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Summarizes information on the national issue of hiring people from the welfare roles. Organized by topics relevant to business, this note reviews research findings and statistics and poses questions to assist business decision-makers in assessing a company's current or planned involvement in welfare-to-work hiring.

In 1997 United CEO Gerald Greenwald was appointed chairman of the national Welfare-to-Work Partnership by President Clinton and committed United to hiring from the welfare rolls. A welfare-to-work recruitment program was rapidly established and soon followed by a mentoring program. These programs were successful--United surpassed its welfare-to-work hiring targets and attained higher retention rates. With a decreasing supply of employable welfare recipients, however, the question was whether Greenwald and United could continue to provide corporate leadership in the welfare-to-work arena.

In 1991 Marriott International established a program called Pathways to Independence to recruit and train people from the welfare rolls. The program graduated over 1,000 people in eight years and retained about 20% more of its participants than regular hires. Now the program director wished to double the program size. The questions: Was this feasible with a decreasing supply of employable welfare recipients? Could the quality control required at Marriott be maintained with such a large and rapid expansion?

Discusses the dimensions of the institutional environment surrounding business, including the role of stakeholders and the need for new collaborations in emerging markets; the key assumptions of the institutional perspective on businesses and markets, especially in contrast to assumptions of neoclassical economics; and managerial implications--analytics, skills, and success factors.

The general manager of Gillette Singapore faces issues of managing change during the company's global integration with Parker Pen.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Andy Chew, a British manager reassigned to Germany by a large German computer company, is in the middle of carrying out a project as a designated "change agent" in a program to reshape the culture toward one that is more entrepreneurial for success as a nimble global competitor. He is still uncertain of his support.

Traces the growth of Wainwright, a small automotive supply company, focusing on its commitment to quality in 1981 and the evolution of its quality culture. Breakthrough programs that stress "trust and belief" in the workforce and commitment to customers result in Wainwright winning the Malcolm Baldrige Award in 1994.

Supplements the (A) case.

First Community Bank, a bank-within-a-bank at Bank of Boston, was established in 1990 as a unique venture to serve urban communities. By 1995 it has achieved profitability but must manage relationships with the mainstream at Bank of Boston, serve as a change agent and role model, and face the challenge of reexamining its mission and structure.

This case continues the story of the joint venture in China between Northern Telecom (Nortel) of Canada and Tong Guang Electronics of China. It shows how North Americans learned to operate in a very different cultural environment in China and provides an opportunity to identify and assess requirements for managing change in a different cultural setting.

This case considers the future challenges facing the Northern Telecom joint venture in China with Tong Guang Electronics. Asks how well the start-up and transition have been managed and whether the right foundation has been laid for the future.

The Turkish general manager of a successful telecommunications equipment-manufacturing joint venture between the Canadian company Northern Telecom and local partners in Turkey reviews the solutions to a crisis in 1989 and wonders whether the company will be able to handle another problem situation following Turkey's local elections in 1993.

In the early 1990s, the Turkish telecommunications firm, Netas, established joint ventures in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan as miniature replications of Netas's own experience on the receiving end of technology transfer with Netas's 51% owner, Northern Telecom. This case explores the issues involved in technology transfer to countries even less developed than Turkey.

When companies join forces--whether on research or as full-scale partners--they often tend to emphasize the legal or financial aspects of the deal. But smart managers know that alliances involve much more. Like human relationships, business partnerships are living systems that have endless possibilities. And companies that know how to tap those possibilities and manage alliances effectively have a key corporate asset. Rosabeth Moss Kanter calls it a collaborative advantage. After completing a study of more than 37 companies from 11 parts of the world, Kanter concludes that relationships between companies grow or fail much like relationships between people. By paying attention to the human aspects of alliances, managers can leverage the maximum value from them, Kanter believes. Examples of companies enjoying a collaborative advantage today are FCB and Publicis; Northern Telecom and Matra Hachette; and the European Retail Alliances partners, Ahold, Argyll, and Groupe Casino.

After U.S.-based Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) and Publicis of France established an international advertising alliance in May 1988, alliance leaders set out to merge offices in Europe. They were confronted with a particularly tricky situation in Germany, which, if handled poorly, could have harmed BMZ, a highly regarded agency in Dusseldorf that FCB had acquired six months earlier. The case looks at how alliance managers resolved the dilemma by forming a second agency network in Europe; how that network, which was composed of advertising agencies from six European countries, was working; and how agencies from different cultural backgrounds were dealing with diversity. May be used with FCB and Publicis (A): Forming the Alliance and (B): Managing Client and Country Diversity.

COMCO Martech was a new breed of joint venture for COMCO Holding, a mid-sized Swiss-German company that had grown over a five-year period through tie-ups with small, start-up companies. Whereas a typical COMCO venture provided services to a large German retailer, was based in a German-speaking country of Europe, and granted COMCO Holding clear management control, COMCO Martech was managed on a 50-50 basis with an American partner, was active in Eastern Europe, and supplied decontamination services to non-retail related clients. The venture got off to a rocky start. This case looks at the difficulties that arise in managing cross-boundary collaboration; the characteristics that promote compatibility between partners; and the factors that account for successful international partnerships.

Discusses FCB and Publicis, partners in a global advertising agency alliance, working together with their clients to provide excellent service. May be used with FCB and Publicis (A): Forming the Alliance and (C): The German-Led Network.

The results of the HBR World Leadership Survey found that change is indeed everywhere--regardless of country, culture, or corporation. But the idea of a corporate global village where a common culture of management unifies the practice of business around the world is more dream than reality. In addition to profiling the views of the average manager, the survey detected the deep and powerful national differences that overwhelm age, sex, or industry distinctions among respondents.