to provide their own ideas, often on company channels. They can create content and act as brand ambassadors, thought leaders, and storytellers. Intentionality enables leaders and employees to derive strategically relevant action from the push and pull of discussion and debate.

When Ana Lobato was transferred from Streuvels Chemicals' Brazilian operations to the company's Brussels headquarters, she was eager to apply her considerable expertise in this foreign assignment and to expose her children to another culture. Her husband, Oswald, a doctor, seemed up for the adventure. But just over a year after their arrival in Brussels, Oswald is increasingly unhappy. He is not able to practice medicine in Belgium, and the research position that Ana's company helped him find is not all he hoped it would be. Anton Danois, the head of Streuvels's international mobility program, fears that Oswald's unhappiness will prompt Ana to consider moving back home to Brazil before the end of her assignment. In fact, Anton, who's been in HR only a few years, wonders about the logic of an international mobility program that is expensive, does not necessarily provide clear-cut returns, and poses problems not just for spouses but also for the employees who need to be reintegrated after their stints abroad. Experts John Bollman and Ann Judge comment on this fictional case study.

When Ana Lobato was transferred from Streuvels Chemicals' Brazilian operations to the company's Brussels headquarters, she was eager to apply her considerable expertise in this foreign assignment and to expose her children to another culture. Her husband, Oswald, a doctor, seemed up for the adventure. But just over a year after their arrival in Brussels, Oswald is increasingly unhappy. He is not able to practice medicine in Belgium, and the research position that Ana's company helped him find is not all he hoped it would be. Anton Danois, the head of Streuvels's international mobility program, fears that Oswald's unhappiness will prompt Ana to consider moving back home to Brazil before the end of her assignment. In fact, Anton, who's been in HR only a few years, wonders about the logic of an international mobility program that is expensive, does not necessarily provide clear-cut returns, and poses problems not just for spouses but also for the employees who need to be reintegrated after their stints abroad.

When Ana Lobato was transferred from Streuvels Chemicals' Brazilian operations to the company's Brussels headquarters, she was eager to apply her considerable expertise in this foreign assignment and to expose her children to another culture. Her husband, Oswald, a doctor, seemed up for the adventure. But just over a year after their arrival in Brussels, Oswald is increasingly unhappy. He is not able to practice medicine in Belgium, and the research position that Ana's company helped him find is not all he hoped it would be. Anton Danois, the head of Streuvels's international mobility program, fears that Oswald's unhappiness will prompt Ana to consider moving back home to Brazil before the end of her assignment. In fact, Anton, who's been in HR only a few years, wonders about the logic of an international mobility program that is expensive, does not necessarily provide clear-cut returns, and poses problems not just for spouses but also for the employees who need to be reintegrated after their stints abroad. Experts John Bollman and Ann Judge comment on this fictional case study.