• Managing in Corporate Aviation: Averting a Hard Landing

    This field-based case follows the fictionalized Elisa Stallings, the manager of CandyCo's Aviation Dispatch group (Dispatch) which manages the aviation assets for the international company. Students learn about the positive leadership style of Stallings, who believed in empowering employees and having frank, respectful conversations with her staff. Stallings's leadership approach and focus on improving efficiency seem to initially work well as she encounters challenges related to Dispatch's culture and processes. Her successful track record leads to greater opportunities and challenges, however, when Stallings's boss asks her to take control of two other functions in CandyCo: Meeting Planning and Travel Services. Stallings could see the synergies among the three groups she was now managing and believed she could make great changes if she got the teams to work together, but personnel issues kept popping up. One of her employees had a temper problem, another was insubordinate, and a third was a talented worker who seemed unhappy in his role. Stallings had to decide how best to handle these three employees, but she also needed to balance three full groups of people if she wanted to create a cohesive team with a healthy workplace culture. Every puzzle piece had to fit together correctly, and the whole puzzle had to fit the CandyCo organization. This case offers the chance for rich discussions around leadership, managing change, and cross-team collaboration in the context of corporate aviation. It offers role-playing opportunities for students.
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  • Embraer E-Jets E2: Flying High

    This field-based case chronicles how Embraer, a recognized market leader in Brazil's regional aircraft industry, designed and developed an almost entirely new aircraft, the E2-190. Given the success of the E1-190, a project to redesign that successful product was a bold move. Yet the E2 project excelled. It surpassed industry expectations, including being under time and under budget, and it logged many firsts, such as setting a world record for first flight and triple flight certification. The case explores how the project team created work groups and teams embedded within the company and leadership values to guide actions and decisions during this project, which was large in both scale and scope. Throughout the case, executives execute a change process and use influence and project-management tools, especially critical chain analysis, to align business practices with human behavior and scale the program with 98.5% scheduled reliability.
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  • Donatella Cinelli Colombini: "A Volcano of Ideas"

    This field-based case offers the experiences of a historic winery in Tuscany, Italy, to set the stage for how the leader's philosophy affects all aspects of the company, as well as how those practices create the culture of an all-female-staffed organization. The situation provides an opportunity to explore and connect the relationship among the leader's values, the actions she takes, and the impact of those values and actions on how the organization works. The case opens with the owner of Casato Prime Donne and Fattoria del Colle wineries, Donatella Cinelli Colombini, reflecting on strategic plans to increase production, build a warehouse, and grow the estates. In the long term, she would have to decide when a good time might be to step down from the business and pass it to her daughter. Had she built a self-managed team that could continue to grow the business and build future relationships between the wineries and tourism? Was her business sturdy enough to stand on its own when she left?
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  • A Phantom Man(n) at Witchsy: Casting a Spell via Email?

    After Dwyer and Gazin had bought the domain name www.witchsy.com and researched the construction of multiple-seller websites using Google, the entrepreneurs quickly realized they'd need to bring in outsiders to help. Turning to Craigslist to post ads on their required work and solicit resumes, Gazin and Dwyer eventually began engaging with various male developers willing to build the technical aspects of their site. Early on in these interactions, however, an upsetting pattern started to emerge wherein the entrepreneurs constantly felt they were faced with disrespect, condescension, and poor collaboration from their male contractors. Hoping to mitigate this treatment, Dwyer and Gazin decided to create a fake male colleague they could rope into their email interactions with outsiders. They named this "colleague" Keith Mann and gave him an email address and Twitter personality. As soon as Mann started to engage with contractors and developers over email, the entrepreneurs were amazed to see the different tone and respect that was paid to Mann. When Witchsy finally launched in the summer of 2016, Dwyer and Gazin didn't have to wait long to see markers of success-within a year, their platform already had 45,000 Instagram followers and was generating a monthly profit. Even though Mann had existed only by name over email and was put to rest shortly after the site's launch, Dwyer and Gazin looked back on their experience of building Witchsy and had to wonder, would they have succeeded without Mann? Why had they faced so much antagonism without him, and was there a way to make sense of it?
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  • Uber: #WhatDoYouDo?

    This public-sourced case is based on a 2017 blog post by a former Uber employee, Susan Fowler, in which she was brutally honest about the sexual harassment, the sexism, the bro culture, and the failures of HR and in senior management at the ride-share company. All thoughts by and conversations between the characters in this case are entirely fictional, but the events described are drawn from Fowler's post, which went viral within hours of her posting it. Fowler was forced to disable the comment section because there were too many, positive and negative, to keep up with. The accusations hit Uber's management like an earthquake, and the press covered every development. Students are placed directly in the case as Uber's recently hired CHR, within days of a company-wide meeting to discuss the post. They will be expected to sit side-by-side with Ariana Huffington-founder of the Huffington Post and the only woman on Uber's board-and with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The meeting was billed as "self-reflective," as being about "clearing the air" and "being honest." This fictional narrative based on a real-life experience offers the opportunity to discuss organizational culture, gender, power, leadership, and difficult conversations with superiors.
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  • Rock Star or Shooting Star? (B)

    Set in an investment firm, the A case presents the president going through a review process with the firm's portfolio managers. By all accounts, Fred Silverton's financial savvy and skills had had helped the staggering mutual fund company reach success. The case runs through issues and actions directly involving Silverton. Despite Silverton's success, there were some who were alarmed over his approach to human capital. Nonetheless, the president considers Silverton in the race to lead an offering expansion. As the president goes through Silverton's behavior at work, she has to decide if there is a problem or if Silverton is just walking the line but hasn't crossed it. Does Silverton see he has a problem regarding the impact of his behavior on others? The one-page B case has Silverton's former analysts providing examples of his behavior that move way beyond assertiveness, reaching contemptuous and aggressive hostility.
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  • Rock Star or Shooting Star? (A)

    Set in an investment firm, the A case presents the president going through a review process with the firm's portfolio managers. By all accounts, Fred Silverton's financial savvy and skills had had helped the staggering mutual fund company reach success. The case runs through issues and actions directly involving Silverton. Despite Silverton's success, there were some who were alarmed over his approach to human capital. Nonetheless, the president considers Silverton in the race to lead an offering expansion. As the president goes through Silverton's behavior at work, she has to decide if there is a problem or if Silverton is just walking the line but hasn't crossed it. Does Silverton see he has a problem regarding the impact of his behavior on others?
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  • Jim Flannigan

    Set in the financial services sector, Jim Flannigan, the recently named head of a European investment banking for a large national bank, struggles to let go of his previous expertise and allow one of several groups that reported to him to do their job without his direct input. While one of Flannigan's chief lieutenants is making a pitch to an important potential client, Flannigan's blood starts to boil as he believes the deal could be lost. The case goes through Flannigan's "take charge" approach to problems and follow-up. The material in this case works well for those who have used the John Wolford case (UVA-OB-0167) and want to focus more on the fit between skills and level in the organization, developing self and others, and becoming interdependent (as opposed to do it all oneself) than work-life issues (although the case could include that discussion as well).
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  • We Create Chemistry: How Collaboration and Teams Changed BASF

    How does change happen at a company that by all accounts was doing well under successful leadership? In this case, the story of BASF North America (NA) is shared with all references relating to significant change in the regional organization. Adopting strategic change at the leadership level, cascading the change strategy to those executing it, and receiving full support from the top are almost textbook-worthy elements of the change effort that occurred at BASF NA. BASF NA had changed significantly since the creation of the North American 2020 Strategy. Now the management team found itself at a time of further reflection-where was the organization by 2014? And more important, how would the company continue to move forward to 2020 and beyond?
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  • That Little Voice Inside (C)

    Catherine Russell, senior vice president of Harbor Community Bank (HCB), had lunch with one of her branch managers, Rachel Dwyer, to confront her about violating bank opening and closing procedures. When Russell had asked about the situation earlier, Dwyer had boldly lied, as had the two HCB branch employees who worked under Dwyer. What would be the most appropriate resolution? This case is preceded by the A and B cases.
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  • That Little Voice Inside (B)

    The day after Catherine Russell, senior vice president of Harbor Community Bank (HCB), discovered one of the bank's branch managers in the bank after hours, cleaning, she continued to second guess how she should manage the situation. The manager, Rachel Dwyer, had an explanation that made sense, yet Russell was still uneasy about this and other instances of strange behavior from Dwyer. After consulting with her boss, Russell decided to ask Dwyer about the situation at a previously arranged meeting. This case is preceded by the A case.
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  • That Little Voice Inside (A)

    Just after 8:00 p.m. on a Monday evening, Catherine Russell, senior vice president and director of business development at Western Banking Group, arrived at one of the branches she oversaw to catch up on some work. She saw movement inside the locked building and was taken aback-it was Rachel Dwyer, the branch manager; her son; and her boyfriend. "Why is she...why are they all in the branch after hours?" Russell wondered. This was yet another item on a list of curious situations Russell had encountered at that particular branch in the past several weeks. Maybe it was nothing, she thought, but that little voice inside was not so sure.
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  • The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney

    What kind of culture does Walt Disney Company (WDC) want to create? This case uses the experiences of a young visitor to one of WDC's resort hotels to set the stage for an analysis of selecting, hiring, training, and retaining and how those practices are governed by the culture of a large American company. The situation provides an opportunity to explore human resource policies, organizational design as well as how all those elements reinforce the culture. The case opens with an interaction between a young Animal Kingdom Lodge guest and an employee (or cast member as the company refers to employees). There were many different ways the exchange could have unfolded yet the experience was magical for the youngster. What made this exchange a memorable experience for this young guest? Would Walt Disney have been surprised?
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  • So Long to SingleStop? (A)

    This case pairing was designed for use in the Darden School's Global MBA for Executives program in the core Leadership and Organizations course and is also suitable for MBA, EMBA, and Executive Education courses in a module covering transformational leadership or human resources strategy. The field-based case uses the experiences of three managers at a big-box retail distribution center to set the stage for an analysis of transformational leadership in a large company. Kevin Henson has worked at big-box retailer SingleStop's distribution center for only four months when he was offered a job at another firm. He had joined the firm in the spring of 2012 while it was undergoing a difficult transformation. His disastrous hiring process and difficult first months are described from Henson's viewpoint and two other management members of the firm. Henson must decide whether to give SingleStop another chance.
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  • So Long to SingleStop? (B): Epilogue

    This case pairing was designed for use in the Darden School's Global MBA for Executives program in the core Leadership and Organizations course and is also suitable for MBA, EMBA, and Executive Education courses in a module covering transformational leadership or human resources strategy. In this case, Henson's decision whether to stick with SingleStop is revealed.
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  • Knowlton Roberts II (B): Epilogue

    This second part of the two-part case updated from the Knowlton Roberts case series (UVA-OB-0737 and 0738) provides an epilogue to the manager's ultimate decision of whether or not to take a new job. His decision and how it is communicated to his boss and his boss's reaction are the meat of the B case.
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  • Knowlton Roberts II (A)

    This case is an updated version of the Knowlton Roberts case series (UVA-OB-0737 and 0738). The case is best used as a vehicle to understand another person's point of view and to see what happens when points of view are misunderstood or misinterpreted. The A case presents a series of situations and interactions that require consideration of why each person acted as they did. The role of untested assumptions and leaps to conclusions also feature prominently in the case.
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  • Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle

    A middle manager at a large company is unable to get her engineering customers and corporate bosses to see eye to eye on a public relations decision, and now her corporate boss seems to have totally misinterpreted her intentions. Suitable for MBA or executive education classes, this field case is a composite of actual experiences and fabricated elements. The case addresses a scarcity of material on the unique dilemmas faced by middle managers.
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  • Team Dynamics At Initech

    Someone wise once said, "A job worth doing is worth doing together." Yet why is it so difficult to work together as a team? This case presents the story of a team whose relationships are strained and deteriorating in a business where teamwork is essential to the success of the business as a whole. Individual team members begin to care less and less about their ongoing employment with the company and this manifests itself through blatant insubordination, lack of focus on team success, and power plays against team leaders. Readers put themselves in the place of the protagonist who recognizes the situation needs addressing. This case is based upon real experiences, but the company and team members are disguised. It works well in modules on managing teams and will help students develop an ability to diagnose and design useful interventions for issues that teams encounter.
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  • The VidSoft Triangle (B)

    The B case reveals Bubatunde's decision to let Li settle on a solution to the problem. She decided that Hsu should continue to report to her and not be transferred. Hsu received the news poorly, refusing to comment, and within a short period of time the entire team felt the weight of Hsu's poor attitude. Hsu continued to approach Babatunde about his displeasure, and Babatunde kept telling him to talk to Li-which he refused to do. Li fired Hsu and then asked to be removed as manager and reinstated as a senior support engineer. To continue with his organizational changes, Babtunde hired Li's replacement from outside the company.
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